Item HT 19713 Model - Harrison-Siebe Ether Vapour Compression Refrigeration Machine, London, England, 1857

Summary

Model of James Harrison's vapour compression refrigeration machine, one of Victoria's few internationally significant inventions of the 19th century.

The type of refrigeration depicted by this model was developed in Geelong, Victoria, by James Harrison (1816-1893), editor of the Geelong Advertiser, in the early 1850s and patented in Australia and Britain in 1856 and 1857. Harrison's concept was further developed and refined by one of London's leading engineering firms into the design that gave industry its first successful commercial-scale ice-making and refrigeration machines, used in breweries, hotels and distilleries throughout Britain, Europe, South America and Australia. Harrison subsequently used machines of this type to pioneer commercial ice-works in Australia and experiment with the freezing of meat for export to Britain.

This working sectioned scale model of Harrison's ether vapour compression refrigeration machine was built for the Smithsonian Institution in 1963 by the firm H. Clarkson & Son of York, England. The model depicts the first successful commercial version of Harrison's invention, produced by the engineering firm Messrs Siebe & Co., of Mason Street, London, in 1857 and described in an article in 'The Engineer', 12th April1861, page 231. This model is based on the machine described in Harrison's British Patent 2362 /1857: "Improvements in apparatus and producing cold by the evaporation of volatile liquids in vacua", applied for 10th September 1857, and sealed 2nd March 1858.

In the centre of the model is the large compressor (which was powered via a transmission belt to a steam powered engine in the original machine) with a tub containing the condenser coils on the right and the evaporator where the ether was vaporised on the left. At the rear is a wooden freezing box through which brine, chilled by the vaporising ether, was circulated from the evaporator by a small pump. Both the condenser and evaporator are sectioned to show the internal components.

When operating as a working model, it was powered by a small electric motor hidden in the wooden base. When it was on display it was operated by a visitor by using a push-button or foot switch, which caused the working parts of the compressor and brine recirculation pump to move.

The model was used as part of an activated display at the Smithsonian Museum from 1964 to 2002, and then was in storage, being no longer required by the organisation. Note that while described as a "working model", it does not actually operate as a refrigerator or contain any refrigerant.

Physical Description

Metal apparatus painted green with large silver wheel at front and copper drum in top section with wooden barrel with cutaway section on right hand side and wooden box with cutaway section on left hand side and long inclined square tube with two lids open containing ice bricks at the back. There is a figure of a man and two ice bricks on the ground on the left hand side. The model sits on a hollow wooden plinth and the silver wheel goes into the plinth with a leather strap. Inside the plinth, there is a motor and instructions on how to activate the model.