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MEMBERSHIP

Child of Several Names • • • RETA has southern ancestry

The organization known today as Refriger- ating Engineers & Technicians Association was born a rebel. During the Civil War, much of our country’s refrigeration activity took place below the Mason-Dixon line. The Confederate States, deprived of lake ice from colder northern regions, sought methods of producing ice mechanically to serve their hospitals, hotels, dairies, and meat counters. Here in the Confederacy, RETA’s birthplace, the production of cold took permanent root as a commercial enterprise. By 1869, a 60-ton aqua ammonia ice unit, the world’s largest refrigeration plant at this date, was assembled in New Orleans, La. It reduced the cost of ice from ten to two cents a pound. In 1885, just 25 years before the Practical Refrigerating Engineers Association, RETA’s ancestor, was organized at Texarkana, Texas-Arkansas, aqua ammonia absorption plants were being installed from Texas to South Carolina. No serious competition threatened ammonia absorption until David Boyle built the first successful ammonia compression plant at Jefferson, Tex., in 1873. Operating engineers preferred Boyle compressors driven by slow-speed Cor1iss engines. In the early 20th century, the use of direct

common technical problems. Usually, repre- sentatives of refrigeration equipment manufacturers and engineering college professors participated in these society sessions. Local organizations of this type were predominant in southern cities where competing ice plants and breweries employed from four to six engineers. On Jan. 20, 1910, leaders from the newly- formed refrigeration organizations of the Southwest met at Texarkana to form a professional association. Their first meeting place was just 69 miles from Jefferson, where Boyle operated his ammonia compression plant. 0. E. Morris of Henderson, Tex., was elected first president of the Practical Refrigerat- ing Engineers Association. J. J. Schrude of Waco, Tex., and J. B. Emery of Shreveport, La., became vice-president and secretary- treasurer respectively. These men drafted a constitution and organized the first annual convention. At this convention, held in Shreveport on Dec. 1, 1910, 44 members were accepted

together with eight associate and six honor- ary members. Three honorary members, Victor H. Becker, J. F. Nickerson, and H. W. Cole were to take an active part in expand- ing the influence of PREA. Through his columns in Ice and Refrigeration, Nickerson preserved the association’s history. Becker, a construction engineer for leading compressor manufacturers, provided technical papers at association meetings. At the 6th annual PREA convention, the association added “National” to its name, and the first meeting of the National Association of Practical Refrigerating Engineers was called to order at Alexander, La., on Nov. 21, 1916. In the words of a charter member, 1919 was “the year the rebels invaded the North.” On Dec. 4, 1919, NAPRE became a truly national association, holding its convention in “northern” Kansas City, Mo. NAPRE retained its name until the 53rd annual convention at Seattle, Wash., on Oct. 14,

1962 when the name, Refrigerating Engineers & Technicians Association, was adopted.

THE AUTHOR: Since publishing A Handbook of Steam Engineering in 1925, W. R. Woolrich, director of the AVI Publishing Co., has writtenmore than nine books on refrigeration history, engineering, and application. Here, he presents a brief historical sketch on the association of which he is national educational director.

expansion refrigeration systems in ice-making, meat refrigeration, cold

storage, beer making, and fish preservation grew rapidly. Engineers on these systems formed local societies, meeting to solve

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE AIRCONDITIONING & REFRIGERATION BUSINESS/ OCTOBER 1 967/ RETA News Bulletin

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