HOMES FOR RENT
FRIGIDAIRE • In June of 1918, General Motors bought out a small Detroit refrigerator company and renamed it Frigidaire. They set their engineers to work improving the fridge. One of the main problems was that the various coolants used – ammonia, methyl choloride, sulfur dioxide –killed people when the refrigerator leaked. They were also corrosive and explosive, killing people when the fridge blew up. What was needed was a coolant that was non-toxic, non-corrosive, nonexplosive, and cheap.
Balfour Beatty Communities
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GrandForksFamilyHousing.com or Call: 844-334-1043
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MOMENTS IN TIME
• On Dec. 18, 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. That winter of 1620-1621 was brutal, and the Pilgrims struggled to find food and ward off sickness. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were dead. • On Dec. 15, 1791, Virginia becomes the final state to ratify the Bill of Rights, making the first 10 amendments to the Constitution law. The Anti-Federalist critics of the Constitution believed that it gave too much power to the federal government. The Bill of Rights assuaged their concerns. • On Dec. 17, 1944, Public Proclamation No. 21 declared that JapaneseAmerican "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes. In 1942, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military. • On Dec. 20, 1957, Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army. After basic training, he © 2014 King Features Synd., Inc.
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served in 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg, Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant. • On Dec. 19, 1968, Warner Brothers releases the movie "Bullitt," starring Steve McQueen, in Sweden, two months after its debut in U.S. theaters. Many critics consider "Bullitt" to be one of the greatest action movies ever made, because of the sevenminute car chase through the streets of San Francisco. • On Dec. 16, 1973, the Buffalo Bills running back "OJ" Simpson becomes the first player in the National Football League to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season. After leading the University of Southern California Trojans to a Rose Bowl victory and winning the Heisman Trophy, Simpson was drafted by Buffalo in 1969. • On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet.
FREON • Thomas Midgley was one of GM’s best researchers and he went to work on the task working under the direction of Charles Kettering. It only took him three days of experimenting to solve the problem. As a result, on December 31, 1928, Frigidaire received the first patent for chlorofluorocarbons which they gave the trade name of Freon. To demonstrate Freon’s characteristics at the meeting of the American Chemical Society, Midgley inhaled a lung full of Freon gas, then exhaled over a lit candle. The candle was snuffed out by the gas, Midgley did not keel over, and the assembled chemists hailed Freon as the perfect non-toxic non-flammable coolant. Soon refrigerators containing Freon were standard issue. No one had even heard of the ozone layer. MODERN FRIDGES • Today a chemical called tetrafluoroethane is used in modern refrigerators. It turns into a liquid when it is cooled to -15.9ºF. A motor and compressor squeezes the chemical. When it is compressed, the gas heats up as it is pressurized. When the compressed gas passes through the coils on the back or bottom of the fridge, it expands and the heat goes into the room, leaving the interior of the fridge cool.