George M. SMITH

                   From Alaiedon Twp. early records
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Stray heifer: Notice is hereby (given) that the subscriber D.I. Leek has
t his day taken up as a stray one yearling heifer of a deep red color wi
th a little white under the flank. The owner isrequested to prove proper
ty pay charges & take said heifer away. Dated Alaiedon Dec. 13, A.D.
1852. .. The above description Discharged from this recordas directed by
D.I. L eek property claimed by George Smith Dec. 21, A.D. 1852
From the Pioneer History of Ingham County by Frances Adams
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
... George Smith of Eden continued the work, and it was through his effor
ts the Eden church was built.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Imagine if, instead of using the fridge in the kitchen, you had to keep
me at and fish preserved in barrels of salt or smoked in a smoke house
out ba ck? Imagine how large the grocery store would be if it used snow
and ic e, cool streams, springs, caves and cellars to keep ice cream
frozen a nd TV dinners chilled
Those grocery store and kitchen fridges are the latest development in a
3, 000 year evolution of refrigeration. As early as 1,000 BC, the Chinese
c ut and stored ice for use in warmer weather. 500 yearslater, the
Egyptia ns and Indians made ice on cold nights by leaving water inwet
earthenwa re pots outside. In 18th century England, servants collected
ice in the wi nter and put it into icehouses, where the sheets of ice
were packed in sal t, wrapped in strips of flannel material, and stored
undergroundto keep t hem frozen until summer.
Ice houses evolved into smaller ice boxesthat were made of wood and lin
ed with tin or zinc and insulated with cork orsawdust. Sometimes even
sea weed was used to keep ice cold and "refrigerate"food. A drip pan
collect ed the melted water and someone had to empty it every day.
In the 18th century, scientist Michael Faraday liquefied ammonia to cau
se cooling. Today's fridge and freezer (not to mention air conditioners a
nd de-humidifiers) work on an idea adapted from Faraday's experiments.
Rerfigerators compress a gas into a liquid. This process generates heat
(w hich youcan usually feel at the back of your fridge). The liquid is
pump ed throughpipes to the inside of fridge and allowed to expand back
in to a gas. This process absorbs heat, cooling the inside of the fridge.
T he gas is pumped backout and the cycle repeats.
People didn't switch from ice boxes to modern refrigerators voluntarily.
W arm winters in 1889 and 1890 in the U.S. created shortages of natural
ic e. Grocery stores and food industries were forced to uselarge
refrigerato rs to freeze and store fish, dairy products and meat so they
wouldn't go b ad.
In 1911 General Electric released a home refrigerator invented by a Fren
ch monk. This model used compressors that were driven by long belts
attach ed to motors in the basement or in a neighbouring room. The dial
in the ba ck of the fridge that controls temperature was added in 1918. A
typical fr idge at that time looked like a wooden cabinet with a
water-cooled compres sor. Later, more stylish steel and porcelain
cabinets replaced the wood en ones. Freezers with ice cube trays were
added on top. Automatic icemak ers started churning out ice in the 1950s
and 60s.