History of freezer

Freezing is a great way to store food. It will help people to save money by planning ahead. Freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage. Freezing preserves food for extended periods because it prevents the growth of microorganisms that cause both food spoilage and foodborne illness.

The first known ice cellars were made by digging holes in the ground, built with straw and wood, and filled by ice and snow. In that period, refrigeration was done by a handmade machine known as an “ice box”

The first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by Scottish professor William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748.

American Jacob Perkins invented the first vapor compression system in 1834, while German professor Carl von Linde patented a new process for liquefying gases in the late 1800s.

In 1857 the first gas freezer was invented and used ammonia and sulphur dioxide as a means of cooling the air to below zero inside the machine. This allowed for the production of ice.

The first ice making machine used for practical food purposes such as meat packing and brewing was invented by James Harrison in 1857. This same concept was made more complex in 1859 by Ferdinand Carre in 1859. This newly developed system didn’t use compressed air to cool, but instead used ammonia.

In 1913, American Fred W. Wolf of Fort Wayne, Indiana invented the first home electric refrigerator, which featured a refrigeration unit on top of an icebox. Nathaniel B. Wales of Detroit, Michigan invented in 1914 electric refrigeration unit.

Alfred Mellowes made his in 1916 but was bought out by William C. Durant in 1918 who later started the Frigidaire Company. In 1918 appeared refrigerator by Kelvinator Company that had automatic control.

Many different types of gases were tested over time and it was not until the discovery of Freon that fridges and freezers became widespread and a common fixture found in the home. Only decades later, would people realize that these chlorofluorocarbons endangered the ozone layer of the entire planet.
History of freezer

History of cryogenic freezing of food

Cryogenic freezing as applied to food can be defined as very rapid freezing achieved by exposing food to a very cold refrigerant that usually undergoes a change of state while the food is being frozen.

The word ‘cryogenic’ comes from the Greek word ‘kryos’, which means cold and is simply study of materials at low temperature such as 77 K.

It is believed that the first ever successful liquefaction of any cryogenic gas was carried out not earlier than 1877, by a French mining engineer Cailletet who produced a mist of liquid oxygen droplets.

He succeeded in pre-cooling a container filled with oxygen at 300 atm and then expanding the gas by suddenly opening the valve of the container.

Scientist have been experimenting with the use of extreme cold to strengthen metals since mid 1800s, but it was not until the advent of space travel that cryogenic processing really came into own.

NASA engineers analyzed spacecraft that had returned from the cold vacuum of space and discovered that many of metal parts came back stronger than they were before spending time in space.

In the early 1880s, one of the first low-temperature physics laboratories the Cracow University Laboratory in Poland was established by Szygmunt von Wvroblewski and Olszewski.

They obtained liquid oxygen ‘boiling quietly in a test tube in sufficient quality to study properties in April 883. A few days later, they also liquefied nitrogen. Ten years later Olszewski and a British scientist Sir James Dewar liquefied hydrogen.

In 1902 Georges Claude improved the efficiency of air liquefaction by including reciprocating expansion engine.

From the early 1960s food freezing with liquid nitrogen developed very rapidly when it was found that food that is frozen cryogenically had superior quality to the frozen by mechanical freezing.

The method of cryogenic processing materials at sub-zero temperatures was first acknowledged when metal parts that were transported via train have been crammed with dry ice (at -79 ° C) resulting in perceptible increases in wear resistance.

Rapid freezing in liquid nitrogen prevents the formation of the large, long, needle-like crystals present in slow freezing, and less damage occurs to delicate food cells because the rupture of the cell walls during freezing is avoided.
History of cryogenic freezing of food

History of quick freezing

The first patent (British) related to food freezing was for rapid freezing of a product by immersion on cold medium and was granted to H. Benjamin in 1842.

An innovative freezing system for fish was patented by William Davis in 1868; the fish were placed in metal containers and sealed before immersions in an ice/salt mixture.

American inventor Clarence Birdseye developed the quick-freezing process of food preservation in the 20th century. During his stay on the arctic, Birdseye observed that the combination of ice, wind and low temperature almost froze just-caught fish.

Most importantly, he also found that when such quick-frozen fish were cooked and eaten, they were scarcely different in taste and texture from how they would have been if fresh. Birdseye labored for seven years at a New Jersey icehouse to develop a method for packaging foods and rapidly reducing the temperature to freezing.

After years of work, Birdseye invented a system that packed dressed fish, meat or vegetables into waxed-cardboard cartons, which were flash-frozen under pressure. Birdseye patented the food freezing process in 1926. Fortune declared that freezing was one of the most exciting and revolutionary ideas in the history of food’.

Commercially packed fish products appeared in 1929, under the Birds Eye label, and the first retail styles frozen food packs were launched in 1939.

With the passage of the Rural Electrification Act in 1933, many rural households became members of a local rural electric cooperative and by the end of World War II; most rural homes could operate not only a refrigerator but also a home freezer.
History of quick freezing