Records show that as far back as 1,000 BC the Chinese cut ice in the winter and stored it to use in warmer weather. This method has been used extensively with ice houses being built throughout the 18th century specifically for this purpose. It is also known that in 500 BC Egyptians made use of ice by placing containers of water out on cold nights to freeze and stored for later use. The ice houses built in the 18th century were for both commercial and private use with wealthy families having their own ice house. Ice formed naturally in the winter was cut into blocks and wrapped in flannel and stored in these houses many of which were underground until required in the summer. Many ice companies were formed which had large ice houses and charged businesses and homes for ice to be supplied to them. Many homes at this time had ice boxes which were insulated containers in which food and ice were stored together and as the ice melted more was purchased.
Refrigerators work on the principle of taking a special type of gas that when it’s compressed it turns into a liquid which absorbs heat. It took 100 years and results from four main inventors before a working refrigerator machine was invented and patented in 1834 by Jacob Perkins. The people who pioneered the way to this invention were in 1720 a Scotsman called Dr William Cullen who carried out experiments in evaporation. Next was Oliver Evans of Pennsylvania who designed a compression machine that was never built but his design was used later. Michael Farady was the first to actually produce a device that cooled using ammonia in 1820. Jacob’s machine which used ether for cooling failed commercially simply because everyone seemed happy with using natural ice supplied from ice houses so he moved into printing instead.
The rest of the 1800s concentrated on refrigeration on an industrial and commercial scale as household business would not pick up until the 1900s. From 1937 James Harrison worked on perfecting a cooling machine to be used in countries like Australia where huge amounts of ice were not available to store for summer months. It took him till 1856 before he got it right and had a machine built in a large brewery to keep beer cool. This refrigeration machine for cooling beer was the first commercial cooler used in industry and adapted for use in various environments.
This soon resulted in ice making factories that competed with the ice houses that used natural ice with the ice making machines proving to be better. For in the warmer winters the natural ice stores would not have enough to provide ice all summer whereas the mechanical ice makers could work all year round. Slowly from 1900 domestic refrigerators were introduced onto the market with limited interest until General Electric introduced the Monitor Refrigerator in 1927 and that is when the public really started to take domestic refrigerators seriously. Today refrigerators can be found in 99.5% of homes around the world.
By: James S Thompson
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