Oxford engineers aim to build 1930s invention that uses no electricity. Electrical engineers at Oxford University are trying to develop an eco-friendly refrigerator that runs without electricity, and they are looking back to an early invention by Albert Einstein to do it. The team have recently completed a prototype of a fridge that was patented by Albert Einstein and the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard in 1930. It used no moving parts and relied on pressurised gas to keep things cold.