History of Refrigeration Timeline

Thomas Moore patented a metal-lined butter-storage tub in 1803. The design became a prototype for many later iceboxes used to preserve food with natural ice.

By 1900, Chicago meat-packing houses had adopted ammonia-cycle commercial refrigeration. The technology supported large-scale meat processing and storage.

Image source: Absorption refrigerator

In 1911, General Electric released a household refrigeration unit powered by gas. The appliance represented an early attempt to bring mechanical refrigeration into domestic kitchens.

Image source: General Electric

By 1914, almost every location used artificial refrigeration. Mechanical systems had expanded beyond experimental machines into food production, storage, transport, and other commercial applications.

Image source: Refrigeration

General Electric released the Monitor Top in 1927, the first refrigerator to run on electricity. Its design helped establish the electric refrigerator as a major household appliance.

Frigidaire synthesized Freon in 1930. The refrigerant helped make domestic refrigeration safer and more practical than systems relying on some earlier toxic or flammable refrigerants.

Image source: Freon

The lower price of refrigerators helped ownership in American households exceed 50 percent by 1940. Refrigeration was becoming a standard feature of domestic food storage.

Image source: Refrigerator

In the 1970s, compounds used as refrigerants were found to react with atmospheric ozone. Because ozone protects against solar ultraviolet radiation, the discovery prompted international efforts to restrict these substances.

Image source: Ozone depletion

The worldwide use of refrigerants implicated in ozone depletion was curtailed through the Montreal Protocol of 1987. The agreement marked a major environmental turning point in refrigeration technology.

Image source: Montreal Protocol

Nathaniel Wyeth invented a horse-drawn ice cutter in 1825. The device made harvesting ice faster and cheaper, helping expand the commercial ice market associated with Frederic Tudor.

Image source: Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth

Before 1830, few Americans used ice to refrigerate foods because ice-storehouses and iceboxes were uncommon. The growth of commercial ice harvesting and distribution gradually made household ice preservation more accessible.

New York City's ice consumption rose from 12,000 tons in 1843 to 100,000 tons in 1856. The increase illustrates the rapid expansion of the natural-ice market and urban cold storage.

Carré's refrigeration system became a solution to New Orleans' ice problems. By 1865, the city had three of Carré's machines, reducing reliance on distant supplies of natural ice.

By the turn of the twentieth century, pollution and sewage had begun to enter natural ice as the ice-harvesting industry expanded. Contaminated ice became a particular problem in metropolitan suburbs and encouraged the shift toward artificial refrigeration.

In 1869, Thaddeus Lowe and investors purchased an old steamship and installed one of Lowe's refrigeration units. The venture shipped fresh fruit from New York to the Gulf Coast and fresh meat from Galveston to New York, but failed because of Lowe's limited shipping experience.

Image source: Thaddeus S. C. Lowe

Harrison prepared the sailing ship Norfolk for an experimental beef shipment to the United Kingdom in 1873. The ship used a cold-room system rather than a mechanical refrigeration system.

The Strathleven arrived at London's docks on 2 February 1880 with frozen beef, mutton, and butter from Sydney and Melbourne. Although not the first successful overseas transport in every account, the voyage demonstrated the commercial potential of refrigerated shipping.

William Soltau Davidson commissioned the Dunedin to be refitted with a compression refrigeration unit for meat shipment in 1881. The project followed extensive research into transporting frozen goods from New Zealand to Britain.

After the Dunedin's voyage, its sister ship Marlborough and the New Zealand Shipping Company vessel Mataurua joined the trade. The German steamer Marsala began carrying frozen New Zealand lamb in December 1882, and by the 1890s the trade had become increasingly profitable.

The Dunedin sailed for London on 15 February 1882 with a cargo that became the first commercially successful refrigerated shipping voyage. The journey established a foundation for New Zealand's refrigerated meat industry.

J & E Hall of Dartford outfitted the SS Selembria with a vapor-compression system in 1886. The ship transported 30,000 carcasses of mutton from the Falkland Islands.

The United States passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1891 after local butchers argued that the refrigerated railcar system was unwholesome. The law reflected public and industry concerns about the safety of refrigerated meat distribution.

California shipments using refrigerated rail cars increased from about 4,500 carloads in 1895 to between 8,000 and 10,000 carloads in 1905. Refrigerated rail connected specialized agricultural regions with distant eastern markets.

Image source: Refrigerator car

By 1917, established fruit- and vegetable-producing regions near eastern markets faced increased competition from distant specialized production centers. Refrigerated rail remained important into the mid-twentieth century, but highway trucking increasingly shifted perishable freight away from rail.