History of Air Conditioning
The history of air conditioning started even before the air conditioning unit was manufactured. In the 19th century, the concept of air conditioning started when a British inventor named Michael Faraday discovered the secret of chilling air. He discovered that if you compress then liquefied ammonia, it results to chill air production as the ammonia evaporates.
A few decades after Faraday’s discovery of chilling air, American physician John Gorier started the first attempt to build the first ever air conditioner in 1842. He constructed an ice making machine that he used to cool down the rooms of malaria and yellow fever patients by having cool air blown over a bucket of ice. Dreaming big, Gorier envisioned his machine on buildings and a centralized air conditioning for an entire city. But in 1855, Gowrie’s idea of air conditioning died along with him. His financial backer had also died a few years earlier.
After many years in oblivion, the ancestor of all air conditioners was first used in a printing plant in 1902. The genius who etched his name in the history of air conditioning was an American mechanical Engineer named Willis Havilland Carrier. At that time, it was called “Apparatus for Treating Air” and was manufactured by Buffalo Forge Company. It was around 1906 that Carrier adopted the term “air conditioning” from North Carolina textile engineer Stuart W. Cramer.
After Carrier acquired a patent for his invention, air conditioning history bloomed and flourished. Hundreds of industries like textile mills, tobacco, processed goods and printing plants climbed the success charts due to air conditioning. In Minneapolis in 1914, Charles Gates (son of the famous gambler John “Bet a Million” Gates) had the first air-conditioned home and it was the only one of its kind back then. There was a great health risk though on the first air condition prototypes due to the toxic ammonia which was used.
Seeing this danger, Carrier replaced the ammonia with dyeline and placed a central compressor; thus, reducing its relatively large size. Not long after 1924, air conditioners were in demand for human use instead of industrial uses. Soon, office buildings, department stores, theatres and railroad cars were installed with air conditioners. Carrier complied with the demand for private air conditions; thus, he created smaller units for houses which he called “Weather maker”.
The Great Depression and the coming of World War II, though, decreased its sales rate. But as the 21st century dawned, it started to climb up the market graphs until today. For most people in the tropics, air conditioners had become a necessary part of their lives. Air conditioning systems make homes cosy and cool and comfortable!
Now, we can see how air conditioning technology has greatly evolved. With advanced research and development, we now have state of the art air conditioning innovations. From the once large framework, we can now choose from central air system, portable air systems, ductless mini split system, window-mount models, or wall-mounted types.