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 utilises 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
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