History

• Thomas Moore, a Maryland farmer, first coined the term "refrigerator" in 1803, but the refrigeration technique has been around for centuries. Many new models and inventions contributed to the development of the modern refrigerator. In 1879, Thomas Elkins, an African American inventor in Albany, New York, patented his Refrigerating Apparatus.
  
  

Thomas Elkins's Refrigerating Apparatus

• Complete with drawings, the Elkins' patent describes the specifications of his particular refrigeration model. Elkins did not claim a patent for the refrigeration technique in general, which he acknowledged as "an old and well-known process"; rather, he patented his particular design for cycling a coolant liquid through a large container as a "new and useful improvement" in the field of refrigeration. Elkins was awarded with patent number 221,222 for his Refrigerating Apparatus on November 4th, 1879.
  
  

Significance

• Many different inventors contributed to the development of the modern refrigerator, and Elkins' invention was just one in a number of steps. As an African American inventor in the late 19th century, there is little known about him, although he was featured at the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia in their inventors gallery exhibit, "From the Minds of African Americans."