Exprimenters of ice-making machines

One of the first patents 1834 for a practical ice- making machine was granted to Jacob Perkins, an Americans engineer living in London. These machines were used successfully in meat-packing plants. Within the next fifty years ice-makers were produced in the Umited States, France and Germany. In this period about 3,000 patents on refrigeration systems had been applied for in the United States.
While progress was made in producing ice by articial means, nearly everyone favored natural ice, believing that atificial ice was unhealthful. Eventually, this superstition was upercome because: 1. artificial ice was produced from purer water than that usually found in lakes and ponds; 2. it could be made as needed; and 3. it did not need to be stored for long periods of time. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, ice and refrigeration were becoming commonplace in the American home.
One factor that contributed greatly to the further development of dependable refrigeration equipment was the availablity of inexpensive electric power and the development of the small electric motor. These were important mechanical millestones.
Paralleling these developments, scientists kept up the constant search for simple truths about cause and effect upon which all of refrigeration depends.
The units which follow in this book deal with: 1. the scientific laws governing refrigeration; 2.the fundamental theories about the construction and operation of refrigeration equipment and the their maintenance.