The first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748. However, he did not use his discovery for any practical purpose. In 1805, an American inventor, Oliver Evans, designed the first refrigeration machine. The first practical refrigerating machine was built by Jacob Perkins in 1834; it used ether in a vapor compression cycle.
An American physician, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator based on Oliver Evans’ design in 1844 to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients. German engineer Carl von Linden patented not a refrigerator but the process of liquifying gas in 1876 that is part of basic refrigeration technology.
