The Refrigirator and Todays Technology Essays -- Research Essays

The Refrigirator and Todays TechnologyTechnology is omnipresent in our world. People often jibe this saturation of technology to an increase in the standard of living, rarely, however, do they canvass the effects of specific technologies on fundawork forcetal behavior, like eating, sleeping and interacting with others. To research the direct and indirect effects of a specific advancement is to unwrap how and why people, Americans more specifically, rush been converted from their puritanical ways to consumers, and what careers have been sacrificed for the goal of a supposed increase in luxury and informal time. The refrigerator, for example, is an item in use in over 80 one million million million homes in America alone. (Krantzburg 187-189) once considered a luxury afforded only by the wealthy, today nearly all American homes are equipped with what is perceived a necessity. HistoryThe concept of refrigeration is not a new one. Refrigeration by means of natural ice has been occ upied for thousands of years. Ice cellars were used in China as early as 1000 b. c. (Grolier 331-334). More recently, natural ice refrigeration became a banging scale industry in the United States in the 19th century. more naked Englanders, for example, quarried natural ice from frozen lakes and ponds and stored it in insulated icehouses. In strong seasons the ice was shipped to markets in the south. Not only did people quarry the ice, just they also had to deliver it homes, thus resulting in the neighborhood iceman. Families developed relationships with the men who delivered the ice which they so depended upon. For the children especially, it was considered a treat for the iceman to shave them withdraw a piece of ice, because it was an expensive specialty.Just as the iceman p... ...er grows. industrial plant CitedAnton, Charles. Kooltron Portable Refrigerator. Sports Afield. Mag.Coll. 75D4747 (Aug 1994) Online. Infotrac. 18 Oct 1997Cardwell, D. Turning Points in Western Tech nology. New York Science HistoryPublications, 1972Jones, Joseph American Ice Boxes. Encyclopedia Americana Vol 23. Grolier Inc.(1996)Krafft, Susan The Heart of the Home. American Demographics. v14 (Jun 1992)Online. Proquest. 16 October 1997Kranzberg, Melvin. Technology in Western Civilization. New York. OxfordUniversity Press, 1967Meier, Alan. News just about Refrigerator Energy Savings. Consumers ResearchMagazine. v76n3 (Mar 1993) Online. Infotrac. 14 October 1997Wandersee, Winifred. The Economics of Middle-Income Family Life working(a)Women During the Depression. 16A-04039 (1978) Online. America History and Life. 18 October 1997