Snow and ice, cool streams, springs, caves and cellars were long ago
used to refrigerate food. Meat and fish were preserved in warm weather
by salting or smoking.
The Chinese cut and stored ice in 1,000 B.C.
Around 500 B.C. the Egyptians and Indians made ice on cold nights by
setting water out in earthenware pots and keeping the pots wet.
In 18th century England, servants collected ice in the winter and put it
into icehouses, where the sheets of ice were packed in salt, wrapped in
strips of flannel, and stored underground to keep them frozen until
summer.
At the beginning of the 19th century, ice boxes were used in England
Natural ice was harvested, distributed and used in both commercial and
home applications in the mid-1800s. The ice trade between Boston and
the South was one of the first casualties of the Civil War.
Wooden boxes lined with tin or zinc and insulated with various materials
including cork, sawdust, and seaweed were used to hold blocks of ice and
"refrigerate" food. A drip pan collected the melt water - and had to be
emptied daily.
Pioneers in refrigeration included Dr. William Cullen, a Scotsman whose
studies in the early 1700s dealt with the evaporation of liquids in a
vacuum. Michael Farady, a Londoner who in the early 1800s liquified
ammonia to cause cooling, and Dr. John Goorie of Apalachicola, Florida,
who built a machine to make ice to cool the air for yellow fever
patients in 1834. Today's compression refrigeration system operates on
a concept adapted from Farady's experiments. It involves compressing
gas into a liquid which will then absorb heat. In so doing it returns
to gas. This is a simplified description of what happens in a home
refrigerator, freezer, air conditioner or dehumidifier.
Warm winters in 1889 and 1890 created severe shortages of natural ice in
the U.S. This stimulated the use of mechanical refrigeration for the
freezing and storage of fish and in the brewing, dairy and meat packing
industries. Commercial refrigeration techniques were also applied to
railroad cars, were used in "coolers" in grocery stores and in various
ways in manufacturing industries.
Two of the first home refrigerators both appeared in Fort Wayne,
Indiana, where, in 1911, General Electric company unveiled a unit
invented by a French monk. In 1915 the first "Guardian" refrigerator -
a predecessor of the Frigidaire - was assembled in a wash house in a
Fort Wayne backyard.
Kelvinator and Servel models were among some two dozen home
refrigerators introduced to the U.S. market in 1916. In 1920 the number
had increased to more than 200. Compressors were generally driven by
belts attached to motors located in the basement or in an adjoining
room.
In 1918 Kelvinator introduced the first refrigerator with any type of
automatic control. One manufacturer's 1922 model had a wooden cabinet,
a water-cooled compressor, two ice cube trays and nine cubic feet of
storage space. It cost $714. In 1923 Frigidaire introduced the first
self-contained unit. Steel and porcelain cabinets began appearing in
the mid-20s.
In the 1920s and '30s, consumers were introduced to freezers when the
first electric refrigerators with ice cube compartments came on the
market. Mass production of modern refrigerators didn't get started until
after World War II.
In the 1930s freon 12 was used to replace sulphur dioxide as the most
commonly used refrigerant.
During the 1940s frozen food storage became widely used by consumers
Refrigeration technology began hopping in the 1950s and '60s when
innovations like automatic defrost and automatic ice makers first
appeared.
The environment became a top priority in the 1970s and '80s, which lead
to more energy-efficient refrigerators and elimination of
chlorofluorocarbons in refrigeration sealed systems.
Today, the refrigerator is America's most used appliance, found in more
than 99.5% of American homes
Read more about the history of:
Source:
•Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
