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EMERY
THOMPSON
WHERE WE COMBINE CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY WITH
OLD WORLD CRAFTSMANSHIP
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“Necessity is the mother of
invention.”
Back in 1903 Emery Thompson, the founder of our company, was working in
the basement of a large department store on 14th. street in Manhattan.
He ran the ice cream concession in the department store. Back in those
days there were no ice cream parlors. You bought your ice cream either
at a pharmacy or at a department store. Emery was working long hours
making ice cream on an old fashioned rock salt and ice machine – similar
to the ones we all owned as we were growing up. He needed to cut down
the hours he was spending making the ice cream for the store. Thus the
necessity. Emery went back to his home in New Rochelle, New York and in
his garage, built the first modern day ice cream making machine – the
invention.
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Emery Thompson’s “new” ice cream machine consisted
of a long wooden tank and a vertical freezing cylinder. The tank held
salt water (which freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water) and
ice. The solution, called brine, was circulated around a vertical
freezing chamber, which in turn converted milk, cream, sugar and flavor
into ice cream. For his efforts he was awarded a U.S. patent. Over the
years the machine progressed from this simple unit to one that was
chilled by ammonia. The barrel was also turned horizontally so that the
finished ice cream would flow out more easily. The machines continued
advancing forward into freon and today, more environmentally
propellants. The drive system changed from a motorcycle chain to steel
reinforced belts and the materials used became all stainless. But the
concept of making old-fashioned ice cream remains the same.
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| Emery
Thompson batch freezers are sold in every country in the world in ice
cream parlors, hotels, restaurants and large ships. During World War II
there was an Emery Thompson on board every aircraft carrier. If a pilot
missed the aircraft carrier and had to be rescued, there was a flurry of
activity between the other warships to rescue the pilot. They knew that
the ship that pulled the pilot “from the drink” would be rewarded with
ten gallons of fresh ice cream from the aircraft carrier. I have seen
footage of a pilot being transferred in a bosons chair over to the
carrier at the same time that the ice cream was being rope delivered
over to the destroyer! Our machines are very popular in developing
countries. As their economies develop, they want to be like the
Americans. They want steak, beer, hard ice cream. Our machines
provide the ice cream, Italian Ices, Sherbet, Sorbet, and Artisan
Gelato. |
My father,
Ted and his brother Emery Junior (we called him June) left Cornell
University during the Great Depression to run the company when their
father Emery Sr. died suddenly. It was tough times for them in the
Bronx, but they persevered using any materials they could find to build
their ice cream machines. For the past seventy years the company has
been located a mile from Yankee Stadium and it was not uncommon for Ted
and Uncle June to “run out on a sales call” and sneak down to the
stadium for an afternoon with Mickey Mantle and Roger Marris. Nobody
walked or jogged in those days so they would catch the #4 subway train a
block from the factory and travel down to 162nd street to what we today
call the world headquarters for baseball!
The only true competition that Dad and June
ever faced was their own machinery. The old machines would last
40 years or more and would be sold and re-sold numerous times.
Today the same holds true. I take numerous calls from customers
who have just bought an “Emery” only to find out it left our
factory in 1948! The difference today is I have access to
welding techniques and materials that didn’t exist in 1948.
Therefore the life of the machines we are building today will be
greater than Dad and Uncle June’s machines. |
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When I attended graduate school at Rollins, my
teachers all told me the way to expand Emery Thompson was to diversify.
“Build DeLorean cars or vending machines or heart bypass machines –
things that used our expertise in stainless steel. I took a different
approach. I kept the product line firmly locked in on hard ice cream
making machines and went after my competition in a different way. I
convinced them to stop making machines that were “like an Emery
Thompson” and actually buy and sell Emery Thompson’s.
Today we sell more
batch freezers to more successful frozen dessert businesses than anyone
else in the world. A small company with big ideas! It’s increasingly
difficult to manufacture anything in the United States, but we’re here
and that’s why we chose Florida, Hernando County and Brooksville to be
the new home of Emery Thompson Batch Freezers. We use the best
materials, the simplest designs and the most dedicated workforce of any
company in the industry.
Today, the Italians import Gelato making
machines into the U.S. but they just don’t hold up to the standards that
Americans expect from their machinery….and because of the Euro vs. the
Dollar, we cost far less. One of my customers put it best. He said, at
the end of the day, the European worker will spend time polishing their
machine making it look nice for the next day’s work. The American on the
other hand, shuts the machine off, throws a wrench at it and damn well
expects it to run “as advertised” again tomorrow! That’s what we do –
build the most durable, longest lasting all American made machines for
customers who are making an investment in their business and their
future. |
Emery Thompson Batch Freezers are available in
finished capacities of 5 quarts, 12 quarts, 24 quarts and the world’s
largest batch freezer – 44 quarts. With our new infinite overrun
control, we are able to vary the air content (overrun) to any level the
customer desires on any product.
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