Many of our appliances came into being as a result of the efforts and visions of men and women in science. We may not know any of their names, and their inventions may overlap with others, so we can't be quite sure who we owe our convenient appliances to. In this article we will have a look at three of the most widely used appliances today, who were responsible for their invention and how they came into being.
1. The Refrigerator
Next time you head on over to your fridge for an ice cold drink or a quick snack, stop and think for a moment what you would do without your cold box. There would be no cool refreshments, and there would be no fresh, crisp veggies to take out and prepare for dinner. You would have to go shopping on a daily basis to get all your staples such as milk, meat, eggs, butter and cheese. If we look at this from a broader perspective, no cooling would mean hardly any variety at the supermarkets and companies would struggle with the shipping and storing of their food supplies. You would probably have to start growing your own food in your back yard.
The refrigerator as we know it today came into being by accident. Scientist Carl von Linden developed a process which changed a certain gas into a certain liquid, and during this process an interesting 'side-effect' was noted. The result was heat absorption. As most of us know, fridges are fitted with coils that contain a liquid coolant which absorbs heat from the insulated compartment of the fridge.
The very first fridge was built in the year 1911, and only years later, the first practical model, suitable for the preservation of food came onto the market in 1923, manufactured by Frigidaire. As soon as manufacturing costs decreased, the refrigerator market grew considerably and it has since become our most essential appliance.
2. The Washing Machine
People have been wearing clothes for many thousands of years, and there have been all kinds of ways in which clothes were kept clean, such as beating them on a rock, and using stone troughs for scrubbing. Rendered animal fat was used as a kind of soap. At some point, these stone troughs made way for wooden versions. The development process was still quite slow however, and we can only speculate about the results of people's cleaning efforts in those days.
From the moment agitators were developed things got interesting. Paddles were suspended in containers of water, stirring the clothes around. The process resembles the way we do our laundry today, agitating the water to loosen dirt from the clothing fibres. 1908 was the year in which the first washing machine with an electric motor, named the Thor, came into being, at the hands of Alva J. Fisher. Our modern day washing machines clean clothes by means of a 2-drum system, the inner drum containing the laundry, and the outer drum containing the water.
3. The Microwave Oven
Microwaves were initially used in the Second Wa orld War for radar reconnaissance. At some point an interesting 'accident' took place: A candy bar was accidently melted by the radio waves emitted from the machine by Dr. Percy LeBaron Spencer. The magnetron tubes in microwave ovens generate high energy radio waves that move the molecules in food around, which results in quick and even cooking of food.
In 1947 a prototype microwave oven was developed, weighing an unbelievable 340 kg! The very first commercial domestic microwave oven was introduced in the year 1967, and preparing meals in a matter of minutes became an amazing reality. Microwaves cook meat at least five times faster than if you were to cook it in a conventional oven, which saves us a lot of valuable time.
