Air Conditioning

Going back to 1906, an American bloke from North Carolina called Stuart W Carmer, was exploring ways of adding moisture in the surrounding air for his textile mill. Cramer used the term “Air Conditioning” as an analogue to the term “Water Conditioning”, which was, at the time, a well known process for making fabrics/ textiles easier to process. Mr Cramer combined the ability to adjust moisture to the ventilating units and adjust the air in his factories, adding the control to not only the temperature of the building to the moisture content too. Willis Carrier adopted the term and instantly incorporated it into the company name. Evaporative cooling is the term used for this function, the evaporation of water into the air to provide a cooling effect.

The very first Air Conditioners and refrigerators used toxic and flammable gasses, such as ammonia, Methyl Chloride and propane, which was very likely to end in fatal accidents if the air conditioning unit leaked. A man named Thomas Midgley Jr. was the creator of the first Chlorofluorocarbon gas otherwise known as Freon, this was founded in 1928. this gas known now as CFC gas is much safer for humans, unfortunately it was found to be very harmful to the ozone layer. CFC gas is to be phased out for the use in new equipment by 2010 and completely discontinued by 2020.

Bringing us right to the future, the majority of our air conditioning are now R-410A otherwise known as puron, this is a safer gas and does not contribute to the depletion of our ozone layer.

The thought of air conditioning moved to a larger, industrial scale as opposed to a personal comfort. 1902 came and modern electrical air conditioning was produced by the inventor “Willis Haviland Carrier”. This product was designed to greatly improve the manufacturing process, the invention also added the ability to not only control the temperature, but also the humidity in the air around. This was designed for use in a printing plant, to ensure the heat was low and the humidity was controllable to ensure the constant paper dimensions and ink alignment was correct at all times. With Carrier able to control the humidity and heat in a workplace, it was very popular to increase the productivity in a given workplace.  Carriers company was called The Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America and this company was formed to ensure he could meet the rising demand for air conditioning. The company formed slowly produced high quality products working more effectively, and eventually created units for both automobiles and homes. The public demand for residential air conditioning grew dramatically in the early 1950’s opening up a much larger market for air conditioning.

The Carrier air conditioning company of America is still around today, otherwise known as the carrier corporation. The company is now the worlds largest manufacturer and distributor of all heating, ventilating and air conditioning products. Currently the Carrier Corporation has 45,000 employees and serves customers in 170 countries in 6 of 7 continents. The air conditioning company is worth over £6 billion.

Ventilators were invented in medieval Egypt, they were widely used in the majority of houses throughout Cairo during the Middle ages. A man called Abd al-Latif al Baghdadi managed to describe in detail how the ventilators worked in 1200. In his report he announced that almost every house in Cairo had these ventilltors fitted, he also announced that they were costing anywhere from 1 to 500 Dinars depending solely on the size and shape. In 1820 the British inventor and scientist called Michael Faraday discovered that liquefied ammonia, which has been compressed, would chill air if the ammonia was allowed to evaporate. Then in 1842 a Floridian physician called John Gorrie started using compressor technology to create ice. This idea was used as air conditioning in his hospital in Florida. He even hope on eventually building a large scale ice-maker to regulate the temperature of buildings, He even envisioned centralized air conditioning on a huge scale to cool whole cities. Though the prototype leaked and worked intermittently, John Gorrie was granted a patent for his ice-making machine. The Envisions vanished once his Chief Financial backer passed away meaning Gorrie did not get the money needed so desperately to develop his machine. According to the author of his biography, he blamed the “Ice King,” Mr Frederic Tudor, for his failure. He suspected Tudor had launched a campaign against the invention. Unfortunately when Dr. Gorrie died in 1855, the idea of air conditioning died with his for the next 50 year.

Air Conditioning History

Moving heat through a machine to provide air conditioning is still quite modern, however the cooling of buildings has been around for years. Going as far back as the Ancient Romans, they were known to have circulated Aqueduct water through the walls in some houses to cool them. Back in those days the constant flow of water came at a huge expense and was only viable to those of extreme wealth. In those days Air conditioning was a total luxury. In the 2nd century a Chinese inventor called “Ding Huan” of the “Han Dynasty” invented the rotating fan for Air conditioning. The fan had 7 Wheels at a length of 3 meters in diameter and was rotated manually.

There were advances then in 747 when another Chinese inventor called Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty had the Cool Hall built in the well known imperial Palace. The “Tang Yulin” Describes it as having water- powered fan wheels for conditioning air aswell as rising jet streams or water from the fountains.

Medival Persia also had buildings that had cisterns and used wind towers to cool the buildings during the hotter seasons. ( The cisterns back in those days were large open pools in the centre of courtyards and were never underground.)Cisterns were used to collect rain water, also the wind towers had windows in which it could catch the wind and force it down and usually sent over the cistern to cool the air. After travelling over the cistern it would travel through a downwind cooling tower. The water from the cistern evaporated, cooling the air in the building.

Air conditioning refers to cooling and dehumidification of air inside for optimum thermal Comfort. In a larger scope the term Air conditioning can be referred to any form of disinfection, ventilation, cooling, heating and any form of adjusting air. An air conditioner is an appliance, system or mechanism designed to stabilise the air humidity and temperature within an enclosed area. Air conditioning units are used typically within the refrigeration cycle, however sometimes uses evaporation.

The concept of air conditioning is known to have been used right back to Ancient Rome, where water was circulated through the walls of certain houses to cool the enclosed areas. There was similar techniques used in Medieval Persia, this method used cisterns and wind towers to cool the buildings in the hot seasons. The newer, more modern air conditioning came from sudden advances in chemistry during the 19th Century. The first large scale electrically ran air conditioning unit was invented and used in 1902 by a bloke called Willis Haviland Carrier.