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Today marks the birthday of the father of refrigeration and air conditioning, John Gorrie. In fact, much of today's freezer and ice production machinery is based on the basic principles designed by Gorrie way back in the mid-nineteenth century.
Becoming a Man of Medicine
Many of Gorrie's records and personal papers of were destroyed in 1860 during the turmoil of the United States' Civil War, but what we do know is this: Gorrie's inventive flare and humanitarian efforts helped stop a deadly disease, as well as provide a better way of living for those suffering in hot climates. Gorrie, a South Carolina native, enrolled in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New York in 1825. It was there that he excelled as a physician and launched his career into medicine.
After moving his family to the bustling Gulf Coast city of Apalachicola, Florida, which at the time was the third largest port in the eastern seaboard, Gorrie took on a number of civic duties in addition to the relatively low-paying job of practicing medicine. This changed, however, as quickly as a coastal breeze.
Desperate Measures
In addition to becoming the inventor of the original ice machine, Gorrie is best known for his study of tropical diseases. In fact, Gorrie's early efforts aimed to thwart a disease that still takes the lives of more than one million people each year. As the old adage goes, necessity is the mother of invention; this saying rang true for John Gorrie when the muggy heat and humidity of Florida spurred an outbreak of malaria and yellow fever that hit the Gulf of Mexico by 1841.
The word malaria literary translates as "bad air" in Italian, and while scientists at the time originally thought the cause of the disease was spoiled vegetation, it was later determined that mosquitoes were the source of its transmission. Fortunately, Gorrie's proactive efforts paid-off from doing two things: first by informing his community of the importance of eliminating low-lying waters where mosquitoes bred; and, more importantly, he developed ways to control his patients' body temperatures by decreasing temperature and humidity levels in his hospital rooms.
Ice, Ice Baby
The often stifling heat in the southeastern corner of the United States wasn't any cooler during Gorrie's time in history than it is now, and the presence of ice was a rare treat. In fact, ice delivery service at the time meant that it was basically harvested from frozen waters in the north, stored in underground icehouses, packed in sawdust, and eventually shipped south to hot areas like Florida.
Between 1838 and 1845 Gorrie began researching methods by which he was able to compress air in a chamber in order to produce an artificial chill. The air, when compressed and released to expand rapidly, caused it to absorb the surrounding heat and form water within the chamber. This compressed air, in turn, drew so much heat away from the water that the water temperature dropped below freezing and produced ice. Violà! The world's first ice maker!
A Penniless Patent
 After leaving the field of medicine to pursue and further study his cold air creations, Gorrie was granted U.S. Patent No. 8080 for his ice machine on May 6th, 1851. Despite the obvious advantages that such a machine offered society at the time, many powerful figures from the northern ice making industry considered this new invention a serious financial threat. Fearing a profit loss, these powerful players effectively lobbied against Gorrie, who could not find sufficient financial backing in order to advance his prototype.
Sadly, before his death on June 16th, 1855, Gorrie never actually earned a profit from his invention, nor did he even gain recognition for providing history with a means of refrigeration that would become widely utilized in the coming century.
References:
"John Gorrie." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 21. Gale Group, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.
UNICEF's World Malaria Report
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