History of the Refrigerator Long ago, around 500 BC, the Egyptians and Indians made ice on cold nights by placing water in clay pots and keeping the pots wet. In 18th-century England, servants collected ice in the winter and placed it in ice chests, where sheets of ice were packed in salt, wrapped in strips of flannel, and stored underground to keep them frozen until summer. Before the introduction of the refrigerator or "icebox", people used snow and ice to keep food fresh, which was found locally or brought down from the mountains. Cellars and caves were also used to refrigerate food. Meat and fish were preserved during the hot season by salting or smoking. Early cellars were holes dug in the ground and lined with wood or straw and filled with refrigeration for much of history. In the early 19th century, ice houses were used in England. These ice chests were typically made of wood, lined with tin or zinc, and insulated with various materials including cork, sawdust, or seaweed. They were used to hold blocks of ice and refrigerate food. Ice was delivered as needed (people simply hung an "Ice Today" sign in the window for the delivery person) and a drip tray caught the melted water which then had to be emptied daily. Natural ice was harvested, distributed, and used in both commercial businesses and home applications in the mid-1800s. The ice trade between Boston and the South was one of the first casualties of the Civil War. The warm winters of 1898 and 1890 created severe shortages of natural ice in the United States. This stimulated the use of mechanical refrigeration for freezing and preserving fish and in the brewing, dairy, and meatpacking industries. In the 19th century... half the paper... preserving meat meant salting it, and frozen drinks in summer were a real luxury. Now, the refrigerator is one of the most common appliances in everyone's homes. Works cited PageBunch, Bryan and Alexander Hellemans. The Times of Technology: A timeline of the most important people and events in the history of technology. New York: Simon & Simon, 1993. Donald Clarke, Mark Dartford, How It Works: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Volume 15, Marshall Cavendish Inc / January 1977. "The History of the Refrigerator (Including Freezers)" http : //inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrefrigerator.htm (2 September 2001). "History of the refrigerator" http://www2.whirlpool.com/html/homelife/cookin/cookref5.htm (2 September 2001 )."Eloctrolux Fridge Histroy"http://www.eletrolux.com/node218.asp (September 3 2001).