T)ie Story of Refrigeration. 129 



THE STORY OF REFRIGERATION. 



By R. Crotve. 



A Paper read at the Annual Conference of the Australian Butter and 

 Cheese Factories Managers' Association, 1903. 



Although the application of refrigeration as a means for preserv- 

 ing perishable produce is of comparatively recent date, ice was in 

 extensive use as a cooling agent very far back in the world's history 

 indeed. The existence of immense areas of ice in the Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions may be said to be co-eval almost with the evolution 

 of matter itself. In more temperate climates ice will form on lakes 

 and rivers in the winter, and very low temperatures with siiow and ice 

 exist on the tops of high mountains, even in the tropics, where the air 

 is chill and more rarified than on the plains. The cold air in its 

 descent is heated b}' the sun, and re-ascends to the peaks — a constant 

 cycle. As air becomes expanded by heat its capacity to contain 

 moisture increases, and in its passage over the earth's surface, especi- 

 ally over lakes and seas, the winds become laden with this moisture, 

 which, when condensed, as you all know, falls to the earth as rain or 

 snow. The great peaks of the world attract the largest volume of this 

 warm, moisture-laden air, and vast quantities of ice are collected, melt, 

 and again accumulate there as the ages roll onwards. It melts in the 

 summer, or eventually becomes so heavy as to sli]) down the hillside 

 as glaciers. In nature heat means life ; cold means death. Nature's 

 great refrigerating system must, therefore, be recognised as the most 

 powerful factor in keejjing the peoples of the earth invigorated, for by 

 it, too, is the vegetable kingdom perpetuated. In several parts of the 

 world what might be termed natural artificial refrigerators, the refrig- 

 erating effect of rapid evaporation, are in existence. In many of the 

 caves in Sicily, where the formation is largely volcanic, the air in its 

 passage through the ])orous rock and earth is divided into multitu- 

 dinous currents, and ice freely forms in warm weather and melts in 

 the cooler seasons of the year. Ice mid Refrigeration, of July, 1901, 

 describes a natural ice machine existing near Annapolis, U.S.A., where 

 the snow accumulates in a gorge to a depth of from 10 to 15 feet in 

 the winter, the loose stone of the hills around, allowing sufficient 

 evaporation to kee|) the snow till the summer's sun melts the surface. 

 The water thus slowly formed is transformed into ice as soon as it 

 reac-hes the currents of cold, dry air from the bc^ttom of the crevice. 

 vSoinewhat similar phenomona have also been discovered in Custer 

 County, Montana, and York, Kent. The ancients were undoubtedly 

 acquainted with some of the elementary principles of refrigeration, for, 

 copying nature in their methods, they found that drinks placed in 

 ])orous earthen pots kept cooler than they would in non-porous vessels. 

 The ingenious Egyptian and the learned East Indian from the earliest 



