Invention of Refrigerator
The first refrigerator in the world
Inventions keep on changing the way we live. Humans never knew how easy commuting could be until the wheel was invented. Similarly, it was crazy for a person to think of talking to someone who was miles away let alone living in some other country, until the great Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone. The invention of refrigerator or fridge, as it as casually called, embarked the journey of storing eatables and edible materials which would remain fresh inside the refrigerator and could be used in future. Here are a few insights about the invention of this machine.
The Invention
Icehouses were commonly used to provide cool storage throughout the year until the refrigerator was invented. Although, artificial refrigeration had begun in the mid-eighteenth century, it took some time to produce a practical working machine that could provide cool storage. In 1805, Oliver Evans, an American inventor, designed the first refrigeration system that used vapor to cool instead of liquid. Similar inventions and experiments were done by Michael Faraday, a British scientist, Jacob Perkins, an American expatriate and John Gorrie who was an American physician. But it was James Harrison, a Scottish Australian who built the first practical vapor compression refrigeration system in 1851 and patented in 1856. Soon after his invention, this concept was being used by meat packing houses where a dozen of his systems were in operation. The first gas absorption system was developed by a French engineer named Ferdinand Carre in the year 1859 and patented in 1860.
How did it work?
The machine developed by Oliver Evans was based on the concept of a closed vapor-compression cycle for the production of ice by ether under vacuum. The machine developed by James Harrison could use ether, alcohol or ammonia in the vapor compression system used for cooling. On the other hand, Ferdinand Carre went with the gas absorption technique. This gas absorption refrigeration system used ammonia dissolved in water to begin the cooling process. Later on this technique was further improved by Carl von Linde in 1876, who was a professor at the Technological University Munich in Germany. Carl’s new process made it possible to use gases such as ammonia(NH3), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and methyl chloride (CH3Cl) as refrigerants and this lasted until the late 1920s.
Commercial and Domestic Refrigerators
Commercial refrigerators were common for almost 40 years before the home models came in. They used gases such as ammonia(R-717) or sulfur dioxide(R-764) which often leaked and made them unsafe for home use. In 1913, Fred W.Wolf of Fort Wayne, Indiana invented refrigerators for home use. Varieties of domestic refrigerators were emerging in the early 20th century. These home units were actually installed in two parts; the cold box was kept in the kitchen while the motor and mechanical parts were kept in an adjacent room or in the basement.
Since the invention of the first refrigerator, the models, styles and even sizes of refrigerators have been improved to an amazing extent. With new technology in use and multiple purposes being solved, refrigerators have become an inseparable part of our daily lives.
-Ishan Arora
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator
https://www.google.com/search?q=refrigerator+wallpaper&tbm=isch
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