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In 1000 BC, Chinese cut ice to keep food cold. In 500 BC, Egyptians were filling pots with water and leaving them outside on cold nights to create ice.
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Sir Francis Bacon was testing the idea that cold could be used to preserve meat, when his experiment caused him to develop pneumonia, and he died.
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People gathered ice from streams and ponds and did their best to store it year-round in icehouses and cellars, so they had a ready supply to keep their food cold. Even with ice, people were often limited to eating locally grown foods that had to be purchased fresh and used daily.
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France’s Ferdinand Carré created the first icebox- a more advanced system that used ammonia as a coolant. (Earlier vapor-compression machines used air.) The ammonia worked well, but was toxic if it leaked.
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Even with talk about developing a "frigidarium," ice and snow were our main resource in keeping food cold and preserved until the 20th century.
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1000 BC- The Chinese cut and stored ice
500 BC- Egyptians and Indians made ice by putting water in pots and leaving them outside on cold ice -
Fred W. Wolf invented the first commercially viable electric refrigerator in the United States. The DOMELRE, an air-cooled refrigeration unit, was mounted on top of an icebox.
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Alfred Mellowes starts Guardian Frigerato to build first self-container refrigerator (the compressor was in the bottom of the cabinet) for home use. Guardian Refrigerator Company started manufacturing and selling Mellowes’ version of the refrigerator in 1916, but struggled and produced fewer than 40 appliances in two years.
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General Motors purchased the Guardian Refrigerator Company, and the business was renamed Frigidaire. Appliances were mass produced much like cars, and the first Frigidaire refrigerator was completed in September 1918 in Detroit.
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By 1920, there were more than 200 different refrigerator models on the market.
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Continued improvements in how the refrigerator was produced, along with organizational changes in the company resulted in a better product and a reduced price. Frigidaire eventually added ice cream cabinets to models in 1923, soda fountain equipment in 1924, and water and milk coolers in 1927. By 1929, 1 million refrigerators had been produced, a marked improvement from the early years.
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Einstein patented a refrigerator that cools with ammonia, butane and water instead of Freon, a contributor to global warming. Although Einstein’s original refrigerator was not very energy efficient, researchers from Oxford have adjusted his plans and believe they have a version that could be competitive in the marketplace in the future.
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More than 2 million Americans owned refrigerators.
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GE introduced refrigerator with one section for frozen food and one section for chilled food. In 1947, GE would be the first company to introduce the two-door refrigerator-freezer combination.
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80% of American homes have refrigerators.
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A refrigerator is present in 99.5% of homes.
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Over 8 million refrigerators are sold each year in the U.S.
