Since the William Cullen got the first idea how to produce ice exactly 170 years have passed until the moment when the industrial production of refrigerators began.

And even before the fridge was invented, people have been very well know that the duration of the food can be extended if it’s kept in a cool place: in a dark place, near the water, buried under the snow or underground…

The first cooling system was designed by William Cullen (1710-1790), a distinguished Scottish professor, physician and chemist. In a public demonstration in 1756 at the University of Glasgow he showed how the artificial cooling functions: he used pump to create a partial vacuum over a container of ether. Container was then heated, absorbing heat from the environment. The process could produce only a small amount of ice.

However, this demonstration did not cause any sort of industrial frenzy, nor the commercial application – refrigerators had not yet been devised. In fact, they went into mass production 170 years later.

Something much more like the fridge was made by Oliver Evans in the 1805, an American inventor and so called “Father of cooling”. He used a compressor machine which transformed chemicals into steam, and then turning them back into the liquid state. The thermodynamic cycle process constantly repeated and cooled the interior. However, Evans didn’t make a single fridge on the basis of his great discovery.

Almost three decades later his idea was slightly modified and used by the American Jacob Perkins, who made the first refrigerator and patented his invention in Great Britain. However, even Perkins didn’t get rich with this patent. It was not until the twenties of the 20th century when ordinary citizens began to use refrigerators, which caused a great revolution in habits related to diet.

Text written by Marija Vidić

Via CPN.rs