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Apalachicola resident Dr. John Gorrie was an early pioneer in the invention of the artificial manufacture of ice, refrigeration and air conditioning. He was granted the first United States patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851. Dr. Gorrie’s basic principle is the one most often used in refrigeration today: cooling caused by the rapid expansion of gases.
You can see a model of Dr. Gorrie’s original ice-making machine and other artifacts at the John Gorrie Museum in Apalachicola.
As Floridians, we pay tribute to Dr. Gorrie for his innovations that have kept us all a little cooler during the summer.
– Jennifer Fennell, CoreMessage, Inc.