Ferdinand Philippe Edouard Carré (11 March 1824 – 11 January 1900) was a French engineer born on 11 March 1824 in Moislains (Somme). He is most famous for inventing refrigeration equipment used to make ice. Carré passed away on 11 January 1900 in Pommeuse (Seine-et-Marne).

Work

In 1850, Ferdinand's brother Edmond Carré (22 January 1833 – 7 May 1894) created the first absorption refrigerator, using water and sulfuric acid. Ferdinand continued Edmond's work on this process and in 1858 developed a machine that used water as the absorbent and ammonia as the refrigerant. His absorption machine was patented in France in 1859 and in the United States in 1860. In 1862, he displayed his ice-making machine at the Universal London Exhibition, producing 200 kilograms (440 lb) of ice per hour. His design was based on the gas–vapor system invented by Australian scientist James Harrison.

In 1876, he installed an absorption refrigeration system on the ship Paraguay, enabling the ship to transport frozen meat on a long-distance journey across continents. Carré's method remained widely used through the early 1900s but was later replaced by systems that used the liquid-vapor compression cycle.

Carré also studied electricity. In 1877, he invented an electric light regulator. He also created the Carré machine, an electrostatic generator that produced high voltages.