Air conditioning

Brief History of Refrigeration

The process of Refrigeration is simply eliminating heat and maintaining a low temperature either from an enclosed space or thing. Refrigeration is primarily used to substantially decrease temperatures anywhere. Air conditioning and air cooling are synonymously used with refrigeration and is any method where heat is driven away. Initially refrigeration is born with the concept that rather than addition of more coldness, it is wise to remove heat, which culminates in chilly temperatures automatically. According to the second law of thermodynamics, work must be done to accomplish this. Mechanical work, Laser and magnetism are the means of this. To dispel heat, three methods namely convection, conduction and radiation are used in refrigeration.
In olden ages, lumps of ice or frozen water were used to preserve food. Many ancient societies like the Greeks, Romans, Persians, Hebrews, Chinese and others produced ice and snow to preserve their foods over a long period. They preserved ice by storing it in caves known as ice houses lined with straw, hay, wood or any other insulating material. Early in the 16th century, chemical refrigeration where sodium or potassium nitrate was mixed with water to lower the temperature of water paved the way for artificial refrigeration. Soon refrigeration became a huge business in USA by the 19th century.
In 1748, William Cullen exhibited the first method of refrigeration at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He used a partial vacuum (through a pump) over a diethyl ether container, which when boiled; suck up heat from the surroundings. The experiment had no practical application by then. American Oliver Evans designed a refrigeration system based on Vapor-compression in 1805 but never built one. Michael Faraday a renowned British scientist liquefied ammonia by the aid of low temperatures and high pressures in 1820. In 1834, Jacob Perkins, an American got the first patent for a refrigeration system based on vapor compression. In 1842, another American John Gorrie devised the first system for producing ice. He also envisaged the idea of using refrigeration systems for cooling the air in homes. Sadly, both the above were commercial failures.
Alexander Twining lapped up the credit for initiating commercial refrigeration by 1856 in the United States. He obtained the patents in 1850 and also 1853. After that a Scottish by the name James Harrison commenced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration systems to meat packing houses and breweries. William Soltau Davidson successfully fixed a compression refrigeration system to Dunedin, a New Zealand vessel, which gradually lead to the dairy and meat boom in South America, Australia and Asia.
Other notable refrigeration system known as gas absorption refrigeration system which uses gaseous ammonia dissolved in water was bought into light by a French Ferdinand Carre in 1859 (later patented in 1860). Ammonia being toxic, the method was not preferred in homes. Consumers of ice at that time still preferred natural ice which was harvested in icehouses and bought in ice boxes by commercial suppliers. An American named Thaddeus Lowe experimented with properties of gases and held many patents on ice making machines. His invention Compression Ice Machine revolutionized the storage industry. By fitting a steamship with his machine, He started the business of shipping meat Texas to New York, from Galveston, fruits from New York to the Gulf Coast. As public then are not used to the idea of using meat which was out for such a long time, Lowe’s business had to suffer.
Breweries were the largest consumers of refrigeration units by 1870. Though the industry grew immensely, it had to suffer the wrath of pollution and sewage by the turn of 20th century. Thus began the demand for modern and customer-ready refrigeration machines and units. German engineer Carl von Linde successfully set up a process for manufacturing liquid air and subsequently liquid oxygen for use in home refrigerators. Meat packing houses in Chicago used ammonia-cycle commercial refrigeration by 1900. Every location used artificial refrigeration by 1914. Armour, Swift, Wilson and some of the big meat packers used expensive units to mount on train cars, storage facilities in remote distribution areas. Refrigerated vehicles were used to ship perishable goods like fruits, vegetables, frozen foods, chemicals, and meat. Most of the refrigerators keep the temperature between +20 °C and -35 °C.

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Jeremy Dawes is author of this article on refrigeration. Find more information about air conditioninghere.

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