The Refrigirator and Todays Technology Essays -- Research Essays

The Refrigirator and Todays TechnologyTechnology is omnipresent in our world. People often equate this saturation of engineering science to an attach in the standard of living, rarely, however, do they dissect the personal effects of specific technologies on fundamental behavior, like eating, sleeping and interacting with others. To explore the direct and indirect effects of a specific advancement is to uncover how and why people, Americans more specifically, have been converted from their puritanical ways to consumers, and what careers have been sacrificed for the goal of a supposed increase in sumptuosity and free time. The refrigerator, for example, is an item in use in over 80 million homes in America alone. (Krantzburg 187-189) once considered a luxury afforded only by the wealthy, today nearly all American homes are equipped with what is perceived a necessity. HistoryThe concept of refrigeration is non a new one. Refrigeration by means of natural ice has been employed for t housands of years. rubbish cellars were used in China as early as 1000 b. c. (Grolier 331-334). More recently, natural ice refrigeration became a large scale industry in the United States in the 19th century. Many spic-and-span Englanders, for example, quarried natural ice from frozen lakes and ponds and stored it in insulated icehouses. In warm seasons the ice was shipped to markets in the south. Not only did people quarry the ice, but they also had to throw it homes, thus resulting in the neighborhood iceman. Families developed relationships with the men who delivered the ice which they so depended upon. For the children especially, it was considered a treat for the iceman to shave them off a piece of ice, because it was an costly specialty.Just as the iceman p... ...er grows.Works CitedAnton, Charles. Kooltron Portable Refrigerator. Sports Afield. Mag.Coll. 75D4747 (Aug 1994) Online. Infotrac. 18 Oct 1997Cardwell, D. Turning Points in Western Technology. New York Science His toryPublications, 1972Jones, Joseph American Ice Boxes. Encyclopedia Americana Vol 23. Grolier Inc.(1996)Krafft, Susan The Heart of the Home. American Demographics. v14 (Jun 1992)Online. Proquest. 16 October 1997Kranzberg, Melvin. Technology in Western Civilization. New York. OxfordUniversity Press, 1967Meier, Alan. News About Refrigerator Energy Savings. Consumers ResearchMagazine. v76n3 (Mar 1993) Online. Infotrac. 14 October 1997Wandersee, Winifred. The economic science of Middle-Income Family Life WorkingWomen During the Depression. 16A-04039 (1978) Online. America History and Life. 18 October 1997