Andrew Freeman was the inventor of the electric block heater

Block heater

A block heater warms an engine to ease and speed starting and vehicle warmup in cold weather. The most common type is an electric heating element connected through a power cord often routed through the vehicle's grille. The block heater may replace one of the engine's core plugs, or may be...

 for automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s.

Freeman first developed a block heater around 1940, and received U.S. Patent #2487326 on 8 November 1949.

He was born in Upham, North Dakota

Upham, North Dakota

As of the census of 2000, there were 155 people, 81 households, and 40 families residing in the city. The population density was 479.4 people per square mile . There were 120 housing units at an average density of 371.1 per square mile...

, and attended the University of North Dakota

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

 in Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...

, where he majored in electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

. He was president of Four Star Manufacturing, the company that made the original block heater, and co-founded and managed Minnkota Power Cooperative

Minnkota Power Cooperative

Minnkota Power Cooperative is an electrical generation and transmission cooperative based in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It wholesales electric power to rural electric cooperatives in North Dakota and Minnesota.-Member cooperatives:...

from 1940 to 1982. He died in Grand Forks.