As temperatures cool the ambient air and everyone must bundle up before leaving their houses to go to work or Christmas shopping or to the grocery store everything around us seems barren. Grass and produce stop growing, leaves are raked and trees seem lifeless. I think about the food I eat and where it comes from and how can I make it last as long as possible. The refrigerator is a necessity in my everyday life. It’s how I preserve food and can buy fresh produce that was grown in the south and shipped to my grocery store. This question often pops in my mind: How did people survive without the refrigerator?

Tracing back prior to 1000 B.C., chilling systems were used throughout history in many different cultures. In order for civilizations to survive food shortages, long winters, droughts, disease and other potentially life-threatening situations, people had to figure out how to keep food cold. Depending on their local climate, people had options of how to preserve food. Caves, cold streams, cellars and snow were all used as a type of chiller.

Eventually it was discovered that food could be preserved and stored using natural ice chunks in underground chambers, caves or cellars. These ideas lead to the inventions of ice houses and ice boxes. Eventually scientists figured out that the evaporation of salt water brine absorbs heat. Further research and study dictated what refrigerants could be used and that if they were compressed they would change from a liquid state to a vapor.

The invention of the refrigerator changed the way food was processed and sold throughout the world. Even though some places in the world do not have access to electricity and therefore do not have access to a refrigerator, these machines have still improved overall world health.