Monday, April 28, 2008

Ice Box of the Future (1930)

The September 10, 1930 Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, NY) ran a piece about scientists' predictions for the future. A prediction is much more interesting when antiquated terms for modern conveniences are used. Case in point: the "ice box."
Another group of chemical scientists explain how the ice box of the future will tell the housewife if meat she buys is fresh or old. This age-finder is an atmosphere exhaled by the refrigerant dry ice or solid carbon dioxide. If the meat is fresh it retains its red color. If old, it turns brown.

See also:
Gadgets for the Home (1930s)
Restaurant Robots (1931)

5 comments:

txbill said...

That's not so unusual. Because my parents commonly used the term, I still occasionally refer to the refrigerator as an "ice box."

Anonymous said...

An ice box is exactly that though. An ice box. A refrigerator is like an ice box, except it is powered by electricity and vaporazation whereas an ice box is powered by inserting a large piece of ice into the ice box.

Anonymous said...

The quote indicates they really are talking about an ice box, albeit one that uses dry ice, rather than a phase-change refrigerator.

Anonymous said...

My goodness we've really come a long way! We've also got that rotting smell when it changes color so the blind people can tell when it goes bad. Science has thought of everything!

Anonymous said...

Nowadays, we have "use by" dates on packages of meat, which obviates the use of dry ice for this purpose. However, dry ice is still used today to keep certain foodstuffs cold (e. g. on ice cream carts).