ABC celebrates ‘forgotten’ godfather of refrigeration

Australian refrigeration pioneer James Harrison has featured in an episode of ABC rural affairs program Landline.

Ahead of the Scotland-born innovator’s birthday on April 17, the program charted Harrison’s exploits in creating an ice machine in his adopted Victorian home of Geelong in the mid-1800s.

Landline also explored reasons for Harrison’s lack of renown given the enormity of his achievements, and efforts by science, history and refrigeration buffs to establish a museum in his honour.

“There’s not much to see – a tangle of scrub at the base of a rock-strewn slope – but Rocky Point in Geelong is a site of world significance,” said Landline journalist Tim Lee.

“There was once a cave here, filled in long ago by authorities who deemed it unsafe, and a large shed that drew in water from the Barwon River and converted it into ice. A modest plaque on a boulder scarcely does justice to its importance. It was here in 1854 that inventor, journalist, and newspaper proprietor James Harrison had his eureka moment — successfully trapping escaping gas and using it as a refrigerant.”

The episode explained that Harrison used a compressor to force the gas to pass through a condenser, where it cooled down and liquefied.

This, of course, is the basis of refrigeration, the same principle still used today in refrigerators and air conditioners around the world.

According to folklore, in his role as founder and editor of the Geelong Advertiser newspaper, Harrison noticed that using sulphuric ether to clean the news type made the metal cold.

Via a series of experiments in his cave, Harrison found his way to refrigeration and ice-making, eventually establishing Australia’s first ice-making machine. He ultimately established ice-making factories in the UK, Geelong, and around Australia.

Given his astonishing efforts in science, many wonder why Harrison is not a household name, like Westinghouse or Carrier.

Perhaps disputes over the origin of refrigeration might have something to do with this, or that a trial run of refrigerated meat from Australia to England ended in failure, ignominy, and bankruptcy for Harrison.

Nevertheless, a passionate group of Harrison buffs hope to eventually establish a Harrison museum.

As a follow-up to the Landline episode, AIRAH CEO Tony Gleeson featured as one of the expert guests on ABC Melbourne radio Conversation Hour about Harrison and his adventures in ice-making and refrigeration.