The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-05-13
LIFE OF Or. JOHN GORRIE,
INVENTOR OF REFRIGERATION

The following regarding the life of
DR.. John Gorrie is taken from Uncle
Remuss Magazine:
Pack mules in old Rome and camel
caravans in the Far East in early days
bore compressed snow long distances
from the mountain tops to cool the
wine at banquets OF the millionaires of
the time Some hundreds Of years
later scientists labored in their labora-
tories to devise chemical means for
produ ucing ice to cool wines in summer.
There was no other evident need for
artificial cooling, and even when ice
making had become fairly well recog-
nized in the United States ice was
practically a by-product Of the brew
cry. Mans eternal thirst might have
been the underlying cause of the in
vention OF ice-making and refrigera-
tion by mechanical means had not DIR.
John Gorrie, of Charleston, s. c., and
Apalachicola, Fla, been actuated by
higher and nobler purpose.
At the Worlds Congress OF the Re-
frigeration Industries held in Paris
from October 5th to 10th, the special
lists in refrigeration from all over the
world discussed the growth of the
science of refrigeration, its marvellous
influence on the transportation of per-
ishable food products and wonderful
contribution to the comfort of man
gathering OF the men who have created
the mechanical refrigerating industry,
the first recognition of it's place among
the worlds great activities. All the
leading governments sent distinguished
official delegations and the scientific
bodies were well represented.
At the Paris congress the name of
Edmond Carre was spoken with due
reverence as the inventor of the first
ice -making machine that was a com
mercial success. M. Carre should be
honored as a pioneer, but to Dr. Gorrie
South Carolinian by birth and F1orid-
ian by adoption, the glory really be-
longs. NJ. Carre sought to produce the
carafes frappes, water bottles with
chunks of ice frozen inside, that are
inseperable adjuncts to the. tables Of
Partisan cafes, providing q cool chaser
for wine. DR.. Gorrie sought to cool
the rooms Of a hospital where fever
patients were confined to grilling beds
with the mercury near the century
mark and no ice nearer than England.
M. Carre has been getting the glory
because France decorates and pensions
her savants to make their fame and
existence sure. DR.. Gorrie made ice as
early as 1845 while NJ. Carre was not
successful until ten years later.
It was never DR.. Gorries purpose to
perfect a process for making ice, but
ing, primarily for hospitals where
fever cases were being treated. At
that time Apalachicola was the most
important Florida seaport, being the
outlet for all the cotton grown in the
Chattahoochee Valley in Georgia and
Alabama The greatest drawback to
the growth of the town was the prev
alence Of fever in summer. In his
large practice DR.. Gorrie found II al
most impossible to treat successfully
violent cases of fever in the hot
months. He first evolved the theory Of
controlling fever by cooling the pa
tient by external means and it is fully
set forth in the newspaper and scien-
tific print of the day. He was almost
fifty years in advance of his profession
along this line, but today the medical
world recognizes the value of his
teachings without always recognizing
whence they originally came.
While pursuing his experiments in
air cooling, DIR. Gorrie produced small
blocks of ice, about the size of the
ordinary building brick His process
was the precursor Of the compressed
air ice-making machine, almost uni
versally used now on shipboard. A
CONTINUED on Page Seven.)