Googling "frigorific rays" provides a quaint history lesson in itself,
weighted to some extent in the self-delusion of an earlier time frame; but
... is there anything to it, in the way of scientific validity ?

Well, yes there is, and a good analogy might start in chemistry -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigorific_mixture

"A frigorific mixture is a mixture of two or more chemicals that reaches an
equilibrium temperature that is independent of the temperature of its
component chemicals before they are mixed." IOW ... 2+2 does not always
equal four in terms of thermal mixtures. Moving on to waves and photons, we
would need to find a similar kind of energy polarization, where the
interaction of two entities proceeds to provide what is essentially 2+2=1...
and guess what, it happens all the time (in the audible range).

In fact, frigorific radiation would be a cancelling wave - which itself is
just as energetic as is the wave to be nullified, but in the end both are
reduced significantly. There is also a google entry for this phenomenon in
another kind of sensory wave:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control

You can see why this would work with sound, where there are longer
wavelengths and fewer distinct frequencies to manage. Heat is another story,
with short wavelengths and a wide spectrum. In the end, a "frigorific ray"
for blackbody radiation would not be a single frequency, but would need to
provide specific frequencies of anti-noise for all of the spectrum, and at a
very short wavelength. Plus the cancelling radiation would need to change in
step with the lowering of temperature.

This would involve the so-called T-wave, which is normally felt as heat -
but it would presumably be the anti-noise of the blackbody frequencies
associated with a particular temperature, and would require a digital signal
that canceled thermal radiation at every stage of the reduction.  

Not impossible, perhaps, but very daunting... perhaps frigorific radiation
will be routine when computers get to be about 1000 times more powerful
(mid-terahertz, which is 15 years from now, if you apply the House version
of Moore's law - a doubling every 18 months).

Jones

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