One of my favorite appliances
August 8, 2023
A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated
This invention, which was patented on August 8, 1899, ranks right up there with my two most favorite inventions: electricity and flushing toilets.
Refrigeration revolutionized how our food is processed and stored. Without this invention – which includes the freezer – people would still be spending up to 8 hours a day in the preparation and storage of food. But refrigeration has freed up hours and hours of woman and man hours that can now be devoted to other pursuits.
The Infallible Wikipedia, of course, has much information on its history including this information which highlights some of the challenges of early home models:
“The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric ‘Monitor-Top’ refrigerator introduced in 1927, so-called, by the public, because of its resemblance to the gun turret on the ironclad warship USS Monitor of the 1860s. The compressor assembly, which emitted a great deal of heat, was placed above the cabinet, and enclosed by a decorative ring. Over a million units were produced. As the refrigerating medium, these refrigerators used either sulfur dioxide, which is corrosive to the eyes and may cause loss of vision, painful skin burns and lesions, or methyl formate, which is highly flammable, harmful to the eyes, and toxic if inhaled or ingested.”
Obviously that refrigerator was not ideal.
Personally, I love the refrigerator because it makes it harder for those two miscreants, Sam and Ella, to hang out at my house and wreak havoc. But also because I can put things in the fridge and they’ll stay there for months and months before my hubby cleans out the really old stuff to make room for wonderful fresh food! It’s magical really. Kind of like the magic table in this clip:
No matter how many times I view this it makes me laugh. That poor guy probably never knew what happened.
Growing up, my family had the very latest in a refrigerator. Yes, the always popular avocado green model. I’m not really sure why people loved that color, or harvest gold, but it was a thing in the 1970’s. We also had the avocado green range. I can’t recall on the dishwasher. I do know my Mom’s first dishwasher was a portable white one which was rolled over to the sink and attached via hoses to the faucet. Seems like when that one failed the one which replaced it was avocado green.
When the hubby and I bought our fixer upper house in 1981, there was not a dishwasher. So we did what any young couple with a house but zero money for anything else did: we went to the Sears Roebuck scratch and dent store. It was located in the basement of the building which is now Starbucks headquarters on First Avenue South in Seattle.
And just like my mom’s kitchen a portable dishwasher was needed. We had to buy a skinny minny sort of model so it could fit in the small space available. Just like Mom’s, it was avocado green with a butcher block top. Double duty! Not only did it wash dishes but it served as a cutting board. It looked something like the one pictured here, but much, much smaller.
Man, we were livin’ the dream! Had fridge AND a dishwasher too.
This invention, which was patented on August 8, 1899, ranks right up there with my two most favorite inventions: electricity and flushing toilets.
barbaradevore.com 