Baltzar von Platen (1898-1984)

Baltzar von Platen (1898-1984) together with Carl Munters[?] was the inventor of the gas absorption refrigerator[?] in 1922 while they were both Swedish engineering students at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden which produced cold from a heat source such as propane, electricity or kerosene. In 1923 production by AB Arctic began. In 1925 AB Arctic was purchased by Electrolux[?] which began selling them worldwide. Servel[?] purchased rights to manufacture the refrigerator in 1925 and was the only U.S. manufacturer for many years.

Baltzar von Platen also worked with ASEA[?], Sweden's major electrical company, together with Erik Lundblad[?] on the development of a process which used heat and pressure to produce diamonds. Von Platen had left the project before it succeeded in producing the first synthetic diamonds in 1953.

External Links

• The Gas Model Refrigerator (http://otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F97/vj09/project5)