Aussie Surprise of the Month

James Harrison, a really cool inventor.

James Harrison was a pioneer in all kinds of refrigeration. He emigrated from Scotland to Melbourne in 1839, not long after Victoria's separation from NSW.

At Rocky Point, Geelong, he designed and built the plant for the first Australian manufacture of ice, taking out a local patent in 1854. The Bendigo brewers, Glasgow & Co., adopted his principles in a pioneer mechanical refrigerator.

In 1856 Harrison went to London where he patented his process (747 of 1856) and his apparatus (2362 of 1857). Siebe Brothers of Holborn used his designs to make improved machinery that was shipped to Victoria in 1859. Harrison moved to Melbourne so he could make (and sell) more ice. Then, Harrison designed a revolutionary refrigerator, and patented it in 1860. It was used the following year in Scotland to distil paraffin.

Before 1870, Harrison began pioneering work on the refrigeration of ships for the export of meat. In 1873 he won a gold medal at the Melbourne Exhibition by proving that meat kept frozen for months remained perfectly edible and that it might be shipped to England for 7 shillings a ton. As a result he was given £2500 for an experiment.

In July the Norfolk sailed with twenty-five tons of beef and mutton. Through lack of funds for adequate machinery, handling and ignorance they learned beef should only be chilled, but his invention revolutionised the preservation and transport of meat.