History of the Refrigerator By kristenyoung Feb 8, 1748 First known artificial refrigerator was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow – he didn’t use this discovery for any practical purposes. Feb 8, 1805 Oliver Evans designed the refrigeration machine Feb 8, 1834 Jacob Perkins built the first refrigeration machine to be used for house hold purposes using a vapor compression cycle Feb 8, 1844 An American physician John Gorrie built a refrigerator based on Evan’s design Feb 8, 1884 Refrigerators were a common appliance in most households. People were using them in order to keep food for longer as well as cooling drinks. Feb 8, 1920 The household refrigerator was an essential piece of kitchen furniture Feb 8, 1921 5,000 mechanical refrigerators were manufactured in the U.S. Feb 8, 1931 5,000 turned into 1 million manufactured Feb 8, 1937 Nearly six million refrigerators were manufactured Feb 8, 1950 More than 80% of American farms and 90% of urban homes had a refrigerator