Who created the refrigerator?

Cooling is the process of creating cooling conditions by removing heat. It is often used to preserve food and other perishable items, to protect people from foodborne illnesses. Because, bacteria will grow more slowly at low temperatures.

According to Live Science, refrigeration methods have been around for thousands of years, but modern refrigerators are a new invention. Today, electric power for refrigerators and air conditioners accounts for nearly 20% of energy consumption worldwide.

History of the refrigerator

Around 1000 BC, Chinese people knew how to cut and store tapes. 500 years later, the Egyptians and Indians knew how to take advantage of the cold night to make ice. Other civilizations, such as Greeks, Romans and Jews, have known to store snow in pits and cover them with insulating materials. In the 17th century, in many parts of Europe, nitrates were found to dissolve in water to cool and use to create ice. In the 18th century, Europeans collected ice in the winter, put salt in, wrapped ice in flannel cloth, and stored it underground. Ice will not melt for months. Ice is even transported to many parts of the world.

The method of preserving food by refrigeration has been around for thousands of years.

When there is no ice, people use cool bunkers or place goods in the water; or make a wooden ice box, lined with tin, zinc and insulation.

The concept of electromechanical began in the 1720s, when William Cullen, a Scottish doctor, found evaporation to have a cooling effect. He proved this idea in 1748.

By 1805, Oliver Evans, an American inventor, designed a chiller using steam instead of liquid. In 1820, British scientist Michael Faraday used liquid ammonia for cooling.

Jacob Perkins , who worked with Evans, received a patent on the vapor compression cycle using liquefied ammonia in 1835. He is said to be the "father of refrigerators".

In 1842, John Gorrie, an American doctor, also built a machine similar to Evans's. Gorrie used her refrigerator to create ice, to cool patients with yellow fever in a Florida hospital. In 1851, Gorrie received the first US patent on how to make artificial ice.

In addition, many creators around the world have continued to develop new techniques or improve existing techniques for refrigeration. For example, Ferdinand Carré, a French engineer, developed a refrigerator using a mixture of ammonia and water in 1859; or Albert T. Marshall, the American inventor, invented the first mechanical refrigerator in 1899; in 1930, famous physicist Albert Einstein patented a refrigerator with the idea of ​​creating an environmentally friendly refrigerator, independent of electricity.

Commercial refrigerators began to become popular in the late 19th century thanks to the development of breweries. The first refrigerator was placed at a brewery in Brooklyn, New York, in 1870. Entering the 20th century, nearly all breweries had refrigerators.

The first refrigerator was placed at a brewery in Brooklyn, New York, in 1870.

The meat packaging industry is the next popular industry with the first refrigerator introduced in Chicago in 1900. Nearly 15 years later, nearly all meat packing plants use refrigerators. .

Refrigerators are considered a necessity in households in the 1920s, at which time more than 90% of American families had refrigerators.

Today, nearly all homes in the US - 99% - have at least 1 refrigerator, and about 26% of US households have more than 1 refrigerator in their home, according to a 2009 report by the US Department of Energy. .

Refrigerators today work just like refrigerators over 100 years ago: that is by evaporating liquids. Refrigerants, liquid chemicals are used to cool, evaporate at low temperatures.

The liquid is pushed into the refrigerator through the tube and begins to evaporate. As the liquid evaporates, they carry heat out to a coil outside the refrigerator, where heat is released. These gases return to a compressor, where they become liquid again, and this cycle repeats.

Is the refrigerator safe?

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), early refrigerators use flammable, toxic, flammable liquids and gases. In 1926, Thomas Midgley, an American engineer and chemist, studied safer options for refrigerators and found that fluoride-containing compounds seemed safer.Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) , sold by DuPont, became popular, until 50 years later, these compounds were found to be harmful to the ozone layer in the atmosphere.

According to the California Energy Commission, most of today's refrigerators use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) , safer than CFC and many other options, but still not the most ideal.

Refrigerators help preserve food safely, but only when operating at the right temperature.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, a refrigerator helps preserve food safely, but only when operating at the right temperature. When the refrigerator is not cold enough, harmful bacteria in perishable food grow quickly and can contaminate food, causing mild irritation or serious food poisoning if we eat it. FDA recommends that the refrigerator temperature be set to a maximum of 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees C); In addition, water and food spilled must be cleaned promptly.

Technology of refrigerators

Today, refrigerators have 2 cooling technologies . First, a refrigerator relies on large compressors, which generate a lot of heat and can make the refrigerator room easier to heat up. However, a new refrigerator technology is to use the entire surface of the refrigerator, so it emits extremely slow heat, making the room temperature virtually unchanged and the refrigerator's surface very cool to touch. to enter. These refrigerators also have the benefit of not using harmful and operating materials that do not cause noise, as well as more precise control.

Another new type of refrigerator is using magnets to help operate completely silent, non-vibrating and environmentally friendly. Magnet refrigerators use a concept based on thermal effects, discovered in 1917 by Pierre Weiss and Auguste Piccard, or French and Swiss physicists, and further studied by a group of Scientists from Slovania and Denmark in 2015. Magnetic refrigerators use 35% less electricity than traditional refrigerators.