Domestic Electric Refrigerating Unit
notes: label: Description
content: The essential elements of the automatic electric reciprocating compressor type of refrigerating unit for cooling household refrigerators are combined in this old machine. It consists of a small, motor-driven, 1-cylinder, air-cooled compressor, mounted inside of the coils of a so-called “cage” condenser, which is a continuous, rectangular coil of copper tubing. Compressor cylinder and condenser are cooled by a stream of air from the fanlike spokes of the compressor flywheel-pulley. The cooling coils are contained in a zinc brine chamber provided with openings to take ice freezing trays of muffin-pan design. The operation of the motor is controlled by a thermostat switch designed to hold the temperature of the brine at an approximately even temperature.
label: Description
content: In operation a refrigerant gas, SO2, is compressed in the cylinder of the compressor and delivered to the condenser, where it is cooled to approximately the temperature of the air that is blown over the condenser. The compressed and cooled SO2 then passes through a reducing valve, which permits it to expand to a low pressure in the cooling coils in the brine tank. As it is a physical property of gas that in expanding it absorbs heat, the expanding SO2 takes heat from the surrounding brine and thus lowers the temperature of the chamber. The SO2 then returns to the compressor where it is again compressed and the process continues. When the brine is cold enough the thermostat switch turns off the motor until the temperature rises a few degrees when it starts the motor again.
label: Description
content: The unit is said to be the one that Edmund J. Copeland, then chief engineer of the Kelvinator Corporation, believed to be the first one of his designs to approach successful, automatic, dependable operation. It contains parts taken from earlier machines and now includes parts of later dates.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Bulletin 173
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Winslow-Baker-Meyering Corp., Detroit, Michigan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.310729
label: catalog number
content: 310729
label: accession number
content: 126271
objectType: label: Object Name
content: refrigeration unit
label: Object Name
content: refrigeration unit, domestic
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel, copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26 1/8 in x 12 1/8 in x 18 in; 66.3575 cm x 30.7975 cm x 45.72 cm