The web site of CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), of all places, has a page on refrigerator magnets. This from an organization that otherwise concerns itself with Higgs and other bosons, antimatter, and other arcane nature, though I suppose magnetism is an essential interest of the org.

“Fridge magnets only ‘stick’ to the fridge on one side, not on the other,” CERN says. “This is because the magnetic field they create is very different from the one of simple dipole magnets… instead of having only one North pole and one South pole, these fridge magnets consist of strips with alternating polarity. We call them multipolar magnets. This setup, called a Halbach array, generates a magnetic field on one side which is two times as strong as it would be if not arranged in this particular way, and on the other almost zero.”

Something I didn’t know. This site purports to offer a short history of the refrigerator magnet. Invented at the dawn of household refrigerators and mass tourism, it seems. In the 1920s, that is — why am I not surprised?

I was inspired to look into refrigerator magnets after taking pictures of our refrigerator the other day.

Left door top.

Left door bottom.

Right door top.

Right door bottom.

Freezer door.

Side (the other side is flush against the wall).

I documented the magnet-bedecked surfaces because soon we’d be getting a new refrigerator, since this one had quit working last month, after – how many years? We weren’t sure. The purchase documents are in a file downstairs, probably, but I didn’t feel like looking for them.

The magnets are in a paper bag. Each is light, but together they weigh several pounds. The refrigerator came today. It stands in the kitchen, naked for now. Soon the magnets – some, most? will migrate to the new appliance.