Evolution of the Refrigerator

Food is a prime necessity and food preservation has been a primary concern for entire humanity since the early days of civilization. The modern refrigerator is capable of addressing all our food preservation needs, little wonder that this particular home appliance is the most widely used among all other home appliance product. The importance of the refrigerator in our daily lives is revealed by the fact the refrigerator is found in approximately 99. 5% of American Homes (History. com).

Prior to the advent of the refrigerator people indulged in many complex and time consuming activities in order to prevent spoilage of stored food.

Ice harvesting was widely practiced in cold places; the process involved storing sheets of natural ice in insulated ditches for use in the summer season. In warm places meat was salted and smoked in order to preserve it over long periods (History. com). These practices had their pros and cons and none of these techniques could guarantee protection of food over prolonged periods.

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The refrigerator has changed our lives because this appliance can be used for preservation of all kinds of food items, in fact the refrigerator occupies a prominent position in the independent. com list of 101 gadgets that changed our lives (Usborn, 2007). The Evolution of the Refrigerator Technology Refrigerator preserves food by maintaining it at a near freezing temperature which prohibits breeding of microbes and thereby preventing food spoilage. Refrigerators work on the second low of thermodynamics.

The storage area of the refrigerator is surrounded by loops of tube where a liquefied gas called coolant is made to circulate.

As the coolant circulates it absorbs heat from the storage chamber thereby lowering the temperature of the storage area. As the coolant absorbs heat its temperature increases and it gradually vaporizes. After passing through the entire circuit the coolant is sucked into the compressor where it is compressed into liquid state once again and the entire cycle repeats over and over again (energyquest. gov. ca).

This principle has been used in the very first refrigerator and the present day refrigerator continues to work on this very principle. In 1784 William Cullen of the Glasgow University first demonstrated refrigeration but he did not put this discovery to practical use, later in 1834 Jacob Perkins first designed a practical refrigerator using ether as a coolant. In 1844 Dr John Gorrie designed a refrigerator that could make ice, later Carl von Linden a German engineer invented a process of liquefying gas continuously, this was a major breakthrough because this technology could be used to create better performing refrigerators.

(About. com) Kelvinator and General Electric were pioneers in the field of refrigerator manufacturing. The refrigerators made during 1915 consisted of storage unit that was connected to an external compressor, the compressor was driven by an external electric motor, most often the motor was kept in a basement or in an adjoining room and a conveyor belt was used for actually driving the compressor. In 1920’s Frigidaire refrigerators were first introduced these were a compact unit which contained the storage area, compressor and the motor in a single steel cabinet.

Refrigerators with freezer units that could turn water into ice were first introduced between 1920’s and 1930’s (History. com). Until 1930’s refrigerator manufacturers were using ammonia, methyl chloride and sulfur dioxide as coolants, these gases were potential health hazards and several accidents occurred in event of coolant leak during 1920’s. In order to address the issue three American corporations jointly produced Freon gas, an alternative coolant which subsequently replaced all other coolants.

Freon which is the brand name for chlorofluro carbon remained a staple ingredient of the refrigerator industry until 1950’s. Later it was found that Freon was responsible for causing damage to the ozone layer. Eventually HFC a new form of environment friendly coolant replaced the Freon gas (About. com). Mass production of refrigerators started after 1940’s and between 1950 – 1960 refrigerators started to become a thing of necessity, it was during this period that automatic ice making technology was introduced.

Refrigerators with defrost were also produced during this period. By 1980’s frost free refrigerators were introduced and by this time refrigerator manufacturers were trying to make their machine more and more energy efficient. (History. com) Present day refrigerators have multiple doors and also perform multi-directional cooling which increases the freshness of food, some models help to retain the original odor of the food’s stored in them. Cost of refrigerators has dropped dramatically a standard refrigerator for home use can be obtained for $350-$400 (wisegeek. com).