Air Conditioning History

Air conditioning history and history of refrigeration – Find out who invented the air conditioning.

Who really invented the air conditioning? Is Willis Carrier the father of air conditioner? That question is still debatable, but here is a brief article of air conditioning history.

Some people consider Willis Haviland Carrier to be the "father of air conditioning" or the "father of cool” yet, so many people had already contributed to the invention of air conditioning before his innovations.

He was the first to made the air conditioner units. However, the idea of air conditioning existed before the first residential central air conditioners were even designed.

In the beginning – they understand the principle of refrigeration and air conditioning (cooling)

The basic theory of air conditioning can be obtained from the second law of thermodynamics, which states that heat flows from hot areas to cold, not the other way around.

If its energy is to flow from cold to hot, it needs additional energy. It seems an easy notion, but it still took over a century for basic air conditioning units to manufactured and designed.

Ancient Greeks, Jews and Persians understands this theory and they invented the ideas of air conditioning. They collected natural ice and snow and used it to cool wine, food and delicacies. They used wood or sawdust to insulate the ice and reduce the transfer of heat to stop the ice from melting.

Medieval Persians used an intricate building design that used cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season. The cisterns were large open pools in courtyards which collected rainwater.

This rainwater then evaporated, causing the air in the courtyards to become cooler. The wind towers were designed with windows that would catch wind and internal vanes that directed the flow of air down into the building.

History of refrigeration begin with…?

Air conditioning units can trace as far as 1748. At Glasgow University William Cullen demonstrated the first design of artificial refrigeration. He used an air pump to create a partial vacuum.

The water inside the evacuated chamber was brought to a boil; in which, the most energetic molecules became vapor. The liquid water’s temperature fell rapidly causing it to eventually freeze.

According to sources, Cullen used ether instead of water. Despite the core area of Cullen’s concept, his invention was never use.

The history of refrigeration didn’t started with William Cullen, Ancient Greeks, Jews or Persians . Some evident indicated that the Chinese understand refrigeration concept and they were the first to used that refrigeration ideas.

Although the Chinese, Ancient Greeks, Jew or Persians understood the ideas; William Cullen, Oliver Evans, and Willis Carrier invented the commercial air conditioner units. They were consider the greatest people in air conditioning history.

Oliver Evans invented vapor compression system

In the late 1700’s, Oliver Evans discover air cooling method. Born in 1755 in Delaware, Oliver worked as a wagon maker, and studied math and science.

He soon gained a reputation for building all kinds of laborsaving devices, but his attention caught by the latest power source – steam. Oliver set about producing his own energy efficient engine, and by 1804; he had accomplished it.

Evan’s Colombian High-pressure Engine was the first step for the American’s journey towards a power based industry. Another of Evan’s designs was a vapor compression system which included an ac compressor, an ac condenser and a cooling coil, which dramatically altered how air conditioning work and it impact on air conditioning history.

Evans died in 1819 without manufacturing the design, but his friend, Jacob Perkins, followed Evan’s lead and built the prototype of a modern air conditioning system.

Air conditioner history greatest doctor

It was almost a century later when an American physician, Doctor John Gorrie, who created a device, that would be the first step to modern refrigeration and air conditioning. Gorrie was a doctor in charge of the U.S Marine Hospital in Apalachicola, Florida.

He was the first American to make an attempt to cool his hospitals and he created a device that blew air over a bucket of ice, thus creating a cooling breeze. During the 1830’s his invention was used for cooling the wards of the patients suffering from malaria and yellow fever.

In 1851, John Gorrie was granted a patent for the first commercialized machine used for refrigeration and air conditioner units. Gorrie’s advanced system used a pump to compress air which in turn made the air hot.

He removed the compressed air by circulating it with cold water before allowing it to expand. The expansion cooled the air to a temperature lows enough to freeze water. Gorrie’s system is not too different from our Glaswegian professor, William Cullen.

Gorrie hoped to eventually put his ice making machine to use by regulating the temperature of entire buildings. He went so far as to manufacturing a device that would cool down entire cities. Although his prototype did not work without leaking, he was still granted a patent in 1851.

Alexander Twining

Alexander Twining wasn’t considers as the father of air conditioning, but his experiment with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848 contribute greatly to air conditioning history.

He obtained patents in 1850 and 1853 for his contribution. He is credited with having started commercial refrigeration in the United States by 1856.

Twining graduated from Yale in 1820, and became a professor of mathematics, civil engineering, and astronomy at Middle bury College from 1839 till 1849. He was employed as a civil engineer on various railways and canals, and discovered the first practical method of producing ice in bulk quantities by artificial means.

Michael Faraday contribution to air conditioning history

A British scientist, Michael Faraday, was originally recruited as a bookbinder at the age of 14. It was during his employment that he became immersed in the chemical works of the current time.

He spent years on scientific work, which dealt mainly with chemicals. He was responsible for liquefying chlorine and some other gases. In 1845, Faraday discovered that intense magnetic fields can take the place of polarized light and this is known today as the Faraday Effect.

Faraday set up a series of experiments, mainly based on electricity. During his work, he discovered that if liquefied ammonia evaporated, the air that it evaporated into would chill.

Michael Faraday is considered by many as the greatest experimentalism whoever lived, and his pioneering experiments and conclusions are commonly used in modern day science.

Air Conditioning History Part 2

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