The paper goes back to the historical times when the idea of refrigeration was conceived and the very first artificial refrigeration concepts put into practice. It assembles the presentation of the concept, the development of prototypes and how the refrigerator changed over time. It then looks at the significance of refrigerators from time immemorial.
¶ … cultural Significance of refrigerator
The refrigerator is a domestic appliance that has been with us for more than a century, indeed the primordial models of the refrigerators have been around dating back to close to two centuries. As the better developed versions and more efficient versions of the refrigerator came into being, the purpose of the refrigerator surpassed the home use alone and went commercial with commercial perishable goods being preserved in these refrigerators. As depicted by Barbara K, (2012), the concept of refrigeration has been around from historical times but the term 'refrigerator' was first introduced by the inventor, a Maryland farmer Thomas Moore, in 1803 and the appliance that is widely known to us today surfaced into the society in the 20th century.
Thesis
The invention of the modern refrigerator, though has its roots in the traditional models of food preservation, has changed the food preservation cultures and has revolutionized the way ice is made depending on the intended purpose of the ice as well as the required quantity.
The contemporary refrigeration refers to the process of extracting heat from and enclosure and lowering the temperature of the substance therein. The basic principle is the use of a liquid to absorb heat. The liquid, also known as the refrigerant, is known to evaporate at an extremely low temperature hence the creation of freezing temperatures within the refrigerator. The physics behind it is that the refrigerant is rapidly vaporized by the use of compression; this expanding vapor will consequently need kinetic energy which is drawn from the immediate surroundings. The surroundings will then lose the heat and become cooler. Essentially the cooling process caused by the rapid expansion of gases is the primary means used in refrigeration today (California Energy Commission, 2006).
Cultural and societal impact of the refrigerator
As mentioned hitherto, the idea behind the refrigerator has been in use for centuries, the earlier families noticed that their food would last longer if they kept them at the cool end of the cave or buried it under ice. This propelled the ferrying of ice from one end to another with the hope to have food last longer in the storages. Ice was also harvested during winter and stored in ice houses to be used during summer time. The ice houses were a common sight in USA, Europe as well as in Iran in the 1800s. One Frederic Tudor later known as 'ice king' took advantage of the demand in ice in the 1806 and thereabouts, cutting ice from the Hudson river and ice ponds found in Massachusetts and exporting it to several countries India inclusive. The concept of commercializing ice started to reshape the society and the way ice was looked at. The trade in the commodity strengthened and in 1872 it reached a record high with America exporting 225,000 tones of ice. The culture of using ice for domestic food preservation was quickly changing and it was also viewed now as a commercial commodity worth trading in at a large scale stage (Kharagpur, nd:3).
The increase in the harvesting of ice and exportation across countries therefore meant the shift in the traditional method of food preservation. Traditionally, the most common methods were salting and drying as well as smoking particularly applied to meat and other animal products. There was shift of preservation from these traditional modes to the use of ice in the ice rooms or cooler boxes to keep meat fresh for longer.
The use of ice in ice rooms to preserve food until the arrival of the domestic refrigerator using the ice box. This was wooden box with appropriate insulation with a block of ice placed at the top hence keeping the refrigerator cool. This was one of the most efficient ways of keeping food fresh. The domestic refrigerator allowed people to now preserve food at home without having to necessarily rely on food from the ice rooms. This innovation meant family could then store larger amounts of food at home and not go for meat from the ice rooms when they needed to cook, a positive change in the society.
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