The Gold in Cold: Refrigerated Transport
In The Gold in Cold: Refrigerated Transport, presenter Ruth Goodman visits Greenwich, England, to learn how the first refrigerated ships transported meat from New Zealand to England. Learn how an American inventor solved the problem of keeping food cold as it traveled over land. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Inside the Factory, a series that takes viewers behind the scenes in the factories that make our favorite products.
Lesson Express
Q: What problem prompted people to invent refrigerated transport?
A: There was a surplus of meat being produced that needed to be moved to Europe. Ice wouldn’t last for the entire journey from the tropics to Europe.
Q: How did the first refrigerator work?
A: It took warm air and compressed it so that it cooled.
Q: What did Frederick Jones do? How did he solve the problem of providing energy to the refrigerated truck?
A: He solved the problem of how to transport food using a refrigerated truck by using the truck’s engine to power the refrigerator.