March 28, 2004

Ice Box Cooled Florida

Florida might not have become a retirement haven except for the invention of Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola.

His ice machine, patented three years after Florida became a state, led the way to taming tropical climate and revolutionizing food storage.

Patti Bartlett of the Florida Historical Society gives us particulars.

Dr. Gorrie initially practiced in Abbeville, S.C. He came to the little cotton port of Apalachicola in 1835. He quickly became a community leader as well as physician - successively serving as postmaster, notary public, president of the Apalachicola Bank and mayor.

The Apalachicola Land Company obtained clear title to the area in 1836 and laid out the town in the pattern of Philadelphia. It asked Dr. Gorrie to recommend improvement. He ordered the draining of swamps and reclamation of shrubby land.

During this period he married Caroline Myrick Beman, widowed proprietress of a mansion converted to the Florida Hotel.

In the early days of Florida, yellow fever was a regular and deadly scourge. Spring and summer was the epidemic season. Dr. Gorrie was inundated with patients, but there was no cure. Bitter quinine was a palliative.

Dr. Gorrie noticed that the annual epidemic abated with the onset of cool weather in the fall and winter. He surmised that cold was a preventive, in not cure, for yellow fever.

It would not be until 1901 when Dr. Walter Reed and others, would demonstrate that mosquitoes were the carrier of yellow fever virus. Dr. Gorrie a half century earlier did not realize that demise of mosquitoes in the cold months was the reason for the decline of yellow fever.

Nevertheless, when a severe epidemic hi Florida in 1841, Gorrie noted: "Nature would terminate the fevers by changing the seasons." He experimented with pans of ice in his infirmary - his wife's former hotel.

In those days, ice for Florida - and all other places during the summer - wads imported from northern "ice farms." Ice from frozen lakes was stored in warehouses insulated with sawdust. When needed, ice was shipped by insulated railcars.

Ice in Apalachicola cost $1.50 a pound or more - equivalent to $12 a pound in today's money. Dr. Gorrie stored his precious supply in an insulated pit ten feet underground.

To ensure a dependable and economical source, Gorrie began experimenting with the basic principle of refrigeration discovered in 1755 by another physician. Dr. William Cullen at Glasgow University had created ice by evaporating ether in a vacuum.

Dr. Gorrie surmised that ordinary air could be utilized as a working gas. He began writing a series of articles in Apalachicola's Centennial Advertiser newspaper titled "On the Prevention of Malarial Diseases."

Interestingly, he used the pen name, "Jenner" - a tribute to Edward Jenner (1749-1823) who discovered smallpox vaccine.

According to these articles, Dr. Gorrie had constructed an imperfect "refrigeration box" by May 1844. After five years of work, he devised a cumbersome machine that produced ice about the size of today's ordinary ice-cube.

Gorrie's basic principle is that most often used in modern refrigerators - rapid expansion of gases.

Using two double-acting force pumps, he first condensed rarified air then introduced a small amount of water into it. The compressed, humid air was submerged in coils surrounded by a circulating bath of brine.

This lowered the temperature of the brine to 27 degrees - enough to freeze rainwater in a brick-sized metal box

He demonstrated his machine dramatically at a July 14, 1847, banquet. It was arranged at Apalachicola by the French consul Monsieur Rosan to celebrate Bastille Day.

Rosan proposed a toast: "On Bastille Day, France gave her citizens what they wanted. Rosan gives his guests what they want, cool wines - even if it demands a miracle!"

On this cue, waiters marched in with bottles of Champagne cradled in buckets of ice created by Dr. Gorrie. The guests supposed a shipment of expensive ice had come in from up north.

Rosan then proposed a toast" "Let us drink to the man who made the ice, Dr. Gorrie." The response was thunderous.

Dr. Gorrie filed his patent Feb. 17, 1848, and it was granted two years later. A Boston financier, whose name is unknown, invested in a prototype refrigerator built by the Cincinnati (Ohio) Iron Works.

Dr. Gorrie neglected his medical practice, devoting more and more time if perfecting and promoting his "ice box."

Although the machine produced ice in quantities, leakage and irregular performance sometimes impaired its operation. The: "ice lobby" of northern lake farmers lampooned Dr. Gorrie's apparatus.

"A New York newspaper wrote:
Some crank down in Apalachicola, Florida -- a Doctor John Gorrie -- claims he can make ice as good as God Almighty!"

Dr. Gorrie wrote in reply: "Moral causes have been brought into play to prevent the machine's use. It had been found in advance of the wants of country."

He was greatly depressed over the criticism and lack of acceptance, of his subsequent "air-conditioning" patent applications - both of which he knew was a boon to mankind.

Dr. Gorrie died of "nervous collapse" June 29, 1855, survived by his wife, son and daughter. He is buried in Gorrie Square at Apalachicola.

An impressive monument was erected to his memory near Trinity Episcopal Church that he helped found. Dr. Gorrie was honored by Florida when his statue was placed in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

His "refrigerator box" ice machine is on display at the John Gorrie State Museum -- and his portrait hangs proudly in the Apalachicola Area Historical Society.

Pause, and thank Dr. Gorrie next July when you plop a half-dozen ice cubes in your iced tea and turn down the air conditioning a couple more notches.

Author: Lindsey Williams