User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

In 1805, American inventor Oliver Evans described in detail, but never built, a refrigeration system based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle.

An American living in Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, improved upon the design proposed by Oliver Evans and obtained the first patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system in 1834. Perkins built a prototype system and it actually worked. According to the drawing in Perkins' patent, liquid ether (C4H10O) was contained in an "evaporator vessel" where it was vaporized under a partial vacuum maintained by the suction of a crude hand-operated compressor. The evaporator vessel was submerged in a liquid from which the heat required to vaporize the ether was extracted, thereby cooling the liquid. The compressed ether vapor from the compressor discharge was then condensed back into liquid ether by flowing through piping coils submerged in water. The liquid ether then returned through a pressure reduction valve (i.e., an expansion valve) into the partial vacuum of the evaporator vessel. Clearly, Perkins' system included the four principal features uses by modern vapor-compression refrigeration systems, namely an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser and an expansion valve. Unfortunately, Perkins had no success in commercializing his system.

In 1842, an American physician, John Gorrie, designed the first system for refrigerating water to produce ice. He also conceived the idea of using his refrigeration system to cool the air in the rooms of a Florida hospital used for treating yellow-fever and malaria patients. His system compressed air, then partially cooled the hot compressed air with water before allowing it to isentropically expand while doing part of the work required to drive the air compressor. The isentropic expansion cooled the air to a temperature low enough to freeze water and produce ice, or to flow "through a pipe for effecting refrigeration otherwise" as stated in his United States patent granted in 1851. Gorrie, who had given up his medical practice, built a working prototype and sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed and his system was a commercial failure. Alexander Catlin Twining, a professor of engineering, mathematics and astronomy at Middlebury College in Connecticut, began experimenting with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848 and obtained British and American patents in 1850 and 1853 for a vapor-compression system capable of using either carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3) or ether. He is credited by many with having initiated commercial refrigeration in the United States by building an ice plant in 1855 at Cleveland, Ohio that produced about 2000 pounds of ice per 24 hours.

Meanwhile in Australia, engineer James Harrison built a commercial ice-making machine in 1854 and his patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system using liquid ether was granted in 1855. Harrison introduced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861 a dozen of his systems were in operation.

Carl von Linden of Germany patented an improved method of liquefying gases in 1876. His new process made possible using gases such as ammonia, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and methyl chloride (CH3Cl) as refrigerants and they were widely used for that purpose until the late 1920’s. By then, a number of accidents related to the use of those refrigerants convinced manufacturers that a more stable element was needed. That led to the development and widespread use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) until it was found that CFCs led to damaging of the Earth's Ozone layer and their use was largely phased out in favor of refrigerants that do not contain any chlorine (Cl).