Electric refrigerator

The invention: 



An electrically powered and hermetically sealed

food-storage appliance that replaced iceboxes, improved production,

and lowered food-storage costs.



The people behind the invention:



Marcel Audiffren, a French monk

Christian Steenstrup (1873-1955), an American engineer

Fred Wolf, an American engineer








Ice Preserves America’s Food



Before the development of refrigeration in the United States, a

relatively warm climate made it difficult to preserve food. Meat

spoiled within a day and milk could spoil within an hour after milking.

In early America, ice was stored below ground in icehouses that

had roofs at ground level. GeorgeWashington had a large icehouse

at his Mount Vernon estate. By 1876, America was consuming more

than 2 million tons of ice each year, which required 4,000 horses and

10,000 men to deliver.

Several related inventions were needed before mechanical refrigeration

was developed. James Watt invented the condenser, an important

refrigeration system component, in 1769. In 1805, Oliver Evans

presented the idea of continuous circulation of a refrigerant in a

closed cycle. In this closed cooling cycle, a liquid refrigerant evaporates

to a gas at low temperature, absorbing heat from its environment

and thereby producing “cold,” which is circulated around an

enclosed cabinet. To maintain this cooling cycle, the refrigerant gas

must be returned to liquid form through condensation by compression.

The first closed-cycle vapor-compression refrigerator, which

was patented by Jacob Perkins in 1834, used ether as a refrigerant.

Iceboxes were used in homes before refrigerators were developed.

Ice was cut from lakes and rivers in the northern United States

or produced by ice machines in the southern United States. An ice

machine using air was patented by John Gorrie at New Orleans in



1851. Ferdinand Carre introduced the first successful commercial

ice machine, which used ammonia as a refrigerant, in 1862, but it

was too large for home use and produced only a pound of ice per

hour. Ice machinery became very dependable after 1890 but was

plagued by low efficiency. Very warm summers in 1890 and 1891 cut

natural ice production dramatically and increased demand for mechanical

ice production. Ice consumption continued to increase after

1890; by 1914, 21 million tons of ice were used annually. The high

prices charged for ice and the extremely low efficiency of home iceboxes

gradually led the public to demand a substitute for ice refrigeration.





Refrigeration for the Home



Domestic refrigeration required a compact unit with a built-in

electric motor that did not require supervision or maintenance.

Marcel Audiffren, a French monk, conceived the idea of an electric

refrigerator for home use around 1910. The first electric refrigerator,

which was invented by Fred Wolf in 1913, was called the Domelre,

which stood for domestic electric refrigerator. This machine used

condensation equipment that was housed in the home’s basement.

In 1915, Alfred Mellowes built the first refrigerator to contain all of

its components; this machine was known as Guardian’s Frigerator.

General Motors acquired Guardian in 1918 and began to mass produce

refrigerators. Guardian was renamed Frigidaire in 1919. In

1918, the Kelvinator Company, run by Edmund Copeland, built the

first refrigerator with automatic controls, the most important of

which was the thermostatic switch. Despite these advances, by 1920

only a few thousand homes had refrigerators, which cost about

$1,000 each.

The General Electric Company (GE) purchased the rights to the

General Motors refrigerator, which was based on an improved

design submitted by one of its engineers, Christian Steenstrup.

Steenstrup’s innovative design included a motor and reciprocating

compressor that were hermetically sealed with the refrigerant.

This unit, known as the GE Monitor Top, was first produced in

1927. Apatent on this machine was filed for in 1926 and granted to

Steenstrup in 1930. Steenstrup became chief engineer of GE’s electric

refrigeration department and accumulated thirty-nine addi-

tional patents in refrigeration over the following years. By 1936, he

had more than one hundred patents to his credit in refrigeration and

other areas.

Further refinement of the refrigerator evolved with the development

of Freon, a nonexplosive, nontoxic, and noncorrosive refrigerant

discovered by Thomas Midgely, Jr., in 1928. Freon used lower

pressures than ammonia did, which meant that lighter materials

and lower temperatures could be used in refrigeration.

During the years following the introduction of the Monitor Top,

the cost of refrigerators dropped from $1,000 in 1918 to $400 in 1926,

and then to $170 in 1935. Sales of units increased from 200,000 in

1926 to 1.5 million in 1935.

Initially, refrigerators were sold separately from their cabinets,

which commonly were used wooden iceboxes. Frigidaire began

making its own cabinets in 1923, and by 1930, refrigerators that

combined machinery and cabinet were sold.

Throughout the 1930’s, refrigerators were well-insulated, hermetically

sealed steel units that used evaporator coils to cool the

food compartment. The refrigeration system was transferred from

on top of to below the food storage area, which made it possible to

raise the food storage area to a more convenient level. Special light

bulbs that produced radiation to kill taste- and odor-bearing bacteria

were used in refrigerators. Other developments included sliding

shelves, shelves in doors, rounded and styled cabinet corners, ice

cube trays, and even a built-in radio.

The freezing capacity of early refrigerators was inadequate. Only

a package or two of food could be kept cool at a time, ice cubes

melted, and only a minimal amount of food could be kept frozen.

The two-temperature refrigerator consisting of one compartment

providing normal cooling and a separate compartment for freezing

was developed by GE in 1939. Evaporator coils for cooling were

placed within the refrigerator walls, providing more cooling capacity

and more space for food storage. Frigidaire introduced a Cold

Wall compartment, while White-Westinghouse introduced a Colder

Cold system. After World War II, GE introduced the refrigeratorfreezer

combination.



Impact



Audiffren,Wolf, Steenstrup, and others combined the earlier inventions

of Watt, Perkins, and Carre with the development of electric

motors to produce the electric refrigerator. The development of

domestic electric refrigeration had a tremendous effect on the quality

of home life. Reliable, affordable refrigeration allowed consumers

a wider selection of food and increased flexibility in their daily

consumption. The domestic refrigerator with increased freezer capacity

spawned the growth of the frozen food industry.Without the

electric refrigerator, households would still depend on unreliable

supplies of ice.