My project on chemistry is revolved around cold packs. Cold Packs are popular with coaches and parents are as they treat minor bumps and bruises. They have become popular because of the ease of cold packs and more importantly instant cold packs as all you have to do is squeeze to activate them. For my PBL project it is focused on determining if the temperature of a mixture of water and ammonium nitrate changes with the amount of ammonium nitrate dissolved in the water . Read on to find out the history of cold packs.
Many people use cold packs in their day to day life but most people do not know the history behind cold packs. That is what I am here to explain. Cold Packs have become a part of everyday life today, it seems to most of us that they have been around forever , but cold packs were actually first introduced in 1948. Although, they seem like such a common item it was actually invented not that long ago. It also had a different name when it was first invented it was called Hot-R-Cold-Pak. The way it was used was that it could be chilled in the refrigerator or heated in hot water. They were not as advanced when they first starting out and did not have instant cold packs from the start. After a certain amount of time it came a long way where there is reusable hot and cold pack that could be heated in boiling water or in the microwave, and this was invented by Jacob Spencer in 1973. It did not stop there, though, along with these inventions, instant cold packs were also invented, which are now widely used. Now if you were to go to the supermarket you would most likely be able to find at least one pack of instant cold packs.
At one point this was the only kind of cold/hot pack available :