The History and Impact of Air Conditioning

In our sub-tropical climate here in Brisbane, it is hard to imagine life without air conditioning. However, there really was life before air conditioning and refrigeration, a life that existed well into the 20th century. Air conditioners and refrigeration had as large of an impact on people's lives as just about anything invented up to that point. It changed the way we shop and store food, where we live, work and play and even caused the near extinction of the delivery milkman. From the design of homes and buildings to the migration of people to warmer climates, air conditioning (A/C) has played a major role in our lives. So let's take a look at how this incredible, life enhancing invention came about:

1758

Benjamin Franklin and Professor John Hadley from Cambridge University discovered that alcohol evaporates faster than water and that this process can cool an object enough to cause water to freeze.

1820

Inventor Michael Faraday of England discovered the same thing when he compressed and liquefied ammonia.

1830's

Dr. John Gorrie built a machine that used compression to produce buckets of ice which then had air blown over them. In 1851, he patented the idea but lacked the financial backing to take it to market.

1881

Naval engineers built a makeshift cooling system to comfort U.S. President James Garfield after he was shot by an assassin. A box was filled with cloth that had been soaked in water and a fan blew hot air overhead to keep the cool air closer to the ground. Amazingly, this device lowered the room temperature as much as -5.5°C. Unfortunately, it consumed 250,000 pounds of ice per month to operate.

1902

Willis Carrier, who is widely considered the inventor of modern air conditioning, invented what he called the "Apparatus for Treating Air" which was installed in a lithographing and publishing company in Brooklyn, N.Y. The machine blew air across cold coils which controlled room temperature as well as humidity. The Carrier Air Conditioning Company was established after learning that many other factories would pay for this service.


1906

Stuart Cramer, an engineer at a textile mill in North Carolina, created a ventilation device that added water vapour to the air in textile plants. The added humidity made yarn stronger and easier to spin. He was the first to use the term "air conditioning".

1914

A residential unit that measured approximately 2 meters high by 2 meters wide by 6 meters long was installed in Charles Gates' Minneapolis mansion.

1931

J.Q. Sherman and H.H. Schultz invented an air conditioning unit for individual rooms that sat on a window ledge. They hit the market one year later and sold for what would be equivalent today of $120,000 to $600,000.

1939

Packard invented the first air-conditioner for cars. 

1942

The U.S. built its first power plant designed to handle the "summer peaking" electrical load of this new air conditioning craze.

1950's

Residential air conditioners become common.

1970's

Residential air conditioning gets a new boost with the introduction of ducted air conditioning systems. The units consisted of a condenser, fan and coils. Air is passed over coils and then blasted throughout the house via the home's ventilation system. The refrigerant is R-12, also known as Freon-12.

1990's

Freon is banned in several countries as it becomes associated with ozone depletion. More environmentally-friendly refrigerants soon hit the market.

2000's

Global demands for air conditioning continue to rise at very high rates while scientists continue to study the impact that it is having on our planet.

So this life enhancing invention known as air conditioning has literally transformed how we live and has grown from a luxury for the wealthy to a common and even expected way of life in many cultures around the earth. Thankfully the technology behind it also continues to evolve, making it more affordable for the masses, more efficient to operate and more friendly to the planet.

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