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The History of Air Conditioning
It is so easy in the modern world to
take
air conditioning for granted.
With the advances in technology is
now virtually unheard of for air
conditioning not to be used in any
public building. Anywhere where
potential customers are being
courted for their business, it would
be very unwise to leave them in a
state of extreme discomfort, due to
the failure to keep the building's
facilities in line with the
competition. In government
buildings, failure to maintain a
comfortable environment would
reflect extremely badly on those who
are responsible for the upkeep of
the building and, by association,
the department that utilizes it.
It has not always been this way. Air
conditioning was, in days gone by, a
preserve of the rich. Even as far
back as Ancient Egypt and Ancient
Persia, some form of primitive air
conditioning system was in use in
the palaces of the wealthy
aristocrats. These early air
conditioning units were based on
using water, sometimes in
conjunction with cold air, to cool
the brickwork of the buildings. This
kind of use for a valuable resource
such as water, especially in the
desert, was extravagant in the
extreme and obviously only available
to the ruling classes.
The major breakthrough in the
history of
air conditioning came from the
famous British inventor and
scientist Michael Faraday. Faraday's
research proved that it was possible
to compress and liquefy ammonia and
then use the liquefied ammonia to
cool the air by having it evaporate.
It was nearly a century after
Faraday, however, that the first
serious application of this kind of
technology was seen. This was not
used to control the temperature of
rooms, but to regulate temperature
and humidity in commercial printing
processes. Air conditioning
technology evolved from this, to be
applied in the regulation of
temperature in rooms and buildings.
The term “air conditioning” did not
actually exist until 1906. Stuart W.
Cramer, a textile mill owner, first
used it. Cramer had been
experimenting with ways to
ameliorate the effects of the dry
air created by his industrial
processes. The patent he filed had
used the term in conjunction with
“water conditioning”, which had
already become a well-known and
often-used term in the textile
industry. The new developments that
Cramer instigated had a dramatic
effect on the air quality within his
factory and, as a direct
consequence, on productivity.
In recent years, the reputation of
air conditioning technology has
taken a severe blow. The gases used
in the early days of air
conditioning were very similar to
the ammonia first used by Michael
Faraday. These highly toxic
chemicals were potentially lethal
should they have escaped into the
atmosphere. It was obviously
necessary to try to produce a far
safer alternative. The types of gas
developed in the 1920s -
chlorofluorocarbons and hydro
fluorocarbons - were far safer to
human beings and were used in many
different types of air conditioning
system in the twentieth century.
Towards the end of the century it
emerged that these gases were
harmful to the earth's ozone layer
and again the need has arisen for
alternatives to be developed. Amid
an ever-greater awareness of
environmental impact new non-harmful
gases have been developed and many
of the old ones have been phased
out. The future of air conditioning
now looks promising, with ozone
harming gases eliminated and a
commitment to improving the energy
efficiency of air conditioning
systems.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Air
Conditioning
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell
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