The origin of Refrigerators
[size=3][color=#29384e][font=Times New Roman]By the mid-nineteenth century[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] the term[/font][font=宋体]“[/font][font=Times New Roman]icebox[/font][font=宋体]”[/font][font=Times New Roman]had entered the American language[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] taverns[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] and hospitals[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] fresh fish[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] and butter. After the Civil War[/font][font=宋体]（[/font][font=Times New Roman] 1861-1865[/font][font=宋体]），[/font][font=Times New Roman]as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] it also came into household use. Even before 1880[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman]half of the ice sold in New York[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] Philadelphia[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] and Baltimore[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] the icebox[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] a precursor of the modern refrigerator[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] had been invented.[/font][/color][/size][size=3][color=#29384e][font=Times New Roman] [/font][/color][/size]
[size=3][color=#29384e][font=宋体] [/font][font=Times New Roman]Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] the knowledge of the physics of heat[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] which was essential to a science of refrigeration[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets[/font][font=宋体]，[/font][font=Times New Roman] which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.[/font][/color][/size]
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[color=#29384e][font=宋体][size=10.5pt] [/size][/font][size=10.5pt]But as early as 1803[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] and ingenious Maryland farmer[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] Thomas Moore[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] still fresh and hard in neat[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] Moore explained[/size][font=宋体][size=10.5pt]，[/size][/font][size=10.5pt] was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.[/size][/color]
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