Many people contributed to the invention and development of the refrigerator. Here's a timeline of key figures and milestones:
- 1748: William Cullen, a Scottish professor, demonstrated artificial refrigeration at the University of Glasgow
. He discovered that the rapid evaporation of a liquid into gas produced a cooling effect, though he didn't apply the method for practical use
- 1805: Oliver Evans, an American inventor, designed the first refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid, but it never went past the design stage
- 1834: Jacob Perkins, an American inventor, created the first vapor compression system for refrigerators
- 1859: Ferdinand Carré, a French engineer, developed a refrigeration system using a mixture of ammonia and water
- 1876: Carl von Linde, a German professor, patented a method of liquefying gases used in artificial refrigeration
. His work allowed for gases like ammonia, sulfur dioxide, and methyl chloride to be used as refrigerants
- 1899: Albert T. Marshall, an American inventor, patented the first mechanical refrigerator
- 1913: Fred W. Wolf, an American inventor, invented the first home electric refrigerator. It featured a refrigeration unit on top of an icebox
- 1918: The Kelvinator company introduced the first refrigerator with any type of automatic control
. Mass production of home refrigerators with a self-contained compressor began thanks to William C. Durant
- 1927: The "Monitor-Top" refrigerator, made by General Electric, was the first refrigerator to see widespread use
