We can't even imagine life without it: how else would we have a kitchen always stocked with every delicacy? It's the refrigerator, the greatest ally of the modern kitchen, the one that allows us to do several days' worth of shopping without wasting food because it runs out. It's truly difficult to imagine ourselves in the kitchen before it was invented: but who invented this object so crucial to our contemporary lives? It was a woman: her name was Florence Parpart.
A Woman, or Rather Two, Invented the Refrigerator
If we really need to be precise, the writer Mary Randolph imagined a rudimentary example of a refrigerator in her Richmond boardinghouse, which opened in 1807, almost a century before the Parpart patent. In reality, the use of cold —specifically ice—to preserve food had been in use for centuries, but the transition from the icebox to the modern refrigerator is relatively recent.
The first patent for a food refrigeration machine dates back to 1851 and was signed by the American John Gorrie, a version that was later replaced by the first domestic refrigerator by Alfred Mellowes in 1915. But the patent for the modern refrigerator belongs to her, Florence Parpart: it is an electric model, the first, which will allow us to definitively abandon the icebox.
Who Was Florence Parpart?
Little is known about Florence Parpart's life: even her birthplace is unknown, ranging from New York to Hoboken, New Jersey. We do know that she studied to be a stenographer, like many women of the time, that she came from a wealthy family, and that she married Hiram D. Layman, the general manager of the company where she quickly rose through the ranks, thanks to her intelligence and initiative. During this phase of her life, in fact, she began to apply for her first patents, both with and without her husband. Parpart's first credited invention was a street sweeper designed to automate the cleaning process of urban streets.
The first electric refrigerator was patented in 1914, and the reason for its success lies not only in the revolution in the machine itself but also in the innovative marketing campaigns Parpart devised: these are what made him famous and spurred the further inventions and improvements that led to the modern refrigerator. Naturally, production (and sales) costs were high for the time, and very few people had a refrigerator at home before the middle of the century. It was only from the 1950s onward that refrigerators entered the majority of American homes, first gradually, then more rapidly, thanks in part to the economic boom. When large companies lowered prices, making the procurement process more accessible to everyone, refrigerators became indispensable.
And the freezer? After various improvements to cooling systems and fans, the first freezer was born, appearing in 1971, with temperatures that could reach -25°F/-32°C in certain compartments.
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