The First Refrigerators

The first U.S. household refrigerators to be made since April 1942, were rolling off the assembly lines last week at General Electric's plant at Erie, Pa., and General Motors Corp.'s plant at Moraine City, Ohio. They were not for civilians.

At Erie, mighty G.E. had pulled many a wire to get its few idle assembly lines into refrigerator production without disturbing a man or machine working on war orders.

On the first day, it turned out 30, planned to make 95,000 by year's end. A little overproud of its achievement, G.E. declared it had scooped the industry.

This brought indignant snorts from G.M.'s Frigidaire Division at Moraine City, whose first model had rolled out the week before, alongside assembly lines still turning out B-29 propellers.

In construction, function and looks, both G.E.'s and G.M.'s refrigerators closely resembled prewar models. They will probably cost a little more. But the one thing civilians wanted most to know about them was: "When do we get one?" There was no definite answer: nobody knew what course reconversion would take.

As soon as they are crated, the new refrigerators are trucked off to government warehouses, to be picked up at the convenience of the Army, Navy and various claimant agencies of the government. Until the military or the agencies give the word, civilians will have to wait--at least until late fall.

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