Frigidaire electric stove
Object No. 2009/81/1
The purchase of a refrigerator company by an automobile manufacturer is seen as an extraordinary amalgamation. To maintain that amalgamation for sixty years is even more extraordinary. One can presume that there is economic sense in broadening a manufacturing base into two major markets - domestic and commercial appliances and automobiles. Generally automobile manufacturers have broadened their economic base by creating companies that have a relationship to the core business such as a finance company that can provide money for intending car purchasers or the production of consumable components such as automotive filters and spark plugs. However, General Motors diversified into the domestic and commercial appliance industry to produce what came to be regarded as top of the line products. Their appliance research and development fostered improvements in appliances leading to greater adoption of items such as home air conditioning, electric fridges and stoves. Frigidaire claimed the first self-contained refrigerator; the first home food freezer; the room air conditioner; the 30" electric range; automatic ice-makers and defrost refrigerators in 1952 and frost-free refrigerators in 1958 and introduced the co-ordinated use of colours on appliances in 1954. General Motors saw the need to enter the South Pacific/Asia market by its manufacture of Frigidaire appliances in New Zealand, beginning in 1938. Their decision seems to have been sound as the post-World War II boom of the 1950s led them to increase their appliance manufacturing in the Southern Hemisphere by opening their Dandenong, Victoria, Australia plant in 1956 but, perhaps, a declining market saw Frigidaire manufacturing at Dandenong close in the late 1960s and a final sale of all Frigidaire assets by General Motors in 1979. Frigidaire remains as a top of the line brand of appliance demonstrating the value of the name while General Motors focuses on the manufacture of automobiles and associated core businesses. Ian Debenham Curator, Transport 2009
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Summary
Object Statement
Frigidaire electric stove, with Cook-Master clock, model RCD 264, serial number 625895, metal, made by Frigidaire Division of General Motors-Holden's Limited, Dandenong, Victoria, Australia, 1960-1968
Physical Description
Electric stove, Frigidaire, metal, made by General Motors-Holden's Limited, Dandenong, Victoria, Australia, 1960-1968 Four coil element electric upright stove (electric range) with clock/timer in left hand side of raised back panel which also houses the six rheostat controls for the elements, oven and warming drawer. The stove is enamelled white. The cook top hinges at the rear to expose the underside of the elements and the fuses. The oven has a bottom hinged glass panelled door with a black and chrome handle and the warming drawer at the bottom has a chromed metal handle.
DIMENSIONS
Height
1210 mm
Width
665 mm
Depth
710 mm
Weight
50 kg
PRODUCTION
Notes
This stove, Frigidaire model RCD 264, serial number 625895, was produced by the Frigidaire Division of General Motors-Holden's Limited at their plant at Dandenong in Victoria. The Dandenong plant opened in 1956 on 60 hectares of land purchased by GMH in 1951. The Frigidaire Division, producing stoves and refrigerators, operated alongside the building producing automobiles. This Division was relocated to New Zealand in the late 1960s. According to a short article in the Australian Motor Manual, December 1, 1958, p.7, manufacture of refrigerators and stoves had begun at Dandenong by this stage and were "...to be released soon" suggesting either a very late 1958 or an early 1959 release for the first production units. Ian Debenham Curator, Transport 2009
HISTORY
Notes
William Crapo Durant, Founder and President of General Motors in the United States from 1915 to 1920, purchased the Guardian Refrigerator Company of Detroit, Michigan with his own money in 1918. This company was struggling to survive having produced its first self-contained electric refrigerator in 1916 but selling only 40 in its first two years. General Motors purchased the refrigerator company from Durant and renamed it Frigidaire. By introducing mass production and sales techniques based on the automobile model the company began to show a profit in 1924. Over time the company branched out into the design and manufacture of a variety of domestic appliances as well as their commercial equivalents. The range included air conditioners, clothes washers and dryers, dish washers and stoves. Manufacture of refrigerators and freezers by the Frigidaire Division in the Southern Hemisphere began at Petone in Wellington, New Zealand's Hutt Valley area in 1938. From 1951 the Frigidaire plant increased in size followed by a further expansion in 1952 and from 1954 to 1957 improvements to the Frigidaire manufacturing facility were carried out. It seems that the demand for Frigidaire products, probably world-wide, was outstripping the supply from New Zealand at this stage as manufacture of Frigidaire products began at Dandenong, Victoria in Australia in 1958 and continued there until the late 1960s when it was transferred to New Zealand to coincide with the opening of the Trentham plant, allowing the Petone plant to concentrate on the manufacture of Frigidaire products, assembly of commercial vehicles and the manufacture of spark plugs, oil filters and axle tubes for export to Australia. In 1979, following a decade of falling profitability Frigidaire was sold to White Consolidated Industries who sold it in 1986 to AB Electrolux of Sweden. The stove, manufactured at Dandenong, was purchased by an employee (name unknown) of General Motors-Holden's Pagewood, Sydney facility and used by him until his death in about 2004. Sources: http://www.holden.co.nz/heart/heritage/ http://www.frigidaire-intl.com/history.asp http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Frigidaire-Home-Products-Company-History.html Ian Debenham Curator, Transport 2009
SOURCE
Credit Line
Gift of Stephen Blazun, 2009
Acquisition Date
15 October 2009
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