History of American Fridge Freezers
It has taken over a century and a half for the american style fridge freezer to be developed, in fact the first ice making machine which tend to be included in a lot of models was created in 1857 by an Australian Man called James Harrison. The fridge itself was developed by a man named Oliver Evans in 1805 and became available for family homes after 1920. The first fridges used the poisonous ammonia gas as it’s coolent but later Feon was used as it was safer.
The original American Fridge Freezer was HUGE
In 1992 absorption fridges were invented by Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters. These types of fridges absorbed the cooling gas into another liquid, leaving room for more cooling liquid to evaporate and cooling down the fridge. Before Baltzar von Platen came up with the residential type fridge they were large often taking up 2 rooms and had moving mechanical parts. For example the motor and compressor would be in another room to the cool box which was often in the kitchen like our fridges are now.
The size of these fridges weren’t the only reason why it wasn’t possible or practical for many family to have one installed. Because of the size and technology involved the cost made these fridges unattainable for the average household. Because of this even though people understood that keeping food fresh would save money, the saving wouldn’t cover the cost of the fridge. At this time fridges were used for commercial business such as keeping food fresh before taking it to the market.
General Electric Was the First Company to make Fridge Freezer suitable for the home
A break through can through in 1927 and the fridges became smaller and therefore more popular. A company called General Electric created a fridge using sulphur dioxide and were able to make over a million units which could be bought by the general public.
When was the first fridge available in Europe?
by the 1930′s it was recorded that 60% of American homes had a fridge and it wasn’t until the 1970′s that they became popular in the UK and the rest of Europe. In the UK a typical style fridge freezer had the fridge and freezer stacked on top on each other, but the American fridge freezers placed the fridge and freezer side by side making them just as tall but much wider. These means that these types of fridge freezer can store a lot more food. Many of them have a ice or water dispenser on one of the doors. Future innovations are looking at the american fridge freezers being able to check what food needs to be restocked and printing this out in a list which can be taken to the supermarket. I’m sure it won’t be long before that step will be omitted and the fridge will be able to add the items to your online food shop.