A day to remember - Willis Haviland Carrier and his invention
Air Conditioning is 107 years old today.
From
Wired Magazine:
July 17, 1902: An Invention to Beat the Heat, Humidity
1902: With human comfort the last thing on his mind, a young mechanical engineer completes the schematic drawings for what will be the first successful air-conditioning system.
Willis Haviland Carrier, recently graduated from Cornell University and pulling down 10 bucks a week (about $260 in cold cash today) working for the Buffalo Forge heating company in upstate New York. He was tasked with finding a solution for a printing company in Brooklyn that was having problems: Its paper was expanding or contracting in the variable East Coast humidity. That played havoc with the color register for four-color printing, since the ink, applied one color at a time, required pinpoint calibration to avoid badly aligned, muddy illustrations.
The system that Carrier devised still forms the basis of the air conditioner (or, more accurately, humidity controller) today: Air was forced through a filter of a piston-driven compressor, where it was pumped over coils that were chilled using coolant. The cold air was then expelled into a closed space using a fan, cooling the room and stabilizing the humidity.
Carrier later switched from piston power to the centrifugal chiller, which allowed much larger spaces to be cooled. He also replaced the toxic ammonia that had been the original cooling agent.
The air conditioner was just what the Brooklyn printer needed. The humidity problem vanished, and � as the word got out � other companies began clamoring for Carrier�s machine.
Cool technology (ar ar ar...)
A bit more:
Among Carrier�s early big-ticket customers were the U.S. Congress
Should have turned that one down -- making them comfortable means that they will just hang out and do more damage.
The article mentions that they phased out the use of Ammonia because of it's hazards. Curious in that ammonia is now the gas of choice in large installations -- people have learned how to handle it a lot better.
For a look at the Ammonia Refrigeration Cycle at its most simple, take a look at the
Crosley Icy Ball
And you can
build your own.
Posted by DaveH at July 17, 2009 8:37 PM