The Man Who Invented the Machine to Keep My Beer Cold is A Genius

As I was opening up my fridge to get out a cold can of beer, I started to wonder how we ever managed without refrigerators in the past and who was the clever devil that thought to invent them.

So off I went to the internet to see what I could find out. I discovered that long before the birth of Christ, the Chinese were the first to make use of naturally formed ice which they cut up and the Egyptians were probably the first to make ice artificially rather than the type that just freezes on a cold night. However I do not think that we can call either a refrigerator.

There are a number of reports of the collection of snow and ice in the winter months, either locally or actually going up mountains to collect it, and then storing it to be used in the summer.

The first person to make a machine that was made specifically designed to freeze water is generally recognized as William Cullen in the 1740s. He was a chemistry and physics teacher and lecturer in Scotland and used a pump to freeze water in a vacuum as an academic exercise to prove a theory. He did not seem to see any real commercial use for it at all.

In the very early years of the 19th century The American, Oliver Evans was the first person to draw up some plans which are acknowledged as being a primitive fridge but the plans were never turned into an actual machine.

Nothing serious then happened until 1834 when Jacob Perkins, who was a renowned inventor at the time, and used Evans' ideas to obtain the first patent and build what can be best described as an ice making machine.

It was John Gorrie in the middle of the 19th century who made the first machine that we can say is like the modern refrigerator. He first made it to enhance his work in the medical field to assist in the relief and cure of tropical diseases. He stopped being a physician as he saw the commercial potential of his machine to make ice but he was never able to get the funding that he needed.

In the last 20 years of the 19th century, Carl von Linde was the leader in the field of refrigeration. He developed several methods of liquifying gasses which could then be used in to cool the air. Despite all his efforts though, this was not a very safe way to do it.

The 1920s saw the invention of Freon which is a compound that is a lot safer and less toxic than von Linde's gasses. These became known as CFCs and were used from that time until very recently when they were recognized as causing harm to the ozone layer.

Autor: Jack Stanners

Jack has been doing DIY for some time now and he loves making little changes throughout his home. He loves to pass on little ideas that he gets. Today he has just been talking about his bar fridge. He really got his as a beer chiller.

Added: November 13, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/