History of Artificial Cold, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Issues

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Historiographical Issues in the History of Cold

   • Kostas Gavroglu

   Pages 1-17

3. Investigating the Very Cold

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Early Modern History of Cold: Robert Boyle and the Emergence of a New Experimental Field in Seventeenth Century Experimental Philosophy

      • Christiana Christopoulou

      Pages 21-51

   3. James Dewar and His Route to the Liquefaction of Hydrogen

      • J. S. Rowlinson

      Pages 53-64

   4. The Cryogenic Laboratory of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes: An Early Case of Big Science

      • Dirk van Delft

      Pages 65-81

   5. Superconductivity—A Challenge to Modern Physics

      • Christian Joas, Georges Waysand

      Pages 83-92

   6. Superfluidity: How Quantum Mechanics Became Visible

      • Sébastien Balibar

      Pages 93-117

   7. The Physics of Cold in the Cold War—“On-Line Computing” Between the ICBM Program and Superconductivity

      • Johannes Knolle, Christian Joas

      Pages 119-132

4. Industries of Cold

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133

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   2. Domestic Ice-Making Machines 1830–1930

      • Simón Reif-Acherman

      Pages 135-170

   3. Carl Linde and His Relationship with Georges Claude: The Cooperation Between Two Independent Inventors in Cryogenics and Its Side Effects

      • Hans-Liudger Dienel

      Pages 171-188

   4. Meeting Artificial Cold: Expositions and Refrigeration, 1896–1937

      • Guillaume de Syon

      Pages 189-198

5. Consuming Cold

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199

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   2. The Introduction of Frozen Foods in West Germany and Its Integration into the Daily Diet

      • Ulrike Thoms

      Pages 201-229

   3. The Means of Modernization, Freezing Technologies and the Cultural Politics of Everyday Life, Norway 1940–1965

      • Terje Finstad

      Pages 231-249

   4. The Invention of Refrigerated Transport and the Development of the International Dressed Meat Trade

      • Jonathan Rees

      Pages 251-265

   5. ‘Fresher than Fresh’. Consumer Attitudes Towards the Development of the Cold Chain in Post-2WW Greece

      • Faidra Papanelopoulou

      Pages 267-280

6. Back Matter

   Pages 281-288

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The history of artificial cold has been a rather intriguing interdisciplinary subject (physics, chemistry, technology, sociology, economics, anthropology, consumer studies) which despite some excellent monographs and research papers, has not been systematically exploited. It is a subject with all kinds of scientific, technological as well as cultural dimensions. For example, the common home refrigerator has brought about unimaginably deep changes to our everyday lives changing drastically eating habits and shopping mentalities. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st, issues related to the production and exploitation of artificial cold have never stopped to provide us with an incredibly interesting set of phenomena, novel theoretical explanations, amazing possibilities concerning technological applications and all encompassing cultural repercussions. The discovery of the unexpected and “bizarre” phenomena of superconductivity and superfluidity, the necessity to incorporate macroscopic quantum phenomena to the framework of quantum mechanics, the discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation and high temperature superconductivity, the use of superconducting magnets for high energy particle accelerators, the construction of new computer hardware, the extensive applications of cryomedicine, and the multi billion industry of frozen foods, are some of the more dramatic instances in the history of artificial cold. ​

• 17th century experimental philosophy
• Artificial cold
• Domestic Ice-Making Machines
• Frozen foods
• History of low temperatures
• Kammerlingh Onnes
• Road to the Liquefaction of Hydrogen
• Superconductivity
• The physics of cold in the Cold War
• cryogenic laboratory
• cryogenics and its side effects
• how quantum mechanics became visible
• introduction of frozen foods in West Germany

“In History of Artificial Cold, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Issues, editor Kostas Gavroglu has brought together a well-balanced and very readable collection of essays on the history of the investigation and use of ‘cold.’ … the collection is well worth reading. … As an instructor, I would certainly suggest it to a student as a starting point for more detailed research on the subject of cold in science and society.” (Andrew Ede, Metascience, December, 2014)

• Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

  Kostas Gavroglu

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