Air Conditioning History

A History of Air Conditioning

Anyone tempted to yearn for a simpler time must reckon with a few undeniable unpleasantries of life before modern technology: abscessed teeth, chamber pots, the bubonic plague—and a lack of air conditioning in late July. As temperatures rise into the triple digits across the eastern United States, it's worth remembering how we arrived at the climate-controlled summer environments we have today.

century, Americans dealt with the hot weather as many still do around the world: They sweated and fanned themselves. Primitive air-conditioning systems have existed since ancient times, but in most cases, these were so costly and inefficient as to preclude their use by any but the wealthiest people. In the United States, things began to change in the early 1900s, when the first electric fans appeared in homes. But cooling units have only spread beyond American borders in the last couple of decades, with the confluence of a rising global middle class and breakthroughs in energy-efficient technology.

Attempts to control indoor temperatures began in ancient Rome, where wealthy citizens took advantage of the remarkable aqueduct system to circulate cool water through the walls of their homes. The emperor Elagabalus took things a step further in the third century, building a mountain of snow—imported from the mountains via donkey trains—in the garden next to his villa to keep cool during the summer. Marvelously inefficient, the effort presaged the spare-no-cost attitude behind our modern-day central air-conditioning systems . Even back then some scoffed at the concept of fighting heat with newfangled technologies. Seneca, the stoic philosopher, mocked the "skinny youths" who ate snow to keep cool rather than simply bearing the heat like a real Roman ought to.

Such luxuries disappeared during the Dark Ages, and large-scale air-conditioning efforts didn't resurface in the West until the 1800s, when well-funded American engineers began to tackle the problem. In the intervening centuries, fans were the coolant of choice. Hand fans were used in China as early as 3,000 years ago, and a second-century Chinese inventor has been credited with building the first room-sized rotary fan (it was powered by hand).The architecture also played a major role in regulating the temperature pre-modern. In the traditional construction of the Middle East, the windows face out of the sun, and large buildings featuring "wind towers" designed to catch the breezes and circulate dominant.

A History of Air Conditioning | Way2Bookmarks

Staying cool in the summer is simpler thanks to Willis Carrier Any person tempted to yearn for a easier time must reckon with a few undeniable un-pleasantries of life prior to modern day technologies: abscessed teeth, chamber pots, the bubonic plague—and a lack of air conditioning in late July. As temperatures rise into the triple digits across the eastern United States, it is worth remembering how we arrived at the climate-controlled summer time environments we have at this time.

Set up at 18th and Mountain between Explora and Natural History Museum, great way to get kids outa house w/air conditioning

New from Tony: A History of Air Conditioning Thanks! Call me...

New from Tony: A History of Air Conditioning Thanks! Call me...

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