Refrigeration Technology In The 1800's

The development of refrigeration technology started in the 1800’s, and the first commercial fridge appeared in the 1900’s. However, people who had access to ice used ice to preserve food long before the existence of refrigeration technology. In addition, in the early 1800’s, a businessman named Frederick Tudor established an ice trading company that shipped ice to parts of the world where ice was difficult to obtain. Without modern refrigeration technology, how did Tudor become so successful at trading ice that he was nicknamed the “Ice King?” In F.H. Forbes’ Scribner’s Monthly “Ice,” he discusses how Tudor and his manager, Nathaniel Wyeth, solve problems and improve methods through innovation in his ice trading business. Even though the Ice

“Development of an innovation” Rogers argues, “is the process of putting a new idea in a form that is expected to meet the needs of an audience of potential adopters.” In 1842, Tudor worked with Jacob Hittinger and introduced adding ice to juleps, smashes, cocktails, and other drinks only known in Yankeeland. In other words, Tudor and Hittinger were trying to find an audience of potential adopters to a new way to consume ice. Not only was Tudor trying to develop new ways for people to use his product, other innovations were also developed to improve his ice trading business.

First, Wyeth designed buildings made of wood with double layered walls filled with tan or saw dust to hold ice close to the shore. Wood is naturally a good resistance to conducting heat; however, Wyeth increased heat resistance by making it double layered filled with saw dust in between the wooden walls. In addition, by constructing these storage buildings next to the shore, it takes less time for ice to be transported to ships compared to the traditional way of preserving ice in cellars. These storage buildings preserve ice while decreasing transportation of ice, which contributed to the success of trading

The remaining three steps are commercializing, diffusion and adoption, and consequences. First, Rogers defines commercializing as “the production, manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and distribution of a product. Since innovations within Tudor’s ice trading business were not created to be sold to public, Tudor and Wyeth did not go through the step of commercializing their innovations.

Second, it is true that Tudor adopted innovation created by other people, such as the ice loading machine and steam ship with airtight compartments. However, adoption is a step that isn’t part of “generating” innovation, but rather steps after an innovation is created. Therefore, it is not discussed as a step of generating innovations in this paper.

Third, Rogers argues that “consequences” is the last step of generation of innovation because “often new problems/needs may be caused by the innovation, so another cycle of innovation development process is set off.” Even though innovations within Tudor’s ice trading business may have created problems that lead to the creation of other innovations, this step is not relevant to this paper as the consequences of the innovations do not contribute to the success in ice