Haslam Ammonia Refrigeration Compressor

This Haslam ammonia compressor was built between 1894 and 1900 by Derby-based Haslam Foundry & Engineering Company. The compressor was later purchased second hand and installed at the Union Cold Storage, Alexandra Dock, Liverpool, in 1930.

This small single action reciprocating ammonia compressor takes up approximately 1 metre square of space and is around 2 metres tall.

The 19th century saw the development of mechanical refrigeration through the use of vapour-compression technology, pioneered by chemists and engineers such as Carl von Linde, Thomas Bell Lightfoot. Vapour-compression works by cyclically evaporating refrigerant gases like C02 and ammonia to absorb the surrounding heat of a specific space, piping the gas to another location and then compressing these gases via a condenser to release the heat. Vapour-compression systems share many similarities to motor engines in cars and other vehicles and could be throttled to control the rate of compression, and by extension rate of refrigeration.

Ammonia refrigeration compressors became integral in many commercial and industrial applications such as international shipping and storage, with the earliest design of commercial ammonia compressors dating back to the 1870s.

In the late 19th century, British engineer and politician Alfred Seale Haslam, through his company Haslam Foundry and Engineering, developed his own novel iterations of compact and reliable ammonia compressors which were durable enough to be used on ships. This allowed his to establish a monopoly over the nascent British refrigerated shipping industry which last until the early 20th century.

This Haslam ammonia compressor is of a single action reciprocating design based on the same principles of Carl von Linde’s original 1876 single action ammonia compressor design. This original and small-scale design was one of the earliest types of vapour-compression designs to be considered practical for commercial activities.

Union Cold Storage continued to use this compressor alongside others to keep their meat and fish stores refrigerated far into the 20th century until their closing in the late 1970s.