• Chilling Out - The social impact of refrigeration

Overview

Chilling Out is an exhibit of historic artefacts from the early development of household refrigeration technology. It is based on the collections of the HVACR Heritage Centre Canada, both artefacts and archival documents, and is supported by archival photographs from several other collections.

The story of the evolution of technology is not just about science, inventions and engineering breakthroughs. It is all of those, but it is also a story of how we used technology and how it has affected our lives.

Chilling Out is divided into four major galleries, each covering an aspect of the story. You can visit just one or two galleries, or you can explore all four to get the big picture.

Here is what you will find in each gallery of the exhibit:

Changing Lives

Before refrigeration, most people depended on ice to keep food cold. Refrigerators made life easier and greatly increased the range of foods you could store at home.

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Changing Society

New choices in food and more leisure time allowed people to pursue new activities. Marketers sold refrigerators as a 'lifestyle' accessory.

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How It Works

Find out how only six main components create the magic of mechanical cold. And see how each has been improved from its earliest form.

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Technology Drives Change

Continually developing technologies continue to change and improve our lives. But we have the ultimate say over which technologies survive and which are discarded.

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Moving around the exhibit

As noted above, the exhibit is divided into four galleries
[Changing Lives] [Changing Society] [How It Works] & [Technology Drives Change]

You can jump to any gallery using these links, found on the right hand side of each page.

In addition to these pages, the exhibit includes other information that you may find helpful.

[Catalogue]
A list of all the artefacts in the exhibit with a link to each one.
[Resources]
Here you will find items of interest to teachers such as lesson plans, links to further teaching ideas and additional material such as vidoes & animations.
[References]
This page contains a list of links to other websites.
[Credits]
Information pertaining to the making of this exhibit.
[Search]
Search the entire exhibit by 'keyword'
[Feedback]
Tell us what you think of this exhibit.