It is generally accepted that dry ice was first observed in 1835 by French inventor Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier (1790-1844), who published the first account of the substance.[6][7] In his experiments, he noted that when opening the lid of a large cylinder containing liquid carbon dioxide, most of the liquid carbon dioxide 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.[8] In 1925, this solid form of CO2 was trademarked by the DryIce Corporation of America as "Dry ice", thus leading to its common name.[9] That same year the DryIce Co. sold the substance commercially for the first time; marketing it for refrigerating purposes.[8]


The alternative name "Cardice" is a registered trademark of Air Liquide UK Ltd.[10] It is sometimes written as "card ice".