I’m curious about the really old ice boxes, but I was really wondering about the ones from the 1800s that relied on coolant and some form of evaporation.
I can’t really picture how old is physics work without electricity.
In: 47
You would buy ice and put it in an icebox (a well insulated box that predates refrigerators) and kept your food cold in there.
If you lived in an area that got ice in the winter, you could collect ice from a lake or something and bury it in sawdust and take ice out from there in the summer when you needed it for your icebox. Sawdust is a surprisingly good insulator. Industry based omarou d selling thr ice would have well insulated buildings called icehouses.
If you didn’t live somewhere that got ice in the winter, you could buy ice from somewhere that did. Before refrigeration existed, they would just pack a ship full of ice and sell what didn’t melt by the time they got there. After refrigeration existed, some place with electricity could manufacture ice, or you could transport ice for cheaper thanks to refrigerated train cars.
As for the evaporative coolers, when matter changes state, it has to absorb or release energy called latent heat. When a liquid evaporates, it absorbs the latent heat of vaporization, taking energy away from the environment. When it condenses, it gives that energy back. This is exactly how modern AC and refrigeration works, just in a closed loop, carrying heat from inside to the outside. The evaporative coolers rely on the coolant evaporating and the air carrying the vapor away.
Latest Answers