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An ice house, or icehouse, is a building used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation.
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Yakhchāl is an ancient type of ice house that functions as an evaporative cooler. Above ground, the structure had a domed shape, but had a subterranean storage space. It was often used to store ice, but sometimes was used to store food as well. -
The first artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow, Scotland in 1748. In his demonstration, Cullen used a pump to create a small vacuum over a container of diethyl ether. -
The first closed circuit refrigeration machine was invented. Its inventor was Oliver Evans and its design was based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle. -
Andrew Muhl built an ice-making machine in San Antonio, Texas, to help service the expanding beef industry before moving it to Waco in 1871. -
In 1873, the patent for this machine was contracted by the Columbus Iron Works, which produced the world's first commercial icemakers. -
America Society of Refrigerating Engineers was founded. -
The Einstein–Szilard or Einstein refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate. It was jointly invented in 1926 by Albert Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd, who patented it in the U.S. on November 11, 1930 -
David Forbes Keith of Toronto, Ontario, Canada patented “The Icy Ball”, a type of early refrigerator that didn’t use electricity for cooling but a burning cup of kerosene. It helped hundreds of thousands of families through the time of Dust Bowl. -
Refrigerator is present in 99.5% of developed country homes.
