As modern technology developed, we’ve seen the miniaturisation of electronics and looked at how the evolution of technology would go on to impact our lives and help shape the modern world. And while “glamorous” technology like iPhones, computers and aviation regularly have their time in the spotlight, the reality is that there’s plenty of technology that also influences our lives.
These workhorse pieces of technology work away in the background, rarely seen but always felt. In a previous What the Tech?!, we explored the impact that refrigeration would have on our world. In today’s article, we’ll be exploring its distant relative, air-conditioning. Let’s check it out!
The Beginnings
It’s fair to say that while modern medicine and agricultural techniques definitely contributed to an extended life expectancy in the modern world, environmental issues would play a part in this as well. Houses would be rudimentary and while primitive, yet effective passive cooling techniques would exist, the reality was that extremes of both heat and cold played a significant role in reducing life expectancies as well.
With this understanding, it’s reasonable to expect that our ancestors would place a significant value on being able to effectively manage temperature when needed.
Early systems would be primitive, focusing on evaporative techniques to help shift the hot air away and replace it with cooler air. Before the development of gas-based systems, Ice was the market leader and played a significant role right through the early 1900s when experiments around commercial systems were first performed.
Michael Faraday’s discoveries would be vital in developing the concept. Source; Wikipedia.
The concept of air-conditioning was discovered well before this though. It would be in 1820 when Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia would provide an efficient cooling effect, laying the grounds for the first modern system. However, due to technology levels at the time, this discovery wasn't able to be fully capitalised on at that point.
Faraday, who would go on to make significant scientific discoveries in his lifetime, had one interesting quirk that most people would find surprising. Rather than relying on formal education to assist in making these discoveries, Faraday was a “self-made man”, meaning he’d received little in the way of formal education on scientific matters. Because of this, despite his contributions to air-conditioning technology, he would receive far more attention for his other contributions as well.
Modern systems are smaller and more efficient. Source: Wikipedia.
Commercial Technology
It was 1901 when American Willis Carrier brought the first commercial design to market, offering much in the way of benefits to a market that had little in the way of options. You might recognise Carrier as a brand that still exists in the modern world as well, employing over 53,000 people and sporting a commercial valuation of over 18 billion dollars.
In 1902, Carrier would complete the first commercial installation, with Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company in New York being the recipient of the new technology. Despite this, the term “air-conditioning” hadn’t entered the public dialogue yet.
To find it, we’d have to go all the way to North Carolina in 1906. Mill owner Stuart Cramer, who was looking for a way to put moisture into the air at his textile mill, would first coin the phrase and confident in its success, lodged a patent design for the phrase the same year. The rest, as we say, was history.
Due to changes in technology during that time frame, evolutions to modern systems would go through many changes, becoming more efficient in both power and cooling specifications. They would also become more modular and portable, showing up in planes and automobiles around the same time. This would prove to be another revolution in travel, in a world that had barely adjusted to having aviation capabilities.
Despite their technical complexity, they would work on an extremely basic concept. Souce: Wikipedia
The Tech Boom
While gas-based systems would receive most of the research and development love, the status on the ground was that evaporative cooling strategies received significant attention as well. Offering a more efficient way to cool larger spaces while leveraging the natural environmental effects of an area, evaporative systems would go on to play a significant role in commercial installations and situations where power concerns were relevant.
With it’s most basic form being a pump that allows water to flow through the system it provided a cheap (ish) and easy-to-repair system in comparison to its equivalent refrigerated systems. And let’s talk about that gas in a bit more detail.
You might have heard members of the older generation state that “things don’t work like they used to” and it might surprise you to learn that in relation to airconditioning, this was actually often the case. Earlier refrigerant gasses, while being extremely efficient were also harmful to the environment, and like refrigerators, disposing of these used appliances would end up becoming quite an environmental issue.
So, a lot of modern research would end up being use to not only find refrigerants that were less harmful. But also to develop strategies where end-of-life products were able to be either recycled or disposed of in ways that had a reduced environmental impact.
Much of this would focus on fixed installations, but mobile systems would go through similar iterations. Air-Conditioning units of the 90’s and early 2000’s would use R134A refrigerant for just this purpose.
Industrial HVAC system in Austria. Source: Wikipedia.
Final Words
If you live in a mild or temperate climate, it might be easy to understate the impact that air conditioning systems would have on the modern world. And if you’re lucky enough to have a fully climate-controlled environment, it’s easy to forget how much of an impact an inability to properly cool the body can have.
Some parts of the world like India and Australia suffer greatly from extreme temperatures in summer and as you’d expect this typically affects the young and elderly in disproportionate numbers. This has a significant effect on modern life expectancy as in many situations, being too hot is just as damaging as being too cold.
In places such as these, A/C has been a godsend, allowing an increase in daytime productivity while providing a comfortable environment for those who might not be able to correctly regulate their temperature on their own.
We’ve also seen significant commercial productivity increases, as proper climate control strategies mean that deserts and remote areas are now no longer uninhabited wastelands. Rather than a horse, or a vehicle that lacks air conditioning, people can now traverse some of the most extreme terrain in the world, in the peak of summer while barely breaking a sweat.
With the effects of climate change still being fully understood, it’s still fair to say that cost and power efficient air-conditioning, still has a significant role to play in our future world.
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