Events
The Chinese are known to harvest and store natural ice in ice cellars for food preservations.Hebrews, Greeks and Romans utilised snow and ice collected from mountains, stored in insulate pits using materials like grass, chaff or wood, primarily for cooling beverages rather than long term preservation.In ancient Egypt and India, they employed evaporative cooling by storing water in porous earthenware jars. The evaporation of water from the surface cooled the liquid inside.Persia developed ‘Yakhchals’, which were early evaporative coolers and ice storage structures, possible the first to be used for food preservation.Endothermic chemical reactions were used for cooling. Spanish doctor Blas Villafranca in Rome used mixtures of potassium nitrate to cool wine and water.Robert Boyle and Philippe La Hire further explored cooling through refrigerant mixtures.William Cullen at the University of Glasgow demonstrates the first known artificial refrigeration. He created a vacuum over diethyl ether, causing it to boil and absorb heat from its surroundings, even producing a small amount of ice. However, this remained a scientific expeiremnt with no practical application.Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley experimented with the principle of evaporative cooling, noting that the rapid evaporation of volatile liquids could significantly lower the temperature of an object.Oliver Evans, an American inventor, designed the first refrigeration machine that used the vapour-compression cycle with ether as a refrigerant. Though he never built it, his design was a crucial step.John Leslie froze water to ice using an air pump, demonstrating cooling through evaporation under reduced pressure.Michael Faraday discovered that liquefied ammonia could produce a cooling effect upon evaporation, a principle that became central to later refrigeration technology.Jacob Perkins, an American inventor living in London, patented the first working vapour-compression refrigeration system using ether. He built a functional machine, marking a significant advancement.Dr. John Gorrie, an American physician, built a refrigeration machine to cool the rooms of yellow fever patients, using compressed air.Dr. John Gorrie received a patent for an ice-making machineJames Harrison in Australia patented a vapour-compression refrigeration system using ether, initially for cooling beer in breweries. His work led to the first practical ice-making and refrigeration for industrial use, particularly in breaking and meat packing.Alexander Twining in the USA began commercial production of ice using a vapou
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