The First Use of Air Conditioning

It wasn't until 1902 that an American named Willis Carrier designed the first air conditioner, a close predecessor to today's models. He worked at a publishing company and was tasked with solving a humidity problem that was causing the pages of their magazine to wrinkle.

He invented a machine that de-humidified the air by passing it over cold coils, which effectively controlled humidity levels. He patented the device, which he called the Apparatus for Treating Air.

Evaporative Cooling

Evaporative cooling is a type of air conditioning that relies on the evaporation of water to cool indoor spaces. It is an energy efficient alternative to conventional refrigerative air conditioning.

The concept of evaporative cooling has been around since ancient times. The concept was used by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians as a way to cool their homes. They would hang wet mats across their windows and tent openings, allowing them to absorb moisture and thereby keep the inside of their home cooler.

In modern evaporative coolers, water is pumped over damp pads (or "cooling media") that absorb heat from ambient air. Electricity powers a pump that wets the pads and a blower fan to force the evaporative water into the air.

There are many types of evaporative coolers, each designed to achieve different cooling goals. Some systems are portable and can be moved from room to room, while others are installed in a window or wall to directly cool a specific area.

Typically, residential and commercial buildings use a direct-evaporative cooler. These units have a metal or plastic box with vents on each side and a blower that draws air through the wet pads.

Another type of evaporative cooler is an indirect-direct system, which uses two stages to cool spaces. A pump circulates water from a reservoir to wet a pad. A fan then pulls air over the pad, which evaporates the water and cools the space.

This type of cooling system is most effective in dry climates where water evaporation can be easily achieved. This is why they are primarily utilized in the arid Southwest, including parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

However, evaporative cooling can also be a great option for humid and warm climates. They have the added benefit of helping to boost humidity levels in homes, which can be beneficial for people with sensitive skin.

One of the most appealing aspects of evaporative cooling is that it is very energy-efficient. It consumes less electricity than conventional refrigerant-based air conditioning systems, which can be expensive to operate. In addition, evaporative coolers have fewer electrical components that could be damaged by an electrical failure.

John Gorrie

John Gorrie (1803 - 1855) was a physician, inventor, and humanitarian who made significant contributions to the world. His medical research involved studying tropical diseases, including yellow fever. He noticed that cold air reduced fever and healed patients, so he started working on cooling sickrooms.

It was hard to find ice in the warm southern climate, so Gorrie experimented with making his own. He was able to reduce fever and save lives by coolinig rooms with ice blocks.

However, he faced numerous obstacles and was ridiculed. Even after he was granted his patent, he never brought his system to market. He died penniless in Apalachicola, Florida, and his work remains largely unknown.

He did, however, make the first artificial ice machine that would pave the way for modern air conditioning and refrigeration. He developed a machine that compressed hot air, partly cooled it with water, and then let it expand. The isentropic expansion caused the air to cool down to a temperature low enough to freeze water and create ice.

His invention was patented in 1851. In addition to his work on ice-making machines, Gorrie also designed a steam engine that could compress hot air. He used the steam engine to drive the compressor, which he then partially cooled with water to reduce its temperature before it expanded.

This is the basic principle behind all of the mechanical refrigeration systems used today. It has been refined and perfected over the centuries, but Gorrie's work was an early beginning in the development of refrigeration.

It was through his research that he discovered that people in colder climates don't get malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. He began to build a machine that used a small engine to cool air and release it into patients' rooms.

A study of ancient Egyptian tombs revealed that people used a similar device to cool the air in their chambers. But it wasn't until the late 1800s that modern air conditioning was invented.

In her book, “The Inventor of Air Conditioning,” Caldwell says that while it's true that Gorrie had a big impact on the development of modern refrigeration, he wasn't the first to invent it. Other scientists were experimenting with air conditioning in Europe at the time, and the technology was evolving over many years.

Willis Carrier

Almost everyone who lives in the US knows how hot it can get, even though they probably don't know that the inventor of modern air conditioning is a guy named Willis Carrier. As a child, Carrier had a difficult time grasping fractions but he was taught to be practical by his mother who taught him that "I fish only for edible fish, and hunt only for edible game."

As a young engineer, Carrier's first design job involved designing a mechanical humidity controller that would keep a printing company's printing paper from wrinkling. The problem, according to the legacy website of Willis Carrier, was that a fluctuation in humidity caused the dimensions of the paper to change and resulted in misaligned colored inks when fed into a printing press.

He solved the humidity problem by spraying cold water through a system of coils, which kept the temperature and dew point at a steady state. This cooling technique remains one of the most important aspects of modern air conditioning.

In 1902, Carrier was hired by Buffalo Forge to design a cooling system for a printing plant in Brooklyn. The owner of the printing plant, Sackett & Wilhelms, was desperate for a solution to their humidity problems.

This project sparked Carrier's interest in air properties. He learned that humidity can be controlled by lowering the temperature of air, and that humid air is a lot easier to cool than dry air.

By the spring and summer of 1902, Carrier had a working model for his cooling device in place at Sackett & Wilhelms. He then began experimenting with lowering the temperature of air, and reducing humidity by moving the air through the heating coils.

The results were astounding, and soon the word about this new technology was spreading. This innovation changed the entire way people lived.

As a result, the invention made it possible for many different industries to thrive. Computers, mining, and the production of goods like baked goods were among the businesses that benefited from the ability to control the temperature and humidity of an environment.

Inventors

Air conditioning is a major part of modern life, allowing us to cool off on hot summer days without sacrificing our comfort. But if you think you know all about the air conditioner, it may surprise you to learn that it was actually invented over a century ago!

In 1902, Willis Carrier was working for Buffalo Forge Company and needed to find a solution for a humidity problem at a printing plant. The plant’s humid environment wreaked havoc on the ink that was used to print magazine pages.

Carrier was able to dry the air by passing it through water to create fog. This allowed him to control the moisture content of the air, a fundamental building block for modern air conditioning.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could use this technology in other places, too. He started experimenting with ways to control the humidity in textile mills, and soon secured a patent for his invention, called the Humidifying and Air-Conditioning Apparatus.

Inventors like Alfred Wolff and Willis Carrier also developed cooling systems that could keep concert halls, hospitals and other large spaces from getting too hot and producing unpleasant odors. But it was Carrier who is most associated with the invention of the modern air conditioner.

After the invention of the air conditioner, it became a major part of modern life and was even named one of the top 10 mechanical engineering achievements of the 20th century. While the technology has made our lives a lot easier, it also causes significant environmental damage.

In addition to creating a great deal of noise, air conditioning uses an incredible amount of energy, and this has led to some serious problems with climate change. The chemical CFCs, which are produced to make the air-conditioning units work, have caused a huge decrease in the thickness of the ozone layer.

With so much energy being consumed by air conditioning, many people are opting to buy smaller, more appropriate units for their homes. But while these smaller units do a great job of cooling individual rooms, they can be expensive and aren’t suited for every home.