We human beings have always used various forms of food storage and preservation since long before the dawn of history. Our ancient ancestors learned to cook meat over fires to keep it from rotting so fast, then learned to treat it with salt to preserve it for even longer periods. When we learned to fashion storage pots from clay the art of pickling was born. Depending upon the local climate, humans also learned that cool temperatures slowed down spoilage rates and that freezing foods nearly stopped time! The cold waters of rivers and lakes were a natural temporary storehouse in summer, and cutting caves in the winter ice could keep the late autumn’s hunt freshly frozen until well into spring.
As we made the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies that built permanent structures, cold cellars and ice houses came into being. The term icebox is still used by some today, but it isn’t a heavily insulated box containing blocks of ice hastily delivered from the local icehouse any more, it is the modern technological wonder we call the refrigerator, or more affectionately the fridge, and it changed everything about the way humans stored their food!
The Birth of Refrigeration: 19th Century Breakthroughs
The mechanisms of the modern refrigeration process we use in present times were the result of studies and experiments performed by a large number of inventors during the 19th century. In the year 1834, the first vapour compression system was invented by the American scientist Jacob Perkins. Meanwhile, a new process of liquefying gases was discovered and patented by the German scientist Professor Carl von Linde. These innovations formed the building blocks that ensured refrigeration became widespread on a commercial scale, a great boon to breweries and meat-packing companies at the turn of the 20th century.
Revolutionizing Home Life: Fred W. Wolf and the Electric Refrigerator
Fred W. Wolf, an American scientist, is hailed as the inventor of the very first electric-powered home refrigerator in the year 1913. By 1918 domestic refrigerators came into mass production when William C. Durant revealed the very first home unit powered by a self-contained compressor. Home refrigerators came into heavy demand as the general population shifted away from the countryside into the growing cities, and the source of their food became further away.
From Factories to Homes: Refrigeration’s Role in Urbanization
Fresh food grew in greater demand to satisfy this new urban existence, and so the number of refrigerators increased all through the 19th century. It became critical to preserve perishable foods during the long journey from the fields to the streets, and refrigerators were there to do the job on the freight trains and trucks, and once that food arrived in the homes of hungry people!
The 20th Century Boom: Fridges for Every Household
The popularity of refrigerators in private homes continued to increase in the late 1920s and more and more were manufactured to fill the ever-growing demand. Home refrigeration had established itself as an everyday feature of the modern kitchen by the 1930s, and the introduction of Freon gas, a safer replacement for the toxic gases previously utilised in the vapour compression process, ensured that the refrigerator was a permanent fixture of every home.
So, the next time you open up your fridge to grab a snack, be thankful you didn’t have to crawl into an ice cave to get it out!
