By Abigail Bashor
July 16 is National Ice Cream Day and enjoying the sweet chill of this delicious dessert is what the occasion is all about!
As we dig into our tasty treats, we should consider the National Inventors Hall of Fame® Inductees who we have to thank for being able to enjoy ice cream in a safe and comforting way year-round.
Beulah Louise Henry from National Inventors Hall of Fame
Inventors Beulah Henry and Mary Engle Pennington are two women who ensured our ice cream delight more than one century ago. Henry, often known as “Lady Edison” for her dozens of useful everyday inventions, patented the vacuum-sealed ice cream freezer in 1912 so the freezing of the cream could be retained with a minimum amount of ice.
Mary Engle Pennington from National Inventors Hall of Fame
Pennington was a devoted bacteriological chemist, food scientist and refrigeration engineer whose research developed safety standards to help avoid the bacterial contamination of milk. In the early 20th century, she analyzed the ice cream of pushcart vendors whose lack of sterilization of kettles and ladles was making children sick. Pennington shared her work with these vendors and explained that boiling water could help prevent illness, leading to the adoption of new food-handling practices and forming the basis of refrigeration research.
Celebrate ice cream innovation this year by honoring these inventors!
By
Abigail Bashor
National Inventors Hall of Fame
Thanks to Abigail Bashor and the National Inventors Hall of Fame for providing us with this interesting information. It is always nice to read about women who were way ahead of their time making strides for the rest of his. We all benefit from the National Inventors Hall of Fame they they provide such good records. We hope to have more information from them in the future.
