Around us there are constantly many objects that greatly simplify everyday life. We cannot imagine ourselves without microwave ovens, ovens, electric kettles and, of course, refrigerators. The history of the creation of each of these household items originates in ancient times. However, it took more than one century for such a number of “helpers” to appear in our homes. But still, the most important place among them in the house is the refrigerator. Without it, it is simply impossible to imagine the cuisine of a modern family, but few people know that even a little less than a century the housewives did not even realize that keeping food fresh would be so easy and simple. The history of the creation of the refrigerator is divided into several stages, and to study it you need to look at those times when humanity was still at the dawn of its development.
Refrigerator: definition and meaning
Before proceeding with the description of the history of the invention of the refrigerator, it is necessary to explain what we mean by this word. If you look into the explanatory dictionary, you will find out that the refrigerator is a technical device that has the ability to maintain a stable low temperature in a chamber isolated from heat. This device is used primarily for storing perishable and any other products. Also in it can be placed and various items requiring coolness.
In the modern world, almost every family has a refrigerator and a freezer for a home. This distinguishes all developed countries, and refrigeration units are used not only at home, but also for industrial purposes. It is difficult to imagine a meat factory, dairy or other food processing company without a refrigeration unit.
All refrigerators have the same principle of operation, they transfer heat from the inside of the chamber to the external environment, dissipating it. This is facilitated by a special installation located inside the device.
A modern household refrigerator has two types. The first is a medium temperature camera. It is well suited for storing almost all products. The second is a low-temperature chamber, in which products are frozen. The first household cooling devices could only hold one temperature. Now, each refrigerator consists of two chambers, so we can simultaneously store some products, and freeze and store others in this form for an indefinite period of time.
From antiquity to the present: how did our ancestors store products?
The history of the refrigerator originates in ancient times. However, scientists still do not know exactly how it occurred to people to use cold to preserve food. Perhaps someone noticed that in the shade the food retains its freshness longer than in the sun. Other people began to use this experience, with each subsequent generation improving this method.
Of course, then a person did not yet understand that the miraculous effect of cold lies in the fact that at low temperatures, bacteria and microorganisms that actively multiply in food products slow down their growth rates. If you manage to bring the temperature to very low limits, then the bacteria die. It is this rule that lies in the principle of storage of products by modern people.
Most fortunate to those people who lived in cold areas. With the onset of winter, they had the opportunity to store their supplies on the street. The only danger was wild animals that could find and ruin such storerooms. Therefore, they tried to place them on trees or underground. We can say that the history of the refrigerator originates precisely at these times, when a person realized that natural cold can be easily put at his service. However, before the advent of convenient devices to keep food fresh, it was still very far away.
Ancient refrigerator: Persian installations
What replaced the refrigerator before its invention? Scientists have a very specific answer to this question. They claim that the ancient Persians came up with a kind of prototype of the first refrigeration unit, which was used quite successfully.
Since they lived in a very arid area, the preservation of the freshness of the products was a serious problem for them. And they were able to solve it with the help of ice and snow from the tops of the mountains. At the same time, the Persians managed to keep ice even in the heart of the desert. For this, a special device was used, which is a multilayer camera.
Modern historians consider these warehouses a real miracle, the best engineers of their time definitely worked on their creation and it is worth saying that they succeeded as inventors. The Persians built small buildings with walls two meters thick. They were multi-layered and consisted of sand, clay, lime and even animal hair. Such premises were completely laid with ice and snow, and then the products were piled inside. Historians claim that they could be stored in such "refrigerators" for a very long time.
The history of such installations was also known in Rome. For example, Emperor Nero himself ordered the everywhere to build storage for food, in which ice was brought from ponds and mountains. The emperor was very fond of trying all kinds of delicacies, and in order to keep them fresh for a long time, special warehouses were used.
India and Egypt: storage rules for products
As you know, the hardest thing to keep food in a hot climate. Therefore, residents of the countries of the equatorial belt came up with all sorts of ways to at least somehow cool their products.
The Egyptians were completely deprived of the opportunity to store ice or snow, but they quickly noticed that it was quite cold in the desert at night. Often the temperature drops to a critical level of zero degrees. Therefore, the inhabitants of Egypt put out water tanks in which the liquid cooled noticeably during the night. In the morning, the vessels were brought into the house and placed in the room where food was located. Due to the low temperature of the water, they noticeably cooled.
The Indians actively used a different method. They once noticed that with intensive evaporation of a liquid, it can cool by several degrees. Therefore, the inhabitants of India often exposed to the wind containers that were wrapped in wet rags. As a result, the temperature of the contents was slightly, but decreased. For a hot climate, this was quite enough.
Asian countries
It is noteworthy that when we talk about the history of the refrigerator, it must be borne in mind that almost every country in the world has contributed to this invention. Indeed, given the climate, people came up with certain methods of preserving hard-to-get food.
Asians were extremely inventive in this area. For example, the Koreans erected seogbinggo. With this word they called huge warehouses built of massive stone blocks. The walls of the vaults were so thick that they did not allow heat to pass in and not let out cold from the inside. Seogbinggo could not belong to one person, they were the property of the entire community. Everyone could store food here, while among the Koreans there was absolutely no such thing as theft.
Russian glaciers
In ancient Russia, cold was used to store food from time immemorial. In winter, ice was collected from ponds and placed in a deep basement. In such premises for storing food at any time of the year was minus temperature. This allowed the family to eat fresh fish, meat and other products for a long time.
Glaciers were also very popular and widespread in Russia. These premises were built carefully and using special technology. An ordinary glacier resembled a traditional wooden blockhouse, buried deep in the ground. Only the thickest logs were taken for its construction, this was done to increase the thickness of the walls. Such a house was filled to the very top with a mixture of ice and snow, and only then food was placed in it. As a roof, a thick layer of turf was used. Sometimes ancient masters also added a layer of earth. This reliably protected the warehouse from overheating, and the food was kept fresh for a long time.
In addition, our ancestors invented other ways to protect products from spoilage. For example, a frog was sometimes placed in a vessel with milk. Allocations of its secretion did not harm people, but prevented the souring of milk. Of course, this is hardly a full fridge. But this method completely fulfilled its functions of preserving freshness.
European food storage
Medieval Europe did not need refrigeration units for a long time. It is known that poisoning was the most serious European problem. It affected not only the poor, but also aristocrats. After all, they also often consumed stale and already pretty spoiled foods. However, with unsurpassed tenacity they continued to be stored without the use of cold.
Almost a revolution in the minds of Europeans made Marco Polo. This famous traveler was amazed by everything he saw in China and wrote a book about it. The list of Chinese miracles included a way of cooling with nitrate. Mixed with ice, it is able to lower the temperature to zero. This option came to the royal court, who began to drink chilled wine and other drinks with pleasure. However, ordinary people could not afford such an expensive way, and they did not receive mass distribution.
But already in the sixteenth century, Italians came up with a new method of lowering temperature. They began to mix ice with salt and other chemicals. As a result, the products could not only be cooled, but also frozen. On this basis, real culinary masterpieces were created, the recipes of which Catherine de Medici once brought to Paris.
The popularity of outlandish sorbets and ice cream was so great that the owner of a small cafe "Prokop", where these delicacies were sold, managed to make a fortune. By the end of the seventeenth century, Europe was thrilled to be able to eat chilled foods. The era of all kinds of refrigeration units was approaching.
Thomas Moore: Talented Inventor and Entrepreneur
So who invented the refrigerator? The Americans claim that this man was their compatriot Thomas Moore. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, he had his own small business selling and delivering the freshest butter. The product was of excellent quality, but the oil often melted during delivery, and customers were not willing to pay for it. The entrepreneur began to lose money and was thinking about creating a special installation that would cool and preserve his product.
The first refrigerator had, in the opinion of modern people, a rather strange look. It was a container of steel sheets wrapped in rabbit skins. Oil was placed inside it, and the container itself was placed in a huge cedar barrel, covered with ice.
The invention was a huge success and inspired engineers to experiment with refrigeration units. A real sensation was the refrigerator, which operated on ammonia and produced ice in the process. We can say that this was the beginning of the widespread use of these household appliances.
Home glacier
In the second half of the nineteenth century, most of the wealthy families from Europe and America began to install in their kitchens a kind of refrigerator, reminiscent of ordinary cabinets. They had a layer of natural cork and sawdust and were made from precious wood. Ice fell inside the cabinet, and melt water drained through a specially provided hole. Many considered this device innovative. However, it had two significant drawbacks: insufficient temperature to preserve many products and an incredibly high ice consumption. The stocks of the latter in such a freezer for the house had to be replenished several times a week, this required serious financial expenses.
Real fridge
The invention of electricity and its widespread adoption suggested some interesting ideas to the inventors. The result of the work of engineers was the first real refrigerator, released in America. It looked like a huge cabinet, upholstered in wood, but it worked on electricity.
The Odifren refrigeration unit very quickly became in demand. However, it cost about nine hundred dollars, and the fluids used in the work were highly toxic.
Home cold factory
The issue of toxicity needed to be addressed. This was done by the Danish Stinstrup, who developed a refrigerator that did not make noise, did not poison the air with harmful fumes and was very durable. The patent for this invention was bought by General Electric, its specialists slightly modified the installation and put it on sale. From the very first days, the Monitor-Top model became a sales leader, despite its high cost.
The first Soviet refrigerator
In the USSR, the refrigeration unit arrived quite late and it did not serve for food storage at all. Ferdinand Carre at the beginning of the 20th century came up with a refrigerator that made ice. The device worked in cycles, each was designed for twelve kilograms of ice. It is noteworthy that this installation worked on wood. Some models had a compartment for filling kerosene.
And only four years before the start of World War II, an electric fridge designed specifically for storing foodstuffs went on sale in the USSR.
Instead of a conclusion
It is difficult to say who can be called the first inventor of the refrigeration unit. Indeed, in every era there were craftsmen who came up with various devices for storing food in the cold. Over the long millennia, the refrigerator has significantly changed, but perhaps our descendants will use completely different settings. And modern refrigerators will seem to them a funny relic of the past.