Thesis: The effect refrigeration had on the world caused many things greater than itself, such as contributing many methods for food conglomerates to improve the economy, frozen foods and household refrigerators, and many effects on medicine.
The fridge as we know it, is a common sight. That wasn't the case in the ancient times, instead there was a simpler method of keeping things cold. As I learned from the
History Magazine article The Romans had pits filled with either snow or ice to cool things. Then eventually people wanted more things to be cold like drinks or food. When the first vapor refrigerator was usable german lager companies benefitted immensely by the new innovation, because they could consistently make the same product no matter the time of year. The meat industry was also affected by the invention, they could effectively keep meats fresh for longer and once refrigerated cars came along they could transport meat while still keeping it fresh. Even still the competition between all the corporations only further sped up competition (
JSTOR Paper). Creations such as the refrigerated train car brought meat packing into an international market, and it even created more energy efficient fridges because the use of them was using a huge amount of energy. Although the industries were booming and meat quality was improving immensely and the economy was on the rise, citizens were only just starting to get their hands on the new technology.
While the industries were bolting ahead with the new marvel, home refrigeration fell behind. I speculate when fridges were finally mass produced after WWII (
Wayback Machine) they are what helped expand the sub-urban areas. They allowed people to not have to go grocery shopping everyday which then allowed more people to be farther away from cities. While still on the topic of food, refrigeration allowed the creation of modern delights such as ice cream. Refrigeration also had another important affect on diets, since the common refrigerator allowed to keep food fresh for longer people could enjoy more foods from all over the country (
History Magazine). As I learned from the same magazine, refrigerators became common place. In the 1950's 80% of farms and 90% of urban homes had at least one refrigerator.
It wasn't just the U.S. who had benefitted from such a grand innovation. As I read from a
study about the Democratic Republic of Congo, refrigeration had a massive effect on the capability of the medicine there. I learned that this innovation had been a great help in saving lives against the smallpox virus, and while refrigeration also helped in the production of goods in the Congo. I also learned from the
study and past references that goods produced in the Congo were now able to be transported farther than ever before because of the Innovation and because of this new influx of Congo goods it caused their economy to grow and cause even more innovation within the country. While the fridge might seem a common occurrence by today's standards its one of the unsung innovations of our time that created more options for other innovations to be created.
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