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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
Fridge. History of invention and production
Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us Refrigerator - a device that maintains a low temperature in a heat-insulated chamber. It is usually used to store food or items that require storage in a cool place. The operation of the refrigerator is based on the use of a refrigeration machine that transfers heat from the working chamber of the refrigerator to the outside, where it is dissipated into the external environment. There are also commercial refrigerators with a higher cooling capacity, which are used in catering establishments and shops, and industrial refrigerators, the volume of the working chamber of which can reach tens and hundreds of cubic meters, they are used, for example, in meat processing plants, industrial production.
In the north, from time immemorial, permafrost has been used and continues to be used to this day for freezing and storing meat, fish, fat and other products. Where there was no permafrost, ice was collected in winter and stored until summer in holes dug in the ground, caves or heaps, covered with earth from above. It was more difficult to get and keep cold in hot countries where there was neither ice nor snow. They could only be found in the mountains at high altitude. Despite the long distances - hundreds of kilometers, the ice was delivered to the consumer. During the Persian campaign (330 BC), during the siege of the city of Petra, Alexander the Great ordered to make 30 cellars with snow, in which chilled wine was stored for his soldiers. In ancient Rome, snow and ice brought from the Alps were widely used. Emperor Nero ordered boiled water to be cooled by placing vessels in the snow. Ordinary Romans simply mixed drinks with snow. The Roman emperor Heliogabalus, who ruled in the III century. n. e., ordered to pour large mountains of snow in his garden so that the wind would carry coolness in hot weather. Thus, Heliogabal was the first to put air conditioning into practice. More than 1500 years later, they returned to this idea - in the XNUMXth century, but only indoors. In the Middle Ages, the use of ice transported over long distances was popular despite the difficulties. Caliph Mahdi in the XNUMXth century organized the regular delivery of ice on camels from Lebanon and from the mountains of Armenia to Mecca. One of his heirs applied cooling to his residence by placing ice between double walls. To reduce losses from melting during the transportation of ice and snow, the Arabs came up with special double-walled boxes: the gap between the walls was filled with felt. These were, in fact, the first samples of low-temperature thermal insulation. For many centuries, natural ice remained the basis for obtaining cold during the warm season in all countries where it was possible to create its reserves. Ice has not lost its importance even now, despite the subsequent development of cooling facilities.
At the beginning of the XIX century. Thomas Moore, an engineer from the US state of Maryland, built a prototype kitchen icebox with his own hands. Thomas Moore was involved in the supply of butter to Washington. There was no special transport for this, and the oil had to be delivered fresh to the capital. Then Moore built a vessel for his goods from thin sheets of steel, wrapped it in rabbit skins and placed it in a barrel of cedar staves. He poured ice on top. He called his invention "refrigerator", filing an application with the patent office. In the second half of the XIX century. in many homes in America, Europe and Australia, home glaciers appeared that looked like kitchen cabinets. It was no longer fur that served as thermal insulation, but cork and sawdust. There was an ice compartment above or below the food chamber. Melt water was drained through a tap into a pan. The problem was that the melting temperature of ice is XNUMX°C. For the storage of most products, especially perishable ones, this is not enough. Using an ancient recipe, salt was added to the ice. Ice consumption has increased significantly. It had to be filled into home glaciers several times a week. Now the use of natural ice has almost disappeared due to strong competition from modern refrigeration technology. However, in countries where there is a lot of ice in winter, the ancient technology is still alive and even expanding, because the extraction, storage and use of natural ice is cheaper, and most importantly, environmentally friendly. In parallel with the "passive" direction, a new, "active" direction in obtaining cold was born. From the first successful solutions, through a long evolution, modern low-temperature technology was born. The supply of snow and ice over long distances was too expensive, accessible only to a very narrow circle of wealthy people. More important, especially in hot countries, was the need for chilled water produced locally and at low cost. For this, the passive method of cooling with external cold was not suitable due to its absence. Another, active method of cooling was needed - without the use of snow or ice. And he was invented. His idea was to make the water itself cool itself. This was done by the ancient Egyptians as far back as 2500 BC. e. The surviving frescoes of that time depict slaves fanning pots of drinking water with large fans. If ordinary jugs are used for this, then it is impossible to obtain water that is colder than the surrounding air. However, the vessels were porous. Part of the water, seeping through the pores, evaporated on the surface of the jugs, cooling it. Blowing with dry air accelerated this process. As a result, the water remaining in the vessels cooled below the initial temperature. This method was prompted, apparently, by everyday experience: the moistened surface of the body cools in the wind. in India until the XNUMXth century. evaporative cooling was used, but combined with another process that made it even more efficient. Flat ceramic open vessels, shaped like large frying pans, were filled with water and placed on straw mats laid at the bottom of shallow trenches dug in the ground. At night, with a clear sky, the water in flat vessels cooled so much that sometimes it became covered with a crust of ice. Part of the cooling was due to the evaporation of water, but the main reason was the thermal radiation from the surface of the water. Somewhat later than evaporative cooling, another method of cooling was invented - by mixing, more precisely, it can be called dissolution. The first brief mention of the discovery underlying it is contained in the Indian manuscript Pankatantram. It says: "Water cools when salt is added to it." The method of obtaining ice based on this was described by the Arab writer Ibn-Abi-Usabiya in the XNUMXth century. By the 1550th century in Europe, it was already widely known to dissolve saltpeter in water to cool drinks. In particular, rowing slaves in the galleys were given water cooled in this way. In 1589, even a special scientific work by the Spanish physician Blasius Villafranca was published. This is the first known practical guide to refrigeration. Its name contained the words "Methodus refrigerandi" (cooling methods). There, in particular, it is said that this method of cooling water and wine is widely known and used by citizens in the household. Soon the next step was taken: it was found that mixing saltpeter with snow makes it possible to obtain significantly lower temperatures. For the first time this method was described in the work of the Neapolitan Baptisto Port "Madia Naturalis" (1607). The Neapolitan physician Latinus Tancredus in XNUMX wrote about the rapid freezing of water in a vessel placed in such a mixture. Cooling mixtures subsequently played a significant role in the development of research in the field of low-temperature physics and technology. In fact, they until the middle of the XIX century. remained the main means of cooling in experimental work. Speaking about the development of refrigeration technology, it is necessary to remember how people learned how to get artificial ice. The first historically reliable information about the completely artificial production of ice from water dates back to 1775, when V. Güllen, pumping out steam from under a glass cap, inside which there was a vessel with water, received ice in the latter. In the XVIII century. Two different methods of obtaining low temperatures were discovered - first for freezing water, and later for general-purpose refrigeration machines. The first of them is associated with the evaporation of liquid, the second - with the expansion of air, accompanied by the production of external heat. At first, both of these methods developed independently of each other. So it was until about the 60s of the XIX century, when refrigeration machines began to be mass-produced and for various purposes. Only fragmentary information has been preserved about the first attempts to create air refrigeration machines operating on compressed air. So, in 1755, the German Hoel in Chemnitz (Austria-Hungary) received cooled air as a result of its expansion. Approximately the same studies were carried out in 1771 in Sweden by Wilke, a native of Mecklenburg. At the same time, the cooling of air and other gases during expansion was being studied. This issue was dealt with by Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin), D. Dalton and Gay-Lussac. Finally, in 1824, Sadi Carnot introduced the concept of the reverse (refrigeration) gas cycle. The study of this issue was continued by D. Herschel in 1834, and then by W. Siemens and A. Kirk in the 50-60s of the XIX century. Meanwhile, work on the creation of operating models of air chillers continued and reached a level that allows them to be put into practice. There is evidence that the inventor of steam engines, the Englishman R. Trevithick, in the late 20s of the XIX century. made several models of machines designed to cool water and turn it into ice. The principle of their operation was that the air compressed and then cooled to ambient temperature was released into the water and, expanding there, cooled it until ice was released. However, things did not go beyond the experiments. The first operating refrigeration unit was created by the American doctor J. Gorry. He worked as a doctor in Apalachicola, Florida. The hot climate of the area prompted Gorry to take up refrigeration business. Seeing his patients suffering from the heat in the hospital, he thought about how to help them. Ice would have made it possible to create a completely different climate in the chambers, but there was none. Gorry decided to design a refrigeration machine that would produce enough ice for this purpose. In 1845 he succeeded. The Gorry model is still in the US Patent Office. The "ice-making" machine consisted of a cylinder with a diameter of about 200 mm, the air in which was compressed by means of a piston to 0,2 MPa. The heat generated during compression was removed by injecting water. Compressed air entered a cylindrical horizontal receiver, also cooled by water flowing through tubes laid inside. With the subsequent expansion of the air in the piston expander, salt water was injected into its cylinder, which was then cooled by the expanding air. It was used to make ice. The machine worked properly, and Gorry wanted to make his invention available to anyone who needed it. In May 1851 he received a patent for his machine. The patent application shows that Gorry improved his machine by replacing salt water injection with salt water immersion. From a modern point of view, the layout of the machine is almost flawless. The compressor and expander in this machine are structurally imperfect, but at that time there was almost no experience in creating air compressors, and even more so expansion machines - expanders. It was possible to use only ideas and structural elements from the experience of creating steam engines. Nevertheless, Gorry, who had neither an engineering education nor practice, managed to develop these machines and, on their basis, create a fully functional unit. Misunderstood by his contemporaries and frustrated by the chain of failures, Gorry fell ill and died at the age of 52. His plans did not materialize. Compatriots eventually appreciated his merits: 44 years after Gorry's death, the firm that produced refrigeration machines erected a monument in the city where he worked. In the Washington State Capitol memorial hall (the "Hall of Fame"), where each state erects a monument to its most distinguished citizen, Florida is represented by Gorry. Gorry's idea served as the basis for the further development of refrigerators. In 1857, W. Siemens, a German technician who had moved to England, published a work in which he critically examined Gorry's machines. Paying tribute to the advantages, Siemens also noted the disadvantages. But, while criticizing, he also looked for ways to eliminate these shortcomings. Siemens notes that the air that leaves the expander cylinder and is used to cool the salt water is not cooled enough if it is fed directly into the water, as Gorry did. He proposed not to release this air, but to direct it into a special heat exchanger in a countercurrent direction to the compressed air going to the expander. This proposal was patented by him. The discovery of heat recovery made a real revolution and subsequently found wide application not only in low-temperature technology, but also in many areas of energy. Another achievement was the air machine of the Scottish engineer A. Kirk. It was already quite suitable for industrial use, many of its samples were used in various devices that needed cold. Kirk's refrigeration unit differed from the machines of his predecessors primarily in that it worked in a closed cycle using heat recovery. A portion of air constantly circulated in it. The idea of heat recovery as outlined in this patent offered enormous benefits. The exhausted cold air, which has kept a sufficiently low temperature, is not thrown out uselessly, but is returned to the system and used to pre-cool the compressed air sent to the expansion. In this case, the air entering the expander is colder, and at the outlet it also lowers the temperature. Thus, at the same cost, more cooling is obtained. In essence, after the introduction of regenerative heat transfer, the “three pillars” were finally installed, on which all classical low-temperature equipment stands: an expander (or throttle), a regenerative heat exchanger and a compressor. Heat recovery was first introduced into technology by the Scottish pastor R. Stirling, when in 1816 he manufactured and patented his air heat engine. The air was dried in it by means of a vessel with concentrated sulfuric acid displaced in the discharge line. In the compressor, the moisture contained in the air was absorbed by the acid. In the future, acid was needed only in order to remove moisture that came with the outside air through leaks in communications. In addition to switching to a closed process, Kirk introduced another novelty: heat recovery took place in his unit not in an exchanger, where two gas flows move towards each other (counterflow heat exchanger), but in a regenerator. It was a pipe filled with metal shavings or small fragments of stone, through which air passed freely. When warm air was passed through the regenerator, the nozzle was heated. Then the warm air was turned off, and cold air was passed in the opposite direction, which, cooling the nozzle, heated itself up. Then warm air was passed again, which was cooled, heating the nozzle, etc. As a result, heat, just like in the heat exchanger, was transferred from the warm stream to the cold one, but not through the wall, but through the nozzle. A regenerator is simpler in design than a heat exchanger and can transfer more heat per unit volume than a heat exchanger. The improvements made by Kirk have resulted in achievements far beyond those of his predecessors. First, he made sure that the temperature at the outlet of the expander was -13 ° C, and then, after refinement, he even managed to freeze mercury. This meant that for the first time in a chiller it was possible to achieve continuous temperatures below -40 °C. It is worth noting that Kirk had already gone beyond purely cognitive thinking, and his machine could produce cold in a fairly wide range of low temperatures from -3 to -40 ° C. Cars of that time required from 1,5 to 1,75 kg of fuel (coal) and power equal to horsepower per hour. The calculation for coal, and not for electricity, is quite understandable if we remember that at that time there were no power plants and power grids. Each refrigeration unit had its own individual drive from a steam engine and represented a single unit consisting of two machines: refrigeration and steam. The relatively low efficiency of the Kirk refrigeration machine was significantly higher than that of the steam engine that set it in motion. In the future, Kirk developed other, even more advanced versions of his car. If in Kirk's first machine the air pressure was barely 0,2 MPa, then in new machines it already reached 0,6-0,8 MPa. One of the first large machines of the new modification was installed in 1864 at the Young, Meldrum and Winnie butter factory. She worked around the clock for 10 years and stopped for maintenance only for 1-2 days every 6-8 months. The number of machines produced by Kirk was small, but they played an important role not only in the development, but also in the distribution of refrigeration technology. Air cooling machines were further improved by the American L. Allen and the German F. Windhausen. Thus, by the 60s of the XIX century. schemes of air refrigeration units have already been fully developed. By the 70s of the XIX century. air coolers were quite widespread. P. Gifford presented such a machine at the Paris Exhibition in 1877. Since 1880, they began to be produced in England, widely used for transporting chilled fish. More perfect was the machine developed by J. Goleman. It differed from others in its carefully developed design, greater operational safety and was widely used at that time. In Goleman's machine, for the first time, a throttle on the steam line of a steam engine and a thermostat installed in a refrigerated room were used to adjust. The machine used a countercurrent regenerative heat process, in which the air returning from the refrigeration chamber cooled the air compressed in the compressor and going to the expander. These machines were already quite large, their power reached 221 kW. Many English firms produced these machines in the future. Despite this, air refrigeration units by the 70-80s of the XIX century. almost completely left the stage. The idea of a steam compression refrigeration machine originated, in essence, already when water was first cooled under a bell while air was pumped out. However, the machine as such was still far away, since only a single, and not continuous, cooling was carried out. But at the same time, the removal of a large amount of water vapor at low pressure caused difficulties. To reduce it, they even resorted to the fact that instead of a mechanical pump they began to use the absorption of water vapor by sulfuric acid. A systematic study of the production of cold during the evaporation of not only water, but also low-boiling liquids was carried out first by T. Cavallo in 1781 and later by A. Mare in 1813. In 1805, O. Evans published a description of a machine "for cooling liquids", where it was proposed to use the evaporation of ethyl alcohol for this purpose. The idea he described included almost all the fundamentally important processes for a refrigeration machine: the evaporation of ether at low pressure (in vacuum), the pumping of steam by a pump (i.e. compressor) into another vessel and the condensation of this steam with cold water, which removes heat from it. Only one important element was missing here, which would allow closing the cycle and returning the liquid ether to the vessel, where it could evaporate, cooling or freezing the water. For this there was only one way - to make the ether circulate in a closed circuit. This at first unpromising idea also contained a rational grain, which later gave rise to absorption refrigeration machines. The first who studied this path and prepared all the conditions for using this idea was the Englishman J. Perkins. In August 1834, Perkins received a patent for an "apparatus for producing cold and cooling liquids." In the patent, he proposed to collect the evaporated substance, then compress it with a gas pump (compressor) and then again condense the cold, i.e., carry out a full cycle, continuously obtaining the same amount of volatile ether. Perkins did not limit himself to describing the idea, but made an engineering development. The liquid to be cooled is contained in an insulated vessel. A tank was provided with a low-boiling evaporative substance (Ethyl Ether was recommended by Perkins as such a substance, because it is cheap and has a low vapor pressure). The vapors enter the steam pump (i.e. compressor) through a pipeline and, after compression, are fed through a pipeline to a condenser placed in a cold water bath (immersion condenser). Here, the steam at a pressure close to atmospheric condenses, and the liquid returns through the throttle valve to the evaporator. Here, all parts of the vapor-compression refrigeration plant were fully provided. It worked properly provided that air was completely removed from the system. Perkins did not have to see his car "in metal". A rather imperfect experimental machine, according to his idea, was created after his death. Her device completely repeated Perkins' sketch, but the hand pump was replaced by a mechanical compressor. The evaporator is made in the form of two connected hemispheres. Freezing water was placed in the upper one, and the evaporating refrigerant was placed in the space between the walls. A. Twinning practically implemented the idea of Perkins. Since 1848, he began to use ether as a refrigerant. In 1850 he received an English and then an American patent. One such machine worked in Cleveland and produced 50 kg of ice per hour. Great success in the development of steam refrigeration machines was achieved by the Englishman J. Garrison. In 1837 he moved to Australia and in 1850 he took up the process of obtaining cold. At that time there was a huge need for freezing meat exported from Australia to England. In 1856-1857. Garrison received two English patents for machines using ethyl ether as a refrigerant. At that time, he was already considering the possibility of using other working substances, in particular ammonia. In 1875 Garrison visited London where he discussed cooling problems with Faraday and Tyndall. Having established the production of refrigeration machines, Harrison took up the direct freezing of meat for export to England. However, at first he tried to freeze meat on the shore in stationary conditions. In 1873, he conducted an experiment in Melbourne, freezing meat, fish and poultry carcasses with his machine. After 6 months inspection and quality control has been carried out. After the successful completion of the experiment in 1873, Harrison decided on a large-scale experiment. He loaded 20 tons of lamb and beef onto the Norfolk ship, equipped with his refrigeration unit, froze the cargo on board, after which the ship set off for England. However, Harrison failed: on the way, the car broke down, and upon arrival in London, there was no buyer for the brought meat. Harrison suffered losses, was forced to leave commercial activities and took up scientific work. He died in 1893. Garrison's ether-powered machines continued to be produced in London for several years. Independently of Garrison, in 1857 the Frenchman F. Kare developed steam refrigeration machines that operated not only on ethyl ether, but also on sulfur dioxide. One of the plants built under this patent was installed in a salt factory in southern France and was used in the production of sodium sulphate (Glauber's salt) from sea water. In addition, Kare came up with a method for obtaining artificial cold due to the absorption of ammonia. It was an ingenious way, which, however, was forgotten for forty years. At the beginning of the XX century. P. Wortman's firm appeared in Moscow. The merchant offered Muscovites a huge unit called "Eskimo", which used the principle of Fernand Kare. It was silent and versatile. Firewood, coal, alcohol, kerosene could serve as fuel for it. For one cycle of work "Eskimo" froze 12 kg of ice. Such an ice machine could only be afforded by wealthy buyers or entrepreneurs who used ice, for example, in the sale of ice cream, confectionery, meat, fish, beer and other products. K. von Linde played an important role in obtaining domestic and industrial cold. He invented an industrial method for liquefying gases. In 1879, von Linde created a refrigeration machine with an ammonia-powered compressor. Thanks to her, the production of ice began on a large scale. Linde chillers were installed in slaughterhouses and food factories. They were equipped with wagons, river and sea vessels. Later, Linde's scaled-down machine became the heart of home refrigerators. In Linde's invention, cold brine or ammonia was circulated through an extensive pipe system, cooling the food rooms. Large commercial and industrial refrigerated warehouses appeared. In 1893, the American Elijah Thomson equipped the compression refrigerator with an electric drive. But such a device was very far from perfect. It had drive belts and made a lot of noise. Due to gas leaks - ammonia or sulfur dioxide - there was an unpleasant smell in the room. Refrigerators were usually placed in basements to get rid of noise and stench. The Danish engineer Steenstrup can be considered the father of modern refrigerators. In 1926, he covered the compressor and its electric motor with an airtight cap. This made the home refrigerator silent, harmless and durable. The patent for the Steenstrup unit was acquired by the General Electric Corporation. Now it was necessary to find another carrier of cold in order to get rid of ammonia and sulfur dioxide. They were replaced by freon, discovered and studied by the Belgian Swart. In a liquid state, freon boils at - 32,8 ° C, it is chemically passive and non-toxic.
Now refrigerators are in every house or apartment. They have become familiar, and it is unlikely that their owners are aware of the work of thousands of inventors and engineers who worked on the idea of developing a common household appliance. Author: Pristinsky V.L.
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