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1700 BCE
How Ice was made before Refrigeration
Egypt: The ancient Egyptians made their own ice. Women placed shallow clay trays of water on straw beds. Evaporation, combined with the drop in night temperatures, froze the water. Cool night air circulated from the air shaft built in the middle of their houses. India: The Himalayas; China, Greece, Rome: Ice Houses -
1700 BCE
Ice Houses
Ice Houses kept the ice inside cool. The reason behind this is the insulation used. The materials used were sawdust and straw. -
The Process Of Refrigeration
William Cullen invented the process of refrigeration in 1748, he designed a small refrigerating machine in 1755. He used a pump to create a partial vacuum over a container of diethyl ether(Diethyl ether, or simply ether, is an organic compound. It is a colorless, highly volatile flammable liquid. It is commonly used as a starting fluid for some engines) Ether boiled and absorbed the heat from the surrounding air. This resulted in a small amount of ice. -
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Idea to Reality
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Theoretical Design of a Refrigerator
Oliver Evans had produced the first detailed and theoretically coherent design for a vapor-compression refrigerator, identifying all the major components (expander, cooling coil, compressor and condenser) of a refrigeration cycle, leaving some to credit him as the 'grandfather of refrigeration'. Although Evans never developed a working model of his designs, and there is no evidence that he ever attempted to, Evans in his later life worked with inventor Jacob Perkins. -
First Refridgerator
Jacob Perkins is credited with the first patent for the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, assigned on August 14, 1835 but failed to impact. -
The Public's Desire
Allegations were made that refrigeration poisoned food because it used ammonia gas. The public was reluctant to change. It wasn't until the mid-19th century when ice was contaminated from industrial pollution, that people began using refrigerators. Refrigerators also changed from using ammonia to using chlorofluorocarbons(CFC's). Refrigeration completely wiped out the ice-box industry -
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The Decision
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The Ice Making Machine
James Harrison was a Scottish-Australian newspaper printer, journalist, politician, and pioneer in the field of mechanical refrigeration.
His first commercial ice-making machine was made in 1854. This system used a compressor to force the refrigeration gas to pass through a condenser, where it cooled down and liquefied. The liquefied gas then circulated through the refrigeration coils and vaporized again, cooling down the surrounding system. The machine produced 3 tonnes of ice per day. -
The Dunedin
The Dunedin was the first ship to successfully export a full cargo of refrigerated meat in 1876 from New Zealand to England. An earlier attempt had been made with the Northam from Australia to England, however the refrigeration machinery broke down en route resulting in the loss of cargo. -
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Sailing from the seas to the open road
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Fred W. Wolf; electric powered refrigerator
In 1913, his domestic refrigerator was marketed as the DOMELRE:
(From DOMestic ELectric REfrigerator). This was the first attempt to mass-market a simple,
cheap, household refrigerator which was air-cooled, could be plugged into the house electric
supply and added to an ordinary ice-box which featured ice cube trays. His system was considered so
important that in 1917 the Wolf Company was bought out by Packard Motor Company. -
Nathaniel Wales
Wales improves on the ideas of Fred W. Wolf -
Self contained refrigerator
A self-contained refrigerator, with a compressor on the bottom was invented by Alfred Mellowes in 1916. Mellowes produced this refrigerator commercially but his idea was bought out by William C. Durant in 1918, who started the Frigidaire Company to mass-produce refrigerators. -
International Competition
In 1922, a refrigerator based on an entirely different operating system was invented by Baltzar von Platen and Carl Mun. -
Quick Evolution
In the US, the first mass market refrigerator was the General Electric “Monitor-Top” introduced in 1927. In the 1950s and 1960s there were further advances, such as automatic defrosting and automatic ice making. -
R22 Freon used as refrigerants
A refrigerant is a substance or mixture, usually a fluid, used in a heat pump and refrigeration cycle. In most cycles it undergoes phase transitions from a liquid to a gas and back again. Many working fluids have been used for such purposes. Fluorocarbons (made out of fluorine and chloride), especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's), became commonplace in the 20th century. -
Refrigerated Trucking
Fredrick Jones was an African American electrical engineer. In 1930, he designed and patented a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying biodegradable food. -
The Change
The public change to modern refrigerators in the mid-19th century. -
Freon Banned
Refrigerators used this refrigerant until the 1980's, when it was banned. By then it was discovered that CFCs (any of a class of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, chlorine, and fluorine, typically gases used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants) such as Freon had created serious environmental problems and contributed to global warming. Freon was replaced by other refrigerants such as R-410A, R-32, R-134A, R-290, R-600A
