Flame That Freezes How A Fridge Works (1939)

Location unknown.
A man eating a soup - he blows in direction of spoon to cool the soup as he eats.
A woman walking towards a refrigerator - 'a new way of cooling things'. She lights the fire at the back of it showing the burner. 'If she wants to cool something, she heats it' - says voiceover.
Various drawings explaining how the system works. A hand is sprayed with a cologne (as a spirit, it is great absorber of heat), cologne absorbs the heat from hand, spirit evaporates and leaves the hand cold.
Another diagram shows liquid ammoniac (also a great absorber of heat) evaporating into hydrogen. In order to vaporise, ammoniac absorbs all the heat from its surrounding and leaves it cold. When it evaporates into hydrogen, a fresh supply of ammoniac is needed. A steady supply of ammoniac ensures continuous refrigeration. Combined ammoniac and water, when heated ensures a fresh supply of liquid ammoniac and hydrogen. More diagrams showing the structure of refrigerator.
Various shots of a man showing the apparatus. Several shots of a waitress opening refrigerator to get cool drink for a customer sitting at one of the tables reading newspaper. She places his drink at the table and leaves. Man takes the glass without looking at it and as he tries to drink his drink, he realises that it is frozen. He turns the glass up side down and his 'drink' falls on the table - a glass shape ice 'sculpture'.
FILM ID:1266.31
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British Pathé also represents the Reuters historical collection, which includes more than 136,000 items from the news agencies Gaumont Graphic (1910-1932), Empire News Bulletin (1926-1930), British Paramount (1931-1957), and Gaumont British (1934-1959), as well as Visnews content from 1957 to the end of 1984. All footage can be viewed on the British Pathé website. www.britishpat...

[@dimat3164]

And that's how RV refrigerators still work to this day.

[@damon8201]

Ancient tech still used today! lol

[@h8GW]

@damon8201 Wait until you find out how old the idea for a heat pump is.

[@jonathantan2469]

Some settlements in rural Africa, India, and Pakistan still use this technology for refrigeration as electricity is not readily available. Plus kerosene is already used for lighting & cooking. Coming to think of it, kerosene might be a better option than propane for an off-grid fridge. It's less bulky as you can use plastic fuel containers & not a heavy specialised metal tank, plus you can easily pour it into smaller containers. Of course, the smell is a downside...

[@Yourkindman]

​@@jonathantan2469 not anymore ... They are solar powered now

[@Jacob-bm6wb]

No moving parts so they last forever. Since it just needs heat it can be run off propane which was useful before solar and batteries got good and cheap.

[@abcstardust]

One of the best videos anywhere on this!! Very well made!!

[@jjlpinct]

"Ice cool drink from an ice cool waitress from an ice cool fridge" doesn't get any better

[@confusedbuddy5156]

True🙂

[@keithammleter3824]

@@confusedbuddy5156 Call the wife a cool waitress and that will be the last cool drink you get.

[@priestesslucy]

She's as cold as 🧊

[@joeyjennings9548]

EMP safe refrigeration... 🍦 👍

[@kawaiisenshi2401]

Agreed~

[@thedarkknight4243]

Better explanation than today's videos 😅

[@davidmizak4642]

I want to thank you for the amazing information you provide to your viewers. This is fascinating material. I appreciate all of your efforts. Many thanks!

[@victoramaro9290]

Thanks for sharing this valuable information.

[@GrandpaHerman1]

So in the apocalypse we’ll be able to get some air conditioners working with fire. That’s reassuring.

[@marcse7en]

When I was a kid in the late 60s, we had a gas fridge at home! I couldn't understand how a flame kept things cool.

[@keithammleter3824]

And after watching this old film i still don't understand it.

[@marcse7en]

@@keithammleter3824 Neither do I! 🤣

[@mohammed88air]

When you add heat you increase pressure and that serves to purposes 1-liquifying gas 2-make pressure difference so gas before entering evaporator gonna pass through small hole called expansion valve , gas then expand and drop pressure and temperature and gases boil at average-40 at atmospheric pressure , now why we liquified gas and want it to has low boiling point? because substance when change phase like(liquid to gas) they absorb a lot of heat it’s called latent heat , if gas go to evaporator at gaseous state they would absorb only 1%of the heat a liquefied gas would absorb during boiling or phase changing

[@marcse7en]

@@mohammed88air Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@mohammed88air All good except for one important thing: You can't liquify any gas by adding heat to it. All you do is increase the temperature and pressure. Thee important factor in gas-powered and kerosene powered fridges is that the latent heat of vaporisation varies with temperature & pressure. For example, water at atmospheric pressure (1 bar) boils ta 100 C and in doing so absorbs a latent heat of vaporisation 2258 KJ/Kg. At the critical point, 374 C, the latent heat of H2O is zero. All substances that can exist in liquid and gas forms have a critical point and zero latent heat at that point. Ammonia - the working fluid used in non-electric fridges (and electric fridges before freon was invented) has a critical point at 132 C. Latent heat at room temperature and pressure is about 1100 KJ/Kg.

[@EnglishTurkishExpert]

Does anybody know the original patent for this? I am trying to find out what kind of pressures there are in the system.

[@Ian-pe9rj]

Since it’s Ammonia that’s used as the refrigerant you can use any P-T chart for R-717 to get the pressures.

[@delicacydelight]

solar sand battery could supply consistent high temps to modernise this tech ?

[@babadonshah]

late 18th c technology my grand pa was have like this but old version and fan also both are work with flame

[@mcwooley]

Can phase change materials be used instead of a flame? Wednesday, November 30, 2022 CE, 21:40 EST

[@sangetube]

Like a catalyst used in those petrol hand warmer things? 🤔 I imagine it's just heat needed to drive the system not specifically a flame.

[@Rhannmah]

any source of heat will keep the process going.

[@whatdoyouevenwantbro]

what should i am feeeling so weird in my head i cannot think straight it feels a little dizzy out fridge wasn't working so we invited a repair worker to check it out he solved the problem but while repairinv i think a gas was coming out because our was whole was smelling so weird what should i do

[@ForgivingDragon]

Are you okay?

[@ForgivingDragon]

As in did you end up dying?

[@JaredSimpson-fw7mx]

I dont understand why they dont use the heat of the exhaust to power air conditioner system in vehicles this way instead of wasting energy turning a compressor

[@paradiselost9946]

i always thought this as well... but then i thought some more... size, and the issue of vibration... or not remaining stationary. they require gravity to work, and dont appreciate being tilted . yes, theyre used in mobile homes... youre supposed to turn them off when traveling.

[@gobxd8714]

Mi abuelo tenía uno. No había electricidad en la campaña de Uruguay.

[@zuberalam4349]

super concept

[@BigJim_909]

How can I safely gut out an old servel fridge? I want to turn it into a toolbox.

[@TKTmon]

figure out how to break one of the lines remotely. r717 exists naturally to begin with and doesn't really mess with the environment the way a chlorine containing refrigerant would (this means the epa doesn't care if you vent r717). the problem is the stuff that's in that fridge WILL KILL YOU due to being basically pure non-diluted ammonia. the stuff you can get at any store to clean with is like 10% at most and the rest is water and even that knocks me back if I get too strong of a whiff of it.

[@lightsaber5252]

We need to use this technology again..😊

[@PeterLawton]

We do. It's still in use in RV refrigerators. Those run on propane.

[@straightpipediesel]

It's extremely inefficient, in refrigeration it uses about 5x the energy a normal vapor-cycle fridge does. It's currently used industrially, like with small power plants, where the heat would be wasted anyway, search absorption chiller.

[@markae0]

@@straightpipediesel Free solar power you don't care about 5X the energy. On a sunny day you have four good hours of sunlight that could run this kind of fridge for free. Massive insulation and you might make it to the next sunny day.

[@mfbfreak]

It's very inefficient. You are better off with a solar inverter and a compressor, most likely. Keeping the concentrated dot of solar light from an optical system focused on the boiler throughout the entire day requires the fridge to be outdoors and have some kind of tracking system to keep the little dot of bright light exactly on the boiler. It could theoretically be used in large air conditioning systems, but one of the reasons why we moved away from ammonia, is that it's quite lethal and explosive when in concentrated form like in this type of fridge. Ammonia was used in ice skating rinks in the early 20th century, not sure if they still do.

[@markae0]

@@mfbfreak "Keeping the concentrated dot of solar light from an optical system focused " I am thinking the solar focal point makes a straight line, and you have a pipe under the pathway with a fluid in it. Transfer-pipe the hot fluid to the fridge. Years ago people (like me) thought liquid cooling your PC was insane, but it has become standard.

[@James-kd7dc]

Also of note is that ammonia isnt harmful to the ozone unlike most refrigerants today.

[@Muonium1]

Ozone damaging halocarbons containing chlorine or bromine have long been banned by the Montreal protocol, modern refrigerants are almost entirely fluorocarbons and so don't destroy ozone, but only contribute (minorly) to global warming because they absorb infrared radiation so powerfully and are very long lived in the atmosphere.

[@paradiselost9946]

​@@Muonium1 yay, fluoro carbons.... that will outlast humanity and all other traces of our existence... wonderful!

[@Muonium1]

@paradiselost9946 lots of things will outlive humanity. Calm down miss misanthrope.

[@paradiselost9946]

compare this little GEM of education, that explains all the principles clearly, concisely, to a recently posted "educational" video/animation on the same subject... that doesnt explain a freaking thing. but it does have a portrait of einstein, so it MUST be "genius"... FFS... people see my library of yellowing, tatty books, some over 150 years old... "why dont you get rid of those old things?" then simultaneously ask "why do you know so much?". because i read, and i only read old stuff that contains actual INFORMATION. i find anything past about 1980 to be utterly useless, excepting a few very limited subjects. and then i try and go and put some of that knowledge into practice...

[@SolarCookingGermany]

People back then were smarter than today, see reversal of the Flynn effect

[@dylanh333]

Nothing like a nice cool drink with a side of casual sexism...

[@Tdotttttt]

just shut up man. Just stop this non sense

[@pguti778]

Very didactic!!

[@Xicohtencatl_Xayacate]

A refrigerator that works like a stove (range) or a water heater... Isn't that dangerous? Literally, there's fire inside... I wonder how many accidents gas refrigerators caused back in the day...

[@honkhonkler7732]

No more than gas water heaters or gas stoves.

[@Xicohtencatl_Xayacate]

@@honkhonkler7732 I see...

[@zefellowbud5970]

Imagine replacing it with solar heat

[@Xicohtencatl_Xayacate]

@@zefellowbud5970 Is that possible?! D:

[@drewgehringer7813]

@@Xicohtencatl_Xayacate Yeah, this system just requires a heat source, what is making the heat doesn't matter too much. They actually still make these refrigerators today for RVs and travel trailers: either sold as 'propane powered refrigerators' if they only use a flame, or 'three way refrigerators' if you can either heat it with an electric coil (powered by direct current from batteries or alternating current from an electrical outlet like some campsites hate) or with a propane flame.

[@shony3366]

Cork as insulation omg

[@robertsaca3512]

Accurate information delivered in a classy, concise format that a child could understand. No woke cancer either, what a wonderful era of actual science.

[@JusticeAlways]

Do the Brits still talk this way? 😅

[@creazychannel]

Don't lie! You just came after watching JerryRig

[@VicAusTaxiTruckie]

So and so.... did the narrator mean "F#@king" ?

[@snowflakes5341]

In a mannerly way😂😂

[@mirdurrani3119]

It's amazing

[@Al_Gore_Rhythmn]

Invented by Einstein

[@rwall514]

Not really, but he came up with a better one.