Icebox

This article is about the non-mechanical refrigeration appliance. For other uses, see Ice Box (disambiguation).
Labeled black-and-white image of an icebox
Icebox used in cafés of Paris in the late 1800s

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.[1] The terms ice box and refrigerator were used interchangeably in advertising as long ago as 1848.[2]

  1. ^ Rees, Jonathan (2013-12-15). Refrigeration Nation. JHU Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-1106-4.
  2. ^ [1], Description of a View of the City of Paris, Taken from the Place de la, London, 1848.