Have you ever experienced a black out and felt completely helpless without the use of a fridge?
No milk to have in your tea. No cheese for your sandwich. Warm soft drinks.
This happened to me just a week ago and after I had got over the fact that I couldn’t have my usual yogurt for breakfast, I got thinking about how humans lived before the invention of the fridge. How summer made food consumption a veritable land-mine of disease and potentially fatal illness and how poverty could prevent the average family from being able to afford ice.
I also got thinking about the different fridges I’ve had in my life. The boxy brown linoleum number my parents bought in the 1970s. The white 1980s brick we had when I was a child with the tightest vacuum seal I’ve ever come across. The sleek silver beast I have in my kitchen now, with the little compartments for eggs.
Here’s a brief history of our beloved refrigerator and the various makeovers it’s had since it’s arrival on our domestic scene in 1927.