Artificial refrigeration technology has a history of more than two hundred years. It has been developed due to people's continuous demand for "ice cooling". The utilization rate of refrigerators in some developed countries has reached more than 99%.
As early as more than 1000 years ago, there were written records of ice cubes collected in ancient China. Qin Shihuang once used the method of putting ice cubes in a copper box to cool down and prevent heatstroke. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a special department responsible for collecting ice cubes in winter and storing them in the cellar for preservation and heat dissipation in summer.
In 1755, the British teacher Coulomb used ether evaporation to freeze water, which was the first time in human history that artificial refrigeration technology was used. The discovery of the cooling effect of ether marked the beginning of modern refrigeration technology. In 1834, the French scientist Peltier discovered the "Peltier refrigeration effect", which used heat transfer between closed circuits to cool. This was an early refrigeration device. However, due to the immature electronic technology at that time, the refrigeration effect was not satisfactory, so the electronic refrigeration technology was not applied in practice.
Until modern times, with the development and maturity of semiconductor technology, the electronic refrigeration technology using peltier effect was widely used. The improved semiconductor refrigerator began to be widely used in industrial and electronic products, especially the semiconductor refrigerator used in the semiconductor car refrigerator.
Also in 1834, Jacob Perkins, an American inventor, invented a vapor pressure pump refrigerator using ether refrigerant and applied for a British patent, which was an early refrigerator.
In the following 100 years, the refrigeration technology has been constantly updated, the pressure pump has become a more efficient closed compressor, and the refrigerant has started to use more safe and environmentally friendly isobutane, which saves energy and will not damage the ozone layer. In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, the high-efficiency and energy-saving compressor refrigeration technology has been widely used in the fields of Commerce, industry and agriculture, construction, medical treatment and so on.