Dry Ice - History

History

It is generally accepted that dry ice was first observed in 1834 by French chemist Charles Thilorier, who published the first account of the substance. In his experiments, he noted that when opening the lid of a large cylinder containing liquid carbon dioxide, most of the liquid CO₂ quickly evaporated. This left only solid dry ice in the container. In 1924, Thomas B. Slate applied for a US patent to sell dry ice commercially. Subsequently, he became the first to make dry ice successful as an industry. In 1925, this solid form of CO₂ was trademarked by the DryIce Corporation of America as "Dry ice", thus leading to its common name. That same year the DryIce Co. sold the substance commercially for the first time; marketing it for refrigerating purposes.

The alternative name "Cardice" is a registered trademark of Air Liquide UK Ltd. It is sometimes written as "card ice".