Air conditioning is something we take for granted. Companies like Louisville air conditioning company come to your home, install an air condition unit and you can just flip a switch and you start cooling down but it wasn’t always that way. The history of air conditioning has been quite a long road. In Ancient Egypt, reeds were hung from windows with dripping water to keep the Pharaoh cool. In Ancient Rome some homes had aqueducts in the walls so water could circulate around the house to keep it cool. Air conditioning’s story is filled with many interesting things you probably don’t know.
Air Conditioners
During the cold months, when the rivers and lakes were frozen, blocks or slabs of ice were cut to cool buildings. It was also placed in dark barns and covered with hay to keep it from melting in the summer heat. In a 19th century journal, Ice and Refrigeration, it is reported that ice taken from the Hudson River weighed about 4 million tons.
A 7’ in diameter 1’ broad blowing wheel was used in the House of Commons from 1736 to 1743. The man that turned the blowing wheel was called the ventilator. The ventilator probably remained in the House of Commons until it was destroyed in a fire that took the building.
Harvesting, storing and delivering ice became a profitable business. They provided ice to businesses and homes where people would use the ice to keep food cold. When an ice–making machine was patented around 1851, the ice businesses quickly managed to suppress it.
Air conditioners played a large role in people’s health. The cool air helped to prevent the spread of certain diseases. The cool air reduced diseases that spread rapidly in warm, humid conditions.
Weird Things You Don’t Know About Air Conditioners
In 1899 Cornell installed a ventilation system in its’ dissecting room to keep the cadavers cold. In 1903 a ventilation system was used at the New York Stock Exchange for the stockbrokers. These were two of the earliest air conditioning type systems.
Apparatus for treating air, that’s what the first spray-type air conditioner was called. Willis Carrier patented the first factory–scale electrical air conditioner in 1902. It was used in a publishing company that was dealing with a quality problem.
The cooling systems were later named air conditioners in 1906, when Stuart Cramer used the term “air conditioning”. Cramer found that the cooler air controlled the humidity in textile factories improving the quality and condition of the product.
An air conditioners cooling volume is calculated in tons. The volume of an air conditioner can differ from less than 1 ton to 5 tons in a residential setting. This can be confusing when people think the weight of the air conditioner is 1 – 5 tons. In this case the tonnage definition is how much warmth can be withdrawn from a room in 1 hour. Ice melts by absorbing the warm air around it. It’s own temperature rises and it melts. 1 ton of ice can melt in 1 hour, 6 hours, or a month. It depends on the amount of heat it is exposed to. So, 1 ton of air conditioning can withdraw 12000 BTU (British Thermal Units) heat from a room in 1 hour.
Our automobiles became more comfortable with the installation of air conditioning. In 1933 the first cooling system was offered in luxury cars made by the Packard Motor Car Company. This system was not commercially successful. Then in 1953 the Chrysler Imperial became the first car to offer air conditioning as an option.