Domestic Technologies: The Refrigerator
The fridge is not only a piece of technology created to prevent food spoilage, but a fascinating part of culinary and cultural history that changed the way we cook and eat, for better or for worse.
Shelvador electric compression domestic refrigerator, an example of the first model to be equipped with internal shelves inside the door, streamlined design, by Crosley, U.S.A., 1930-1940. Science Museum Group.
How often do you think about your refrigerator? The ‘fridge’ takes up a large part of our kitchen real estate, yet it’s conspicuously invisible. It’s a piece of technology we use every single day, however one that is largely taken for granted. No one really thinks of their fridge until it’s not working, and people don’t tend to reflect much on what it may have been like to cook and eat before refrigeration.
That is, unless you’re me.
I have a keen interest in the ways in which food culture is mediated by technology, and that includes some fascination with lowly kitchen appliances, so I’ve chosen to focus on the refrigerator, and the technology of refrigeration, across several projects and see where my research leads.
There is a such a seamlessness to how certain technologies like the fridge are embedded in everyday life. We may not even think of the fridge as a technology anymore, especially when there are so many newer gadgets competing for our attention, yet it most certainly is a technology. This object that did not exist was created to solve the very real problem of keeping food fresh without the need for ice. It seems simple enough, but there is a tension that arises when a technology solves one problem while creating others, and this is another area I’d like to explore.
As with any pithy topic, there will be challenges in narrowing my focus, but I’m going in with a baseline of questions.
How has the availability of this technology changed what, and how, we eat? How did widespread domestic acceptance of refrigeration affect the lives of women in their role as “housewives”? In what ways did it change the way we shop and prepare food? How did it open access to foods from around the world? What have been the environmental costs of every household having at least one, if not two fridges humming away constantly? As a Westerner, I also wonder what impacts this invention had on cultures outside of my sphere of experience. In my upcoming work, I hope to answer at least some of these questions with all the tools and resources at my disposal, including data related to the fridge: sales figures, manufacturing and production numbers, statistics, price lists, data on the number of households owned a fridge at different points in history, and the socio-economic conditions that allowed for such a purchase. I would also really love to find the first mention of an electric refrigerator in literature!
The fridge is not only a piece of technology created to prevent food spoilage, but a fascinating part of culinary and cultural history that changed the way we cook and eat, for better or for worse. Stay tuned for future posts, projects, and some interesting facts about this most ubiquitous of appliances.
Frigidaire electric refrigerator, model DT 44A, serial no. 651441, under worktop size, red body, white top. Made in England by Frigidaire (Division of General Motors Ltd.) c.1952 Science Museum Group