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The 1947 Journal

AIRAH boasts a distinguished history in publishing technical information.

Indeed, the first official journal debuted in July 1947, which means AIRAH has been issuing a publication for more than 70 years.

However, in the days of yore the publication in question was dubbed The Refrigeration Journal and the organisation that issued it went by the moniker of the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Inc.

At 68 pages, the inaugural issue covered considerable technical ground. Featured articles covered topics as diverse as world food problems, freeze drying, thermometers and pressure gauges, ice making, refrigeration (of course), the measurement and control of pH, and frozen milk.

​Some of the standout articles were “Some Aspects of Modern Air Conditioning” by T.A. Roseby; “Bitumen and Some of Its Applications to the Refrigeration Industry” by H.E Muntz; “The Absorption Machine” by Earl Gray (a nom de plume, perhaps?); and Dr H S Bruck’s “A Nibble at Eutetics”.

The Publisher and Editor roles were both performed by DW Boulton.

Yet the honour of writing the journal’s first editorial went to an English national, London-based Joseph Raymond, the Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Institute of Refrigeration.

“For years to come,” wrote Raymond movingly, “one supposes mankind will be sorting out the gains and losses that come to it out of the holocaust of the recent World War.”

One of the lessons to emerge from conflict of the Second World War (which concluded only three years before the journal was published) was the value of refrigeration.

​“IT IS A PITY THAT IT TAKES A WORLD WAR TO CONFER SUCH A BENEFIT... WAR, LIKE NECESSITY, IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION, AND THE DRIVE OF REFRIGERATION ENGINEERS IN BOTH HEMISPHERES IN THE LATE WAR PRODUCED REFRIGERATING EQUIPMENT THAT WAS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESSFUL CONDUCT OF HOSTILITIES ON LAND AND SEA AND IN THE AIR… IT PRESERVED THE VERY LIVES OF OUR SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND AIRMEN IN KEEPING THEM WELL FED IN THE MOST FAR-OFF CLIMES AND IN SUPPLYING THEM WITH BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ON THE MOST DISTANT FRONTS."

​– JOSEPH RAYMOND

Advertising is prominent throughout The Refrigeration Journal and the cover image from the inaugural issue depicts a statue of Australian refrigeration pioneer and industrialist Thomas Sutcliffe Mort.

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