Refrigerators

A refrigerator (commonly abbreviated as fridge) is a cooling apparatus. The common household appliance comprises a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump—chemical or mechanical means—to transfer heat from it to the external environment (i.e., the room in which it is located), cooling the contents to a temperature below ambient. Cooling is a popular food storage technique in developed countries and works by decreasing the reproduction rate of bacteria. The device is thus used to reduce the rate of spoilage of foodstuffs.

Prestcold was a British refrigerator manufacturer, established by the Pressed Steel Co. Ltd of Oxford in 1934. It manufactured both domestic and commercial refrigeration equipment. Through its history, it was closely related to automotive manufacturing, particularly that of Morris Motors and successor British Leyland. Refrigerators were originally produced alongside car bodies at the Pressed Steel facility built for Morris, adjacent to the Morris factory.

Gibson was founded by Joshua Hall in Belding, Michigan, in 1877 as the Belding-Hall Company selling cabinets that housed blocks of ice (ice-boxes). The area around Belding, Michigan, had a skilled workforce of Danish craftsman and a good supply of hardwoods including ash. The company was purchased by Frank Gibson, a competing manufacturer of "ice refrigerators" in the early 1900s. It was the largest in its industry at the time. In 1932, the company began making electric refrigerators.

An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrigerators, iceboxes were referred to by the public as "refrigerators". Only after the invention of the modern electric refrigerator did early non-electric refrigerators become known as iceboxes. The terms ice box and refrigerator were used interchangeably in advertising as long ago as 1848.

A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (commonly used for transporting fruit), neither of which are fitted with cooling apparatus. Reefers can be ice-cooled, come equipped with any one of a variety of mechanical refrigeration systems, or use carbon dioxide (as dry ice) or liquid nitrogen as a cooling agent. Milk cars (and other types of "express" reefers) may or may not include a cooling system, but are equipped with high-speed trucks and other modifications that allow them to travel with passenger trains.

A reefer ship is a refrigerated cargo ship typically used to transport perishable cargo, which require temperature-controlled handling, such as fruits, meat, vegetables, dairy products, and similar items.

Sub-Zero Group, Inc. is a privately-held American company that manufactures and sells luxury kitchen appliances. It sells refrigerators and wine preservation products under the Sub-Zero brand. The company also manufactures kitchen appliances under the Wolf brand and dishwashers under the Cove brand name. Sub-Zero Group is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kelvinator was an American home appliance manufacturer and a line of domestic refrigerators that was the company's namesake. Although it is now defunct as a company, the name remains a brand owned by Electrolux AB. It takes its name from William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who developed the concept of absolute zero and for whom the Kelvin temperature scale is named. The name was thought appropriate for a company that manufactured ice-boxes and refrigerators.

Frigidaire Appliance Company is the American consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of multinational company Electrolux, a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer, headquartered in Stockholm.

Magnetic Poetry is a toy and creative writing aid consisting of individual words—often related to a particular theme or topic—printed on small magnets which can be creatively arranged into poetry on a refrigerator or other metal surface. The informality and spontaneity of Magnetic Poetry has endeared it to educators in creative writing.