Servel Inc. workmen welding heating and cooling parts. Located at 119 N, Morton St., the factory was built in 1902 for Hercules Buggy Works, which was reorganized in 1925-1926 as Servel. The plant grew to cover over 1.5 million square feet. The name Servel was born in 1923 thanks to a company by the name of National Electric Products Company. Their slogan was Serving Electric, which was soon shortened to Servel. In 1924 a 10-year contract was signed by Hercules to manufacture an ice-making machine. The Servel Corporation was incorporated in Indiana as a sales agency for the ice-making machine. In 1925 Hercules was sold and the name changed to Servel Manufacturing. The new refrigerator made its debut at the American Gas Association convention in Atlantic City in October 1926. Up until 1927, the refrigerators were manufactured in Newburgh, NY and the cabinets in Evansville, IN. The units were now called Electrolux units under Electrolux Servel. In January 1928 Electrolux Servel began new operations under the name of Servel, Inc. In 1931 a factory modernization was introduced and in 1933 the company began the transformation from refrigerators to researching and producing an chiller unit, which resulted in expanded market opportunities. Servel pioneered the perfection of an All Year residential gas air conditioning unit, which was shown at the New York Worlds Fair in 1939. In 1941, the 2,000,000th Servel refrigerator was produced. Due to the war in 1942, the company embarked upon the production of what was to be the largest war product, wings for the P-47 Thunderbolt. At the end of the war, Servel began converting its facilities back to the manufacturing of its four products: Servel gas and kerosene refrigerators, the Servel Gas water heater, the Servel All Year air conditioner and the Servel electric commercial refrigerator. Evansville was known as, The Refrigerator Capital of the World, with 3 manufacturers employing some 10,00 people. Servel employed as many as 7000. Unable to face the competition of the all electric kitchen, Servel went bankrupt and closed circa 1957. Photograph from the Evansville Courier.