Albert Einstein is a renowned physicist whose name still echoes in rooms where brilliance is discussed, his contributions to science a huge leap for mankind. You’d assume that everything he invented and discovered was still being utilized today; but as surprising as it might sound, not everything has carried over to the present era. Take the Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator, for instance. Together with Leo Szilard, Einstein created the fridge as the answer to the lethal motorized compressors of 1920s refrigerators, which should’ve kept cold air moving and helped maintain the temperature sweet spot to keep your refrigerator at. Instead, they potentially released toxic gases when they broke down. Einstein’s version went without these compressors by switching them out with a pump; though, in the end, the Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator never really took off because funding was scarce, rising political unrest was at an all-time high, and there was the rise of safer synthetic refrigerants.
While we won’t be able to see what kitchens would look like with this in their arsenal, the idea behind it wasn’t totally disregarded, as creations inspired by the Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator have popped up. One example was the Isobar, a vaccine cooling system. There was also the appliance created by researchers from the University of Oldenburg in Germany in 2005. Ultimately, while the fridge saw an untimely end, it’s still possible that we’ll see more technology inspired by it at some time in the future.
Read more: The Kitchen Organization Tool We Never Thought To Use In The Fridge (But It Makes So Much Sense)
How Einstein’s Refrigerator Worked
A black-and-white image of various refrigerators in a store – Chicago History Museum/Getty Images
Modern-day kitchens have surely seen the absence of Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard’s fascinating creation. This appliance functions by creating a repeating cycle with ammonia and butane, as well as water. It all starts with heat — as this turns ammonia into gas — helping butane create a cooling effect as it evaporates, allowing it to soak up the heat. These gases undergo another process with water. Here’s where ammonia is absorbed, while butane is condensed. It’s an important step because it lets the absorbed heat escape. Then, the whole process starts again, creating a system that works beautifully even without electricity — which would’ve been more helpful in saving a few bucks today than, say, avoiding the electric stovetop mistake that wastes tons of energy.
If this brilliant invention had seen its deserving commercial boom, it might’ve even been one of the old school appliances worth restoring. Unfortunately, though, we can only appreciate the thought behind its technology, as we have no way of using it or anything similar ourselves — for now, at least.
Read the original article on Chowhound.