Mechanical vapour-compression refrigeration
Refrigeración mecánica por compresión de vapor
- Date
- 1834-1856 · confidence high
- Place
- Geelong and Bendigo, Victoria, Australia (Harrison); London (Perkins, 1834)
- Credited to
- Jacob Perkins (1834 patent, London); James Harrison (commercial machine, 1856); Ferdinand Carré (ammonia absorption, 1859)
- People
- 👤 Ferdinand Carré1824–1900👤 Jacob Perkins1766–1849👤 James E. Harrison1815–1875
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A machine that produced cold by evaporating and compressing ether (Perkins, Harrison) or ammonia (Carré) in a closed cycle. The first industrial production of ice and refrigeration without depending on natural ice.
Perkins patented and built a prototype in London in 1834 without exploiting it commercially; Harrison, in Geelong (Australia), set up the first commercial ice factory in 1854-1856; Carré (France) made the first viable absorption machine in 1859.
What it led to
- Lager breweries and refrigerated slaughterhouses
- The refrigerated ship (1877-1882) and the world meat trade (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand)
- The decline of the natural ice trade
- The domestic refrigerator (20th century)
Built on
- Ice houses and ice conservationc. 1550-1660
- Isolation of ammonia gas1756
- Separate-condenser steam engine1765-1769
- Carnot cycle and thermodynamics
- Cullen's evaporation experiments (1755)
Made possible
- Air-cycle ice machine (Gorrie)1851
- Heat pump (Kelvin's proposal)1852
- Margarine1869
- Transoceanic frozen meat export1879-1882
- Refrigerated cargo ship (SS Dunedin)1882
- Industrial milk pasteurization1886–1908
- Air conditioning1902
- Quick-freezing of food1924–1930
- Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)1930
- Ice resurfacer1949
- LNG carrier (Methane Pioneer)1959
- Refrigerated ship
- Domestic refrigerator
- Liquefaction of gases