Refrigerated Trailer Hire and a Creative Opportunity
Refrigerated Trailer Hire and a Creative Business Opportunity
Every day, we work with clients looking for refrigerated trailer hire or walk-in freezer rental. But how often do we take the time to think about where modern refrigeration came from, or why we even enjoy what we have available to us today? For the record, much of what the refrigeration industry has become is owed to the creative thoughts of a North American businessperson in the 1830s.
The concepts of refrigeration and cold storage date back to ancient cultures. The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, and Persians all took advantage of winter snow and ice for the purposes of environmental cooling and producing cold drinks and baths. However, the idea of permanent refrigeration did not begin to see development until the early 18th century.
Inventors from Scotland and England developed early refrigeration machines in the 1750s, followed by the now-famous English scientist Michael Faraday and the work he did in the 1830s. Nevertheless, none of these early refrigeration systems succeeded commercially because no one knew what to do with them. Enter businessperson Frederic Tudor and his North American ice business.
Tudor figured out a system of cutting ice blocks from the American North East, insulating them with sawdust, and transporting them to southern states and Caribbean countries. He also developed a double walled icehouse originally intended to simply store the ice until it was sold. Nonetheless, his storage concept ended up being the predecessor of the modern refrigerator.
{module_webapps,1841,r}
Getting Cold, Staying Cold
Without Frederic Tudor's icehouse invention, the refrigerated trailer hire we enjoy today would not be possible. It turns out the early inventors of refrigeration knew how to reduce the temperature of ambient air using a variety of gas refrigerants. What they could not figure out was how to cool a space and keep it that way. Tudor's invention solved that problem. Although Tudor did not understand the science behind the successful double-walled icehouse, it worked nonetheless.
What Tudor did not know was that a certain temperature must be reached in order to break the molecular bonds that hold ice together. By insulating his ice with sawdust and storing it in a double-walled house, he was able to successfully control the air temperature inside the house such that it would never get warm enough to break the molecular bonds on the surface of the ice. The interior molecules remained frozen and intact as a result.
Modern refrigerated trailer hire relies on the same principle. We use compressors and refrigerants to reduce ambient air temperature by extracting heat from any object in the refrigerated space. In order to maintain that temperature, we use a double-walled space with insulation between the inner and outer walls. This keeps warm air out and cold air in. Without double-walled insulation, compressors would have to run 24 hours a day to keep interior temperatures cold enough.
We can thank a creative businessperson’s pursuit of sending ice to the Caribbean for making it possible for us to provide refrigerated trailer hire to our customers. Because Frederic Tudor figured out how to keep warm air out of an icehouse, we can provide refrigerated trailers and walk-in cold rooms to our customers in 2015.
Icecool Trailers is proud to offer refrigerated trailer hire and freezer rental throughout the Thames Valley, home counties and most of England and southern Wales. We have been serving the temporary cold storage needs of our customers for more than 20 years.
Sources:
1.Sustainable Brands – http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/
Got questions? Call 01635 250 950 or send us a message