"George E. Cawthon" wrote in message
...
Brian wrote:
I belive they used ammonia + sulfer dioxide.

Combo sounds pretty toxic and 18 pounds in the closed
space most likely will kill ya. Not good your pasta either.

Brian


All kinds of stuff was used for refrigeration,
including sulfur dioxide and ammonia. Doubt that
they were used together. Many of the fluids were
toxic and probably one of the reasons for the
switch to freon. Of course ammonia is still used
in absorption refrigerators used in many RV's and
industry. Doesn't seem to worry most people.

See the prior post about what was used and a basic history..

Now, Arkel Servel is still making resi units that use ammonia. Real popular
in SoCal, and its a bitch when your gas bill in the summer exceeds the
winter months.
BTW...Freon (used to apply to only R12, now any DuPont refrigerant) is toxic
in the sense that when you fail to follow proper brazing practice, you can
make phosgene gas, and by itself, it will displace oxygen and you can
literally suffocate in the stuff.

134a has its own issues...

Propane is a hell of a refrigerant, and was actually used by many a hack to
recharge older R12 units, particulary in automotive. And boy...thats just
what you want up front under your hood....a couple of pounds of propane
under 200PSI...