Ice Harvest on Lake Itasca from 11 am to 1 pm on Sat. 11th.  The Pioneer Farmers come with saws, cut blocks from the ice then bounce them up on the edge of the ice that remains.  

It was chilly but it is so cool to see how people used to keep things cold in ice boxes before refrigerators came into being.

Now-a-days the refrigerator is a mainstay in our homes we list and sell.

William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748 came up with the idea of artificial refrigeration but never did anything with the idea then, Oliver Evans known as the “Father of the Refrigerator” started his take on the idea in 1805 but really never made one, then in 1834 Jacob Perkins revamped that idea with his own modification and the refrigerator was born.

Many trials and errors since then gave us a safe chemical that does the cooling of today.  As older models used toxic gases ammonia, methyl chloride, and sulfur dioxide as refrigerants which resulted in

death  because of leaks,

so three American companies but their best on it and freon was discovered.  So the next time you open the door of your refrigerator just think of what it was like just a short 200 years ago.

What will the next 200 years bring for changes,

just in my lifetime I have seen computers the size of a small room

go to desk top size

to ones that you can hold in your hand.  

Telephone then   

phone when I was growing up       to

NOW  

communication then 

was only as far as our string would take us

communication now    

yes our world has become smaller in ways but then again have we just embraced change and run with it.

I for one am looking forward to see what is next on the horizon.