History Daily: Saturday Matinee – The Curious History of Your Home

Episode Title: The History of Cool
Air Date: September 27, 2025
Host: Lindsay Graham (History Daily)
Guest Narrator: Ruth Goodman (The Curious History of Your Home)

Overview:

This Saturday Matinee episode presents a collaboration with the Noiser podcast "The Curious History of Your Home," delving into the fascinating history of refrigeration. Tracing the journey from ancient yakshals in Persia to the modern fridge in nearly every household, the episode explores the technological breakthroughs—and missteps—that have transformed how humans keep food fresh, store produce, and ultimately, how we eat and live.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins of Artificial Cooling

• Yakhchal: Ancient Persian Ice Houses

  • In 400 BC Persia (present-day Iran), people engineered massive, conical structures called yakhchals to store ice through blistering summers, demonstrating remarkable ingenuity without electricity.
  • Experience inside a yakhchal is vividly described:

    “As you skirt a large sand dune on your left, an immense wall comes into view... A welcome chill greets you as you step inside the refreshingly cool chamber." (04:04)

  • Ice was made in shallow outdoor pools, shielded from sun by tall walls, then stored in insulated underground pits lined with straw.
  • The sophisticated mortar (“sarouge”—containing sand, limestone, clay, egg whites, goat hair, and ash) and design principles maximized insulation.

• Ancient and Medieval Cold Storage Across Cultures

  • Ice storage dates back even earlier—King Zimri Lim’s ice house (1780 BC) and likely humbler versions among ordinary people (08:30).
  • Greeks, Romans, and ancient Chinese also developed ice pits; by 618 AD, the Chinese created “ice cream” and exclusive ice-cooled rooms for the elite.

    “One flavor was camphor, which tastes a bit like mothballs. Thanks, but I think I'll give that one a miss.” (09:45)

• Vernacular Solutions for Ordinary Folk

  • In Orkney (Bronze Age), rectangular stone-lined pits drew cool from the ground.
  • Victorian pantries in Britain kept cool via careful placement, ventilation, stone floors and shelves, and sometimes running water (11:18).

    “I once lived as a Victorian for a TV documentary series, so I know firsthand how efficient these walk-in larders are.” (14:01)

2. The Science of Cold: Key Principles

• Evaporation & Earth Insulation
  • Across ages, cooling harnessed basic physics:
    • Evaporation absorbs heat.
    • Cool air sinks, warm air rises.
    • Underground or shaded spaces insulated food.

      “Evaporation is a constant feature in all the cold spaces we’ve looked at so far… It’s still an important principle today, even in the most modern refrigeration appliances.” (13:14)

3. The Age of Invention: 19th Century Breakthroughs

• James Harrison – The Eureka Moment

  • In 1850s Australia, Harrison notices his metal type chilled by evaporating ether, inspiring him to invent a precursor to mechanical refrigeration:

    “If evaporating ether can cool down metal, perhaps it can do the same to other things. Food, for instance. This is James Harrison’s eureka moment.” (15:51)

  • First machine was built in a cave for safety—ether is highly flammable.
  • Despite innovation, first attempts at shipping frozen meat overseas failed; but Harrison paved the way for the industry.

• Other Pioneers: Cullen, Faraday, Gorey

  • Thomas Cullen (1758): Early refrigeration via chemical evaporation, but no practical uptake.
  • Michael Faraday (1821): Liquefied gases to cool air.
  • John Gorey (US): Designed an “air conditioning” device for yellow fever patients.

    “In the end, two European inventors…emerged as winners in the scramble…” (20:30)

• The Race Heats Up: Carre & von Linde

  • Ferdinand Carre: Refrigerators using expanding ammonia (1856)—efficient but highly toxic.
  • Carl von Linde: Safer, more reliable gas liquefaction (1876)—paves the way for modern fridges.

• Technological Progress as Collective Effort:

  “No one person was responsible for inventing the modern appliance we call a fridge… It was like a virtual brainstorming session that lasted a hundred years.” (22:25)

4. Refrigeration and Historical Events

• Garfield’s Sick Room (1881)

  • After President Garfield was shot, Navy engineers built an evaporative cooling device in his sickroom, lowering temperature by 11°C (20°F), inspired by John Gorey’s yellow fever inventions.

    “The cooling machine helped keep President Garfield comfortable. It may even have prolonged his life. But it wasn’t enough to save him.” (24:30)

• Global Food Markets & Shipping

  • 1882: The Dunedin sails frozen meat from New Zealand to England. Success in long-distance refrigerated shipping changes food worldwide.

5. The Frozen Food Revolution: Clarence Birdseye

• Flash Freezing in Labrador (1912)
  • Birdseye witnesses Inuit fishermen’s super-fast freezing technique; notices quality is much better than slow-frozen fish.

    “The fish is utterly frozen. Birdseye is astonished. It must have happened instantaneously.” (28:33)

  • Launches the Birdseye brand; revolutionizes mass-market frozen foods.

6. Modern Refrigeration: Progress & Pitfalls

• Electric Refrigerators and Synthetic Coolants

  • Early 20th-century adoption, boosted by widespread electricity.
  • Early coolants (ammonia) hazardous; 1920s invention of Freon (a CFC) hailed as a miracle—later revealed to damage the ozone layer, prompting a gradual phase-out (Montreal Protocol, 1987).

• Environmental Costs and Modern Debates

  • Over 98% of UK homes, 99.8% of American homes have refrigerators.
  • Fridges and global food shipping have transformed diets—enabling year-round, worldwide produce, but also raising concerns about food miles, seasonality, and ecological impact.

    “Artificial refrigeration, like many technological advancements, has opened something of a Pandora’s icebox.” (31:00)

• Reflection: Connecting Past & Present

  “Next time you tiptoe into the kitchen in the dead of night and gently ease open the fridge, cast your mind back to the yakshals of ancient Persia.” (33:22)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ancient Ingenuity:

  “Powered only by human ingenuity, it’s arguably one of the greatest achievements of the ancient world.” (06:05) — Ruth Goodman

• On the Camphor Ice Cream of Ancient China:

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll give that one a miss.” (09:45) — Ruth Goodman

• On the Collaborative Nature of Innovation:

  “It was like a virtual brainstorming session that lasted a hundred years.” (22:25) — Ruth Goodman

• On Unexpected Historical Consequences:

  “Artificial refrigeration... has opened something of a Pandora’s icebox.” (31:00) — Ruth Goodman

Important Timestamps

• 04:04: Entering the Persian yakhchal—description of ancient refrigeration.
• 09:45: Camphor ice-cream in Tang Dynasty China.
• 14:01: Victorian pantry design and practicality.
• 15:51: James Harrison’s “eureka moment.”
• 20:30: Carre and von Linde’s rivalry and ammonia’s dangers.
• 22:25: Commentary on collective invention.
• 24:30: President Garfield’s assassination and emergency air conditioning in the White House.
• 28:33: Clarence Birdseye and flash-frozen fish insight.
• 31:00: Environmental debates and “Pandora’s icebox” reflection.
• 33:22: Final thought—connecting the modern fridge to ancient yakhchals.

Tone & Storytelling

The episode is immersive and approachable, blending dramatic, sensory historical narration (“Goosebumps appear on your arms... shaking your head in disbelief at what you see. Ice!”) with witty asides and reflections, and a perspective rooted in both history and lived experience. Ruth Goodman’s narration shares warmth and dry humor, making complex technological and social developments engaging and memorable.

Summary

The Curious History of Your Home’s exploration of refrigeration is a journey through time. From ice pits in Bronze Age Orkney, through imperial Chinese ice creams, via Victorian pantries and the race to engineer artificial cold in the industrial era, to the global, electric, and contested modern fridge—this episode shows how human creativity in pursuit of “cool” has changed not just what’s in our kitchens, but the entire world.

For more stories like this, check out "The Curious History of Your Home" via the link in the show notes.