More a Hobby than a Profession - Fishing Before Refrigeration

People have long sought ways of preserving food by keeping it cool. One such innovation, as seen here, is the Coolgardie safe. It is said to have been invented by a miner named Patrick McCormick, on the eastern goldfields of WA, in the 1890s. He built a wooden frame over which he draped hessian. On the top of the frame he placed a container of water into which he placed strips of hessian with the ends lying on the fabric underneath. The water was soaked up by the hessian strips which then carried it to the top of the cabinet where the water ran down the hessian panels to the bottom of the structure, cooling the inside on the way. If a breeze was blowing then the evaporation rate was increased which led to the cooling process being greater. A container underneath caught any drips. This water could then tipped into the container on the top, and the process began again. You could see Coolgardie safes in houses in remote areas right into the 1960’s!