Yes, the refrigerator. The old ice-box. Actually, I suppose that more accurately, I should say, "the new ice-box", since this ice-box is exactly what the frige replaced. Prior to the refrigerator, the oft wooden, decorative yet functional piece of furniture that sat in many-a-kitchen keeping food from spoiling was the ice-box.
(these have some serious sex appeal)
An ice-box usually had hollow walls which were insulated, a block of ice in a compartment in either the top or bottom of the box, and a drip tray which caught the thawing ice that needed to be drained at least once a day. With the dawning of the 20th century came the dawning of a new era in home refrigeration, and the ice-box was rapidly replaced by electric refrigeration systems.
The frige wasn't created in one fell swoop; it is a culmination of hundreds of people's small contributions to self-cooling units which Marcel Audiffren of France used to create a fridge for home use. He got US patents in 1895 and 1908, which were bought by the American Audiffren Refirgerating Machine Company (why they didn't pick something like "Fridges Inc" is beyond me). General Electric built these fridges in Indiana, and the first was sold in 1911 for about $1000. That was about twice the price of a car -- clearly they were only for the rich (and indeed, the first units were sold to oil and other large company executives). By 1920, there were hundreds of models on the market produced by a handful of companies. By 1930, there were millions of units produced. In the 40s, they added freezers into fridges. Aside from various minor advances, at this point the fridge was in the form that we find it today.
(dude.... groceries)
Fridges are found in almost every home in the 1st world. In fact, I don't know anybody who doesn't own a fridge. I'm not sure if I even know anybody who knows anybody that doesn't own a fridge. They're a truly ubiquitous appliance. Although the fridge comes in many shapes and sizes with many technological options (of debatable value), the fridge for the most part is an exceptionally well designed appliance. It behaves as you expect it to. You set a temperature, and barring any technical difficulties, it maintains it for you. You put something in it, it keeps it cool, stopping the proliferation of bacteria. You're hungry, and you pull it out, without worrying about getting e-coli. Simple, yet effective. The more "features" a fridge has, the more maintainance it requires. I just can't wait until the RFID reader (that will inevitably be an unavoidable "necessity" on fridges in the next 20 years) malfunctions, and I have to pay a repairman to come out and fix it so that my fridge isn't telling me that everything in it is beyond the due date and my children will die of poisoning if I make the cordon-bleu that I apparently can't make because I'm missing vanilla extract (which I keep in my cupboard). I wish we could just keep in simple, but that is not the way of "progress."
The only thing that bothers me about the fridge is that for some reason, "the man" decided to add a 'd' when the shortened refrigerator, making it forever difficult to spell.
Oh sweet love of my life to whom I owe all things cold and non-bacteriumated, thank you; thank you from the bottom of my heart (which, you accessed through my stomach, as the saying goes). Thanks be to Fridge. Amen.
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