Joseph James Coleman

The sailing ship Dunedin, the world’s first major refrigerated ship, using the Bell-Coleman process

Joseph James Coleman FRSE (often referred to simply as J. J. Coleman) (1838-1888) is credited with invention of a mechanical dry-air refrigeration process first used in the sailing ship ‘’Dunedin’’ and sometimes referred to (as a ship type) as Reefer ships. The process focussed upon the use of compressed air for its chilling effects.[1] The effect, which also led to the development of air-conditioning, is known as the Bell-Coleman effect or Bell-Coleman Cycle.[2]

Life

Little is known of his life other than he began his career as an industrial chemist with Young’s Paraffin, Light and Mineral Oil Company in central Scotland. He was a Fellow of the Chemical Institute and a member of the Glasgow Philosophical Society.

In 1877 he was approached by Henry and James Bell, brothers in the shipping company John Bell & Sons, and asked to create a refrigeration process for delivering beef across the Atlantic. This was patented later that year.[3] Together they formed a new company, the Bell-Coleman Mechanical Refrigeration Company, in the same year. In 1879 they fitted out the first ship with the equipment and began trading. This was the SS Circassia. In 1880/81 at the request of New Zealand investors the sailing ship Dunedin was re-equipped as a refrigerated ship and became the first financially successful vessel as a freezer ship.[4] The Bell brothers also took the new technology to the High Street, opening a series of butcher shops across Britain selling chilled meat also from 1879. This quickly grew, and within ten years they had 330 premises.

In the 1880s the Bell-Coleman Company is listed as having offices at 45 West Nile Street in the centre of Glasgow and J J Coleman was living at Fern Villa in Bothwell.[5]

Coleman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1886, and addressed the Society on his new process.[6] His proposers as a Fellow included Lord Kelvin, John Gray McKendrick, James Thomson Bottomley and Sir James Dewar.[7]

He died on 18 December 1888.

References

  1. ↑ Minutes of Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1882, p.170
  2. ↑ http://www.recentscientific.com/sites/default/files/2134.pdf
  3. ↑ The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, to 1914, Mira Wilkins, p.308
  4. ↑ http://meatcuttersclub.activeboard.com/mobile.spark?p=topic&topic=42506317
  5. ↑ Glasgow Post Office Directory 1882-3
  6. ↑ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8374087&fileId=S0370164600003382
  7. ↑ https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf


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