Invention and Development of the Refrigerator
The indispensable white goods of our homes and workplaces are the refrigerator. Refrigeration is the only way to keep our food and beverages fresh, reliable and durable. So, when and how the refrigerator was invented, you should continue reading our article for the answer.
Before the invention of refrigeration systems, people preserved food by means of snow or ice brought from the mountains or from nearby rivers and lakes. The first known ice cellars were built by drilling holes in the ground, surrounded by straw and trees, and surrounded by this ice and snow. In these times, cooling was done by a handmade machine known as an "ice box". A wooden box was covered with zinc and insulating materials. The icebox was smaller and less efficient than today's refrigerators, but is considered the ancestor of the modern refrigerator. Of course, no matter how much protection it provided, the ice was melting, and as technology developed, much better ones had to be designed.
Refrigerators are items designed to cool and store food. One of the important advances regarding the invention of the refrigerator was made by Ibn Sina in the 11th century. The cooled coil was used to condense the vapors. William Cullen at Glasgow University designed and presented the first artificial cooling system to humans in 1748. However, he never used his discovery for realistic purposes. In 1805, US inventor Oliver Evans designed the first liquid-free refrigeration machine and instead used steam to cool it. In 1834, Jacob Parkins built the first machine for convenient cooling.
The first ice maker used for packing meat and practical food and beverage such as beer was invented by James Harrison in 1857. This system was made more complex by Ferdinand Carre in 1859. This newly developed system did not use compressed air for cooling, but instead used ammonia. Then, in 1876, Carl von Linden, a German engineer, installed the gasification system, an important element of refrigeration technology. The first widely used cooling system was introduced in 1927 by General Electric.
Karl Linde succeeded in making the first electric refrigerator artificially in 1877. This refrigerator was actually a proof of the necessity of a cold environment in order not to spoil the food. Because it was quite far from a usable structure in this state. Instead of freon gas, Linde's device pumped a highly explosive gas, such as methyl ether, into the back of the food cabinet. It was not used much due to security concerns. In the following years, Balzer Von Platen and Carl Munters designed the first refrigerator using freon gas.
Freon: Freon gas is an odorless, colorless, non-flammable gas that does not corrode the metals it comes into contact with. It is a registered trademark of DuPont. It is known by the formulas of chlorofluorocarbon or hydro-chlorofluorocarbon. Freon gas boils at about -30 degrees Celsius and freezes at -180/-200 degrees depending on the type.
One of the earliest forms of cooling was called an ice house. These were used to store ice throughout the year, often cut from nearby lakes and rivers. The Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans are also known to have used snow placed in storage pits.
The first domestic refrigerator was produced in 1913 in Chicago, USA. The refrigerator was powered by electricity and had a compressor type cooler on its wooden body. The refrigerator mechanism of this refrigerator, whose body is made of wood, was placed on the ceiling of the cabinet and was almost half of it.