The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-02-01
FLORIDA TO HONOR GOPPIE,
INVENTOR OF ICE MACHINE,
WITH HALL OF FAME STATUE
MARBLE EFFIGY TO MEMORY OF
MAN WHO FIRST FRozE WATER
BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS WILL BE
ERECTED IN NATIONAL CAPT.
TAL-DIscovERY WAS MADE
sIxTY-TWo YEARS AGO.

The ceremonies connected with the
formal delivery and unwilling of the
statue of DR.. John Gorrie, of Apalachi-
cola, the inventor of artificial refriger-
alton, will take place in Statuary Hall
of the United States Capitol, in Wash
tngton on February 4, says the Jack
sonville Metropolis.
Representative Emmett Wilson and
State Senator Dayton will be among
the speakers for the occasion.
Just before adjourning Saturday the
House of Representatives passed the
following resolution:
Resolved by the House of Repre-
sentatives (the Senate concurring)
That the State of Florida be, and is
hereby granted the privilege of plac-
ing in Statuary Hall of the Capitol.
the statue of John Gorrie, now de-
ceased, who was citizen of Florida,
iIlustrious for distinguished civic ser
vice"
The Gorrie statue is the first of the
two to which Florida is entitled in
Statuary Hall, and is the work of c.
Adrian Pillars, of this city, who has
from old photographs and descriptions
given him. made what is considered by
those who remembered DIR. John Cor
RE, to be a work of signal merit and
faithfulness in portrayal of the fea-
lures and characteristic expression OF
DIR. Gorrie.
The statue is carved in the purest
white marble, the block from which
it was cut showing not seam or flaw
in the process. Mr.. Pillars is now
putting the finishing touches to the
work, which is considered a master
piece of art, and one which will cause
this state no apologetic glances or
explanations when 1t is placed beside
the other great works in the Hall of
Fame.
There will be special delegations
from this state to attend the unwilling
of the statue February 4, and many
who have held Fiorida's grand old
physician and discoverer of means to
alleviate suffering humanity in loving
esteem viii go in person to add their
quota to the states efforts to re-
compense the memory of the man who
stands first in the pages of them who
loved his fellow man."
F'lorida's other offering to the Hall
of Fame, General Edmund Kirby
Smith, will be executed in bronze, the
commission charged with the duty of
securing the statue having met in this
city last week and advertised for
models and bids for the work to be
Patent $3.50 in the archives of in
ventions at Washington show what
Gorrie accomplished Sixtytwo years
ago his machine for making ice existed
only in the one small mechanical
chemical apparatus which served to
produce the tiny cubes of ice for BAN
quet or the minor uses of the day. To-
day the Gorrte machine and chemical
application is cooling the liquids of
millions, preserving in cold storage the
tons of provisions otherwise lost for
human consumption and making pos
sible the comfortable living in any
cline and at all temperatures of heat
Great ice plants and refrigerating
depots cover the land from sunrise to
sunset, and from the north to its an
tipodaI spot.
John Gorrie is today memorialized
in every ton of ice that is manufac-
tured. For thirty years or more after
his death the state paid no attention
to his discovery or his memory. In
fact there were few of the younger
generation who had heard Of DR.. John
Gorrie outside the scant reference to
him in some encyclopedia history Of
men noted for having done something
out of the ordinary.
The invention and discovery of the
method of artificialiy freezing water
has been claimed by the French for
one of their savants, and the world and
Florida rested without raising a claim
for years. Then a comparison of his