What is the history of the refrigerator?
Today in the US, about 99.5% of households contain a refrigerator. The idea of keeping foods cool to prevent spoilage is not a new one. It may be surprising to understand that something so common as the fridge, that fixture in most homes, is relatively new to the world. Refrigerators, as we know them now, have only been mass-produced since the late 1940s. There were a number of ways to keep food cool in earlier times, and humans made use of a diverse number of natural surroundings. Placing food in cold streams, secreting it in the backs of caves, or digging underground to create cellars were all early methods of cooling foods. People also cut ice in the wintertime, and stored it in deep cellars or icehouses. Such ice could keep for a significant period of time, especially if it was covered in salt. The first kitchen “appliance” that bears some resemblance to the refrigerator is the icebox. These were developed just before the 19th century. They were simply wooden boxes, often installed
