In these very strange times, it is good to have some light-hearted reading material. So in this blog, we have dedicated to the weird and wonderful facts about refrigeration. Some of them you may know, or have heard of before, others may be completely new to you. We didn’t want to have a complete heavy reading article, so sit back, grab a quick cuppa, maybe a biscuit, and enjoy!
Food for thought.
Let’s start our journey on the weird and wonderful with the thought of fish fingers! Think of this food and many times people think of Birdseye! Well, it was Clarence Birdseye that got the inspiration for flash freezing, albeit by a bit of an accident. He was visiting Canada 1912 when he saw the Inuit fishing practices and how they preserved their fish. So, instead of becoming a master fur trapper, Mr Birdseye started the flash-freezing process instead!
Refrigerator strength.
Some companies go to great lengths to impress people with their products. Back in 1939 the fridge company Frigidaire decided to get a four-tonne elephant to stand on top of their new fridge to show how sturdy was! They even opened the door to prove how airtight the seals were. Amazingly the very first refrigerators were far too big to be installed in the normal house, in fact, they weighed around five tonnes! We don’t go to such lengths as to get an elephant, but our products are incredibly strong.
Now you know.
Do you like your salad crispy? That’s probably a stupid question as not many people would like a wilted salad leaf in their sandwich. It is why the drawers at the bottom of your refrigerator at home are known as ‘crisping drawers’. Now there’s something for a pub quiz!
Doctor’s orders.
In the US (where many things have been patented and invented), the first refrigeration patent was made by a doctor. This was back in the 1840s, all he was trying to do was to keep his patients that had a fever cool. What he ended up doing was trying to cool the air with cold water and he also made a compression system – guess what? It ended up freezing the water instead of cooling it.
Imagine that.
We know we have written about the world’s largest refrigeration unit before, but the Hadron Collider uses an amazing 10,000 tonnes of liquid nitrogen to keep it cool. Something that is 27 km long, this feat of physics engineering is rather larger than we have made before!
Magnetic personality!
We bet at home you have fridge magnet or two stuck to the door of the appliance, but there is one lady in America (where else?) that has been collecting them since the 1970s! To date, she has more than 45,000 magnets. Of course, not all of these are on her fridge door (she doesn’t own the Hadron Collider!), many are around her home, and in a Las Vegas museum.
The American way.
Staying with our friends across the Pond, did you know it is illegal in Pennsylvania to sleep outdoors on top of a fridge? We have no idea why you’d want to in the first place! Also on November 15th each year, our American friends celebrate National Clean Your Fridge Out Day. The mind boggles! When you consider that most people will clean their fridge out on a weekly basis, leaving it a year could be a bit worrying.
The Italian Job.
You’d also think that the most expensive fridge on the market come from America, but it is actually an Italian brand. There is a fridge on the market with all sorts of things added to it, including a steam oven and brass handles. It even offers a sophisticated coffee system for those that love their caffeine. The cost for this type of luxury? Around £40,000. Like we have said before it is absolutely mind-boggling.
Top tip!
It is often said that the home refrigerator works better with more items in it. This is not a myth, but completely true, the more you stock in your fridge more efficient it will be. Some people even use empty boxes to take up space!
Summing up!
We hope you have enjoyed this very light-hearted blog about refrigeration and what happens worldwide, it’s easy to see that people are very creative when it comes to keeping things cool. We know that our installations would not fit in your own homes unless you lived in a warehouse, but all refrigeration works on the same principle.
In all, during these uncertain times we hope this is given you a smile, and let us leave you with this thought… You go round your house every day from room to room, but the most opened door in the whole of your property is your fridge.
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