POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Hallstrom refrigerator

Object No. 97/17/1

This is an example of the famous Hallstrom 'Silent Knight' electric refrigerator made in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby in 1958 by Hallstroms's Pty Ltd. Although artificial refrigerator was widespread in the food and beverages industries by the late nineteenth century, it was only the development of an affordable, self-contained electric refrigerator in the early twentieth century that the full benefits of refrigeration finally reached the home. Small domestic refrigerators had been available from the first decades of the twentieth century, including the Kelvinator in 1918, they were very costly, selling for more than a family car. The G.E. Monitor Top was the first affordable domestic refrigerator to be produced. In the small country towns and on Australian outback farms kerosene refrigerators made by Hallstroms from 1928 were used where electricity was not available. Despite this, refrigerators they were a luxury and did not become common place in Australia until the 1950s with greater prosperity and the widespread availability of electricity. By preventing food spoilage, the refrigerator probably saved countless people from food poisoning. Margaret Simpson, Curator October 2015

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Summary

Object Statement

Refrigerator, electric, Hallstrom 'Silent Knight', metal/plastic, made by Hallstrom's Pty Ltd, Willoughby, New South Wales, Australia, 1958

Physical Description

Cream painted sheet metal refigerator cabinet with right hinged door, curved sides and a horizontal chromed steel handle. The front of the door has a metal badge with the raised letters HALLSTROM above a stylised chevron. In the centre of the chevron is a stylised image of a Knight, in relief, holding one gloved hand to his mouth. The back of the cabinet is sealed, except for a small opening at the bottom which contains a black painted refrigeration compressor, pump and refrigerant reservoir, the latter stamped in yellow paint '8 Jan 1958'. Inside the refrigerator are four chromed wire shelves with silver and white aluminium front finishing strips. Below the bottom shelf are two plastic crisper trays. Above the top shelf is a white plastic meat tray and the freezer, which has a silver/blue metalised plastic door. The inside surface of the door has four white plastic shelves with metalised plastic finishing strips.

DIMENSIONS

Height

1495 mm

Width

750 mm

Depth

690 mm

Weight

131 kg

PRODUCTION

Notes

This fridge was probably designed 'in-house' by Hallstrom's Pty Ltd at their Willoughby factory in Sydney. The date 1958 is based on the date stamp on the compressor and donor's family recollections. After reading an early article on refrigeration, Edward Hallstrom studied every patent he could since Federation and experimented in a makeshift laboratory in his backyard in the Sydney suburb of Dee Why. He quickly saw the possibilities of kerosene-powered refrigeration for outback stations which relied on the primitive 'Coolgardie safe' to keep food cool. In 1928 Edward Halmstrom had produced his first unit, the Icy Ball absorption refrigerator, a chest model run by kerosene, which he sold to country properties. At this time if electricity was available it was generated from small electric lighting plants on the property itself which only generated enough power for run a couple of electric lights with no electricity spare for a fridge as well. Hallstrom moved production from Dee Why to a rambling site at Willoughby on the North Shore. Sir Edward then diversified into the famous 'Silent Knight' brand upright models introduced in 1935 which ran both on gas or electricity. They were so named because fridges at the time were very noisy. The 'Silent Night' was cheap to buy but very expensive to operate. Operating costs were so expensive that Sir Edward was said to have made an arrangement with the electricity suppliers to subsidise the electricity bills of purchasers of his refrigerator By the mid-1940s Hallstroms Pty Ltd was turning out 1200 refrigerators per week and employed over seven hundred people, among them members of his family. By 1955 eighty-three percent of households in Sydney had a refrigerator. He subsequently invented a machine for refrigerating anaesthetics which he presented to Sydney Hospital.

HISTORY

Notes

Purchased about Christmas Eve 1958 by Frederick Miller (donor's father) when the family refrigerator broke down. Used by Miller up his death in September 1996 (interview with donor and her brother).

SOURCE

Credit Line

Gift of Frederick Charles Miller

Acquisition Date

22 January 1997

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