The Old-School Kitchen Appliance We Don't See People Use Anymore - Tasting Table

"Long before home appliances involved stainless steel, touchscreens, compressors, and electricity, there was a decidedly different way to keep food cool - one that involved a clever designer, humble sheets of metal, and huge chunks of ice. It's a curious contraption appropriately named the icebox, an almost forgotten ancestor to modern-day refrigerators. This was no fly-by-night invention, rather a carefully crafted one that transformed eating and food storage across the globe in the mid-to-late 1800s."

"In 1802, he fashioned a tub out of cedar wood, then placed a tin metal box inside, surrounded by ice and covered with a lid. To keep it insulated, he used rabbit fur and cloth, dubbing his invention the refrigeratory. Moore patented it a year later, in 1803, and invited Thomas Jefferson himself to view and sketch what later became the everyday icebox in countless American homes."

The icebox emerged in the early 1800s as a non-electric method for preserving food using large ice blocks and insulated compartments. Thomas Moore built a cedar tub with a tin inner box in 1802, insulated with rabbit fur and cloth, and patented the design in 1803. Later models used straw, cork, charcoal, mineral wool, sawdust, or seaweed for insulation. A top compartment held a block of ice while meltwater collected in trays below. Local icemen delivered 25- to 50-pound blocks regularly, and the ice trade expanded globally, with large shipments by companies like the Tudor Ice Company by 1856. Nostalgic iceboxes survive in basements and sheds.

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