Gradual Development of Refrigeration Process: Main Componentry (Essay Sample)

Innovation of Refrigeration
Name
Institution
Innovation of Refrigeration
Introduction
Refrigeration is the process of transferring heat from an object in order to cool it. Controlled conditions regulate the movement of heat from one location to another. Mechanical work effected transportation of heat traditionally. Years of innovation and technology have brought other means on board that include electricity, laser and magnetism. Inconveniences caused by lack of refrigeration led to the need of innovation of the cooling machines. Ancient Roman and Chinese empires marked the onset of preservation of foods. Technology has fastened evolution of refrigeration over the last century. The shift from ice harvesting to temperature-controlled rail cars is enough evidence to the advancement in technology. Development stages in its innovation expanded human knowledge on how to better the next stages of refrigeration. Food preservation methods such as salting, smoking, pickling and drying were not completely effective. This is because such methods could not preserve highly perishable foods such as milk and cheese. This provoked people to embrace refrigeration as the ultimate preservation method. Refrigeration has since impacted human life in ways big and small. This is a comprehensive outline of the innovation of refrigeration. It includes the most significant stages from its origin to the current state.
Purpose
This work aims at outlining the process of refrigeration since man discovered the process. The work covers different methods of refrigeration embraced by man from the past. The work covers various personalities and their contribution toward innovation of the refrigerator. This article reflects the technologies used in refrigeration over the years, giving the merits and demerits of each.
Main Componentry
Long before invention of mechanical refrigeration system, human beings invented different ways of preserving their perishable foods. The first form of food preservation was seasonal harvesting. Humans started using cooling systems made from ice and snow. Humans harvested ice and snow either done locally during the winter seasons or brought down from mountain peaks. The harvest was then stored in cellars. A cellar is an enclosed underground space used for storage or shelter. The first forms of cellars comprised of holes dug in the ground lined with wood and filled with snow and ice (Briley 2010). The cellars were occasionally emptied with ice and snow. In China for example, religious ceremonies accompanied the process of emptying and refilling the cellars. Other cultures that embraced seasonal harvesting include the Greeks and The Jews. This form of refrigeration was very dangerous. This is because of the process of harvesting. Harvesting of ice and snow especially during the seasons and at the peaks of mountains was a fatal activity. The process of harvesting ice was also difficult. When the process proved to be difficult, ice became a market commodity. In the early 1830s, ice became a market commodity, with high consumption especially in America. The onset of refrigeration technology led Americans to accept refrigeration as a method of food preservation.
Scarcity of ice led to invention of better refrigeration methods. Humans discovered that adding chemicals like potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate led to drop of water temperature (Rees 2013). Cooling drinks became popular in Europe. Countries like Spain, France and Italy embraced cooling drinks especially wine. The Europeans now stopped cooling water overnight. Methods such as adding potassium nitrates to water took control, where the solution cooled drinks in a short time. This trend advanced to a stage where it extracted ice. It was the beginning of ice cold drinks; a popular culture in France since the 17th Century.
The most common method of refrigeration in the past was ice. Ice took a lead in refrigeration for a long time until its demerits outweighed its merits. Ice paused serious health problems especially to ice scrappers. Clean sources of ice became hard to find and natural sources became almost extinct. Pollution and sewage dumping eventually put a stop to ice scrapping. Inventory minds had to develop a better method to continue with refrigeration. Humans had reached a point they had to create a refrigerator that only came with merits, that is preservation of food.
The father of refrigeration is known as Jacob Perkins. He is the first owner of a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle. Perkins invented the first form of refrigerator that cool be used to cool food with a technology other than use of ice and snow. Olivier Evans conceived the idea of a refrigerator but never created one. Based on Evans’ idea, Perkins created a refrigerator. Olivier Evans was an American inventor who designed a machine that could use vapor instead of liquid. The vapor-compression method still stands as the most used form of refrigeration to date. Almost all households and industries globally embrace the vapor-compression technology. Inventors now aim at producti...