Modern-day refrigeration fixes usually take the form of Dollar Tree organization hacks or in-fridge thermometers that prevent food waste, but what if this common appliance was also a known lethal threat? The 1920s were the early days of refrigeration, one of the most important inventions in food and drink, but early versions of these appliances compressed toxic and flammable gases to cool the air inside. Refrigerator gas leaks, fires, and even explosions were major problems that German scientist Albert Einstein and his Hungarian colleague, Leo Szilard, sought to solve with their own invention.
In 1926, they created a unique pump system meant to replace the faulty valves responsible for refrigerators’ poisonous gas leaks. Instead of relying on moving parts that were prone to malfunction, Einstein and Szilard’s pump compressed refrigerant gases using an electromagnetic field. Additionally, it didn’t require electricity to function — only a heat source. The pair had a U.S. patent pending by 1927.
The following decade, however, was shaped by significant turmoil. Economic disaster rocked the world, and the rise of fascism threatened the Jewish inventors’ very lives. But it wasn’t just world-moving forces of history that derailed the so-called Einstein fridge. Market forces were also at play: Someone else invented something better.
Read more: 14 Condiments That Don’t Need To Be Refrigerated
Depression, Prejudice, And Competition
Unemployment protest in 1930s Germany – Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard successfully sold their pending patent to the Swedish company Electrolux in 1927, but two years later the Great Depression crushed economies all over the world. With businesses, governments, and consumers all feeling the pressure, the pair’s pump design didn’t see much enthusiasm.
The early 1930s were especially hard on the inventors’ home country of Germany, which already faced significant economic difficulty throughout the 1920s. The Great Depression helped accelerate the rise of the Nazis who, driven by a violent hatred of Judaism, scapegoated Jewish people for the country’s woes. Rising antisemitic violence and discrimination made Germany unsafe for men like Einstein and Szilard, both of whom fled continental Europe by 1933.
Technology, however, had already advanced beyond their pump design. The American company General Motors invested in Thomas Midgely, who in 1928 invented Freon, a brand name for several chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which were a safer alternative to poisonous and explosive gases. They were also more efficient than the electromagnetic pump. By the time Einstein moved to America in 1933 and Szilard followed five years later, Freon was already making refrigerators a standard kitchen appliance as the U.S. economy slowly recovered.
What Happened To The Einstein Refrigerator?
Albert Einstein writing equation on chalkboard – Bettmann/Getty Images
Their refrigeration dreams dashed, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard moved on to other projects, including the frontiers of nuclear energy. This resulted in their 1939 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him that Nazi Germany was likely to invent a nuclear weapon. Roosevelt took action, and what historians know as the Einstein-Szilard letter led to the Manhattan Project, the atomic bombing of Japan, and the post-war age of nuclear weapons.
In the world of refrigeration, the popular Freon formula known as R22 eventually became known as a major culprit of ozone layer depletion. Its gradual phase-out in favor of less harmful gases, including some that still go by the brand name Freon, is nearly complete.
The decline of the original Freon, however, did not mean the rise of the Einstein fridge. Its electricity-free design briefly showed promise for delivering refrigeration to areas without reliable power, but this revival has not yet come to fruition. The Einstein refrigerator mostly remains a historical footnote, like the lifelong digestive issues that briefly made Einstein a vegetarian before his death.
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