History of chiller (2)
After Michael Faraday, various types of refrigeration methods were proposed along with the development of industry, but they were not put into practice. The first refrigeration device that could be used continuously was invented by Dr. John Gorrie in the United States around 1840, and it was based on the principle that the temperature of compressed air decreases when it expands. His refrigeration device consisted of an air compressor, a cooler for compressed air, an expander for compressed air, and an icemaker through which the expanding air passed. His cycle compressed air at high pressure, cooled the temperature of the compressed air, which was higher than room temperature, using the surrounding air, and expanded the cooled compressed air at low pressure. He made ice by passing the expanding air through a thin tube through an icemaker. He first attempted to use this to cool a yellow fever patient’s ward. After that, he tried to use this type of refrigeration system as a refrigeration device for various industrial facilities including ships, so he was not able to widely put it to practical use for industrial purposes. The picture below is of his Ice-Machine on display at the John Gorrie State Museum in Apalachicola, Florida, USA.
In 1859-60, French engineer Ferdinand Carré invented a compression refrigeration system that circulates refrigerant and freezes using an evaporator, condenser, and compressor, as in the current system, and an absorption refrigeration system that consists of a generator, evaporator, absorber, condenser, and absorption liquid circulation pump. This system was widely used in industries such as food storage, transportation, and ice production, and in 1877, it was applied for the first time in the world to a ship transporting frozen meat from Argentina to France.
The first industry to use this refrigeration system was the beer brewing industry, and in 1870, an absorption refrigeration machine was first applied to the S. Liebmanns Sons Brewing Company in New York, USA. In addition, the person who developed a practical ammonia refrigeration machine for use in the beer brewing industry was German engineer Karl von Linde. He developed a refrigeration machine using methyl as a refrigerant in 1873 for low-temperature maturation of beer, and changed the refrigerant to ammonia in 1876. He also developed the refrigeration technology into the first industrial air liquefaction plant that liquefied air and used it in places like the steel industry.
Refrigeration systems were rather late in being used for food storage and ice manufacturing, as industrial natural ice was widely used as a cheap method until the early 20th century. However, as water pollution made it difficult to procure clean ice and the technology of compression refrigeration systems using ammonia was developed, refrigeration gradually began to expand to livestock product storage and ice manufacturing.
Dr. Gorrie’s ice machine
The Compressor and expansion cylinder of Dr’ Gorrie’s ice machine
