Refrigeration Nation
eBook - ePub

Refrigeration Nation

A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Refrigeration Nation

A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America

About this book

How we keep food cold while the house stays warm.

Only when the power goes off and food spoils do we truly appreciate how much we rely on refrigerators and freezers. In Refrigeration Nation, Jonathan Rees explores the innovative methods and gadgets that Americans have invented to keep perishable food cold—from cutting river and lake ice and shipping it to consumers for use in their iceboxes to the development of electrically powered equipment that ushered in a new age of convenience and health.

As much a history of successful business practices as a history of technology, this book illustrates how refrigeration has changed the everyday lives of Americans and why it remains so important today. Beginning with the natural ice industry in 1806, Rees considers a variety of factors that drove the industry, including the point and product of consumption, issues of transportation, and technological advances. Rees also shows that how we obtain and preserve perishable food is related to our changing relationship with the natural world.

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Yes, you can access Refrigeration Nation by Jonathan Rees in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Economic History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction The Cold Chain
  8. Chapter 1 Inventing the Cold Chain
  9. Chapter 2 The Long Wait for Mechanical Refrigeration
  10. Chapter 3 The Decline of the Natural Ice Industry
  11. Chapter 4 Refrigerated Transport Near and Far
  12. Chapter 5 The Pleasures and Perils of Cold Storage
  13. Chapter 6 “Who Ever Heard of an American without an Icebox?”
  14. Chapter 7 The Early Days of Electric Household Refrigeration
  15. Chapter 8 The Completion of the Modern Cold Chain
  16. Conclusion Refrigeration, Capitalism, and the Environment
  17. Notes
  18. Essay on Sources
  19. Index