User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

In 1805, American inventor Oliver Evans described in detail, but never built, a refrigeration system based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle.

An American living in Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, obtained the first patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system in 1834. Perkins built a prototype system and it actually worked. According to the drawing in Perkins' patent, liquid ether (C₄H₁₀O) was contained in an "evaporator vessel" where it was vaporized under a partial vacuum maintained by the suction of a crude hand-operated compressor. The evaporator vessel was submerged in a liquid from which the heat required to vaporize the ether was extracted, thereby cooling the liquid. The compressed ether vapor from the compressor discharge was then condensed back into liquid ether by flowing through piping coils submerged in water. The liquid ether then returned through a pressure reduction valve (i.e., an expansion valve) into the partial vacuum of the evaporator vessel. Clearly, Perkins' system included the four principal features uses by modern vapor-compression refrigeration systems, namely an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser and an expansion valve. Unfortunately, Perkins had no success in commercializing his system.

In 1842, an American physician, John Gorrie, designed the first system for refrigerating water to produce ice. He also conceived the idea of using his refrigeration system to cool the air for comfort in homes and hospitals (i.e., air-conditioning). His system compressed air, then partially cooled the hot compressed air with water before allowing it to expand while doing part of the work required to drive the air compressor. That isentropic expansion cooled the air to a temperature low enough to freeze water and produce ice, or to flow "through a pipe for effecting refrigeration otherwise" as stated in his patent granted by the U.S. Patent Office in 1851. Gorrie built a working prototype, but his system was a commercial failure.

Alexander Twining began experimenting with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848 and obtained patents in 1850 and 1853. He is credited with having initiated commercial refrigeration in the United States by 1856.

Meanwhile in Australia, James Harrison began operation of a mechanical ice-making machine in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Victoria. His first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1854 and his patent for an ether liquid-vapour compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855. Harrison introduced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861 a dozen of his systems were in operation.

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Jacob Perkins received a patent for the first refrigeration machine in 1836 using the vapor-compression cycle, based on an 1834 machine he built. Perkins had improved upon the design of Oliver Evans, who conceived of the idea in 1805 but never built a refrigerator. John Gorrie received US patent 8,080 in 1851 for work he began in 1845 on ice machines.

Alexander Twining received a patent in 1853 for an ice maker, US Patent 10221. James Harrison of Australia received a patent in 1855 for an ice maker. Both inventors used ether as the working fluid in their vapor-compression refrigeration cycle, but Harrison was the first to develop a practical refrigeration system which could be used in the brewi8ng and meat-packing industries og Geelong, Victoria.

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In 1842, the American physician John Gorrie, to cool sickrooms in a Florida hospital, designed and built an air-cooling apparatus for treating yellow-fever patients. His basic principle--that of compressing a gas, cooling it by sending it through radiating coils, and then expanding it to lower the temperature further--is the one most often used in refrigerators today. Giving up his medical practice to engage in time-consuming experimentation with ice making, he was granted the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851.

Commercial refrigeration is believed to have been initiated by an American businessperson, Alexander C. Twinning, in 1856. Shortly afterward, an Australian, James Harrison, examined the refrigerators used by Gorrie and Twinning and introduced vapor-compression refrigeration to the brewing and meatpacking industries.

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Carl von Linden discovered and patented an improved method of liquefying gas in 1876, which made the process of manufacturing refrigerator models practical. Making use of such gases as ammonia, sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride, the new process formed the standard for cooling agents until the late 1920’s. By then, a number of accidents related to the use of these substances as cooling agents convinced manufacturers that a more stable element was needed. This effort led to the development of freon, which provided the standard for cooling agents for the bulk of the remainder of the 20th century, until the substance was leaked to damage to the ozone layer.