Dr. John Gorrie used compressed ammonia to make what his patent application called an ice maker. He used it to cool the air in his patients rooms at his hospital and he dreamt of having whole house air conditioning, however, he lacked the money to do this and his main backer pulled out, so his invention remained in the planning stages.
It was around fifty years before air conditioning became commercially viable and was initially used to cool air for industrial processing, this was thanks to the invention of Willis Haviland Carrier.
In 1906 Stuart Cramer, who owned a textile mill in South Carolina discovered a way to add moisture to the air, this was to make fabrics easier to work with and at the same time cooling the environment, he was the first one to call the process air conditioning, and this is the name he used on the application for the patent.
The first air conditioning systems used compressed gases such as ammonia, methyl chloride and propane, but because of the dangers they presented this led to the use of chlorofluorocarbon and under the trade name Freon, was found to be safe in 1928 for man and machine. However, it was later discovered to be harmful to the environment and was replaced by hydrofluorocarbons, a much safer alterative. By 2010 there will be newer gases used which are more ozone friendly and all new products will also contain Puron.
Air Conditioner use in cars and homes:
By the 1950's the use of air conditioning was expanded into homes and cars, this improving a lot of peoples personal environment and helped in the development of larger buildings. The development of centralised air conditioning systems that sent cooled air through ducts enabled larger and wider building construction. In the past buildings had to be thin enough to allow for proper air circulation throughout the entire building.
Figures and statistics show with out doubt, that workers productivity improves measurably in factories where cooler temperatures are maintained. Studies have also shown that the best productivity happens in a room temperature of 72-degrees, and reduces 1% for every 2 degree temperature rise. Some say these figures for air conditioning are just a sales pitch and dispute the theory. On the hand other people are totally convinced the study conducted in the Hawthorne Works factory at the beginning of the 1930's, does show the true relationship between environmental temperature and workers productivity.
So air conditioning systems available today are used in small rooms up to entire buildings and there are even portable air conditioners, the human race as found yet another way to make their environment more comfortable.
