100th Anniversary of Air Conditioning

RealPerseus writes "The Buffalo News reports today in this article that the 100th annivsary of air conditioning is upon us. Who would have thought that air conditioning was invented in Buffalo?"

Comments

now I know how to really cool my PC....

[PhreakOfTime]

Well, finally...an old-school hacker gets some credit. Some guy working in a factory, invents such an important device for modern society...bravo Mr. Carrier

What more can I say but...

[errorlevel]

Cool!

This has to be cheating.

[Corvaith]

Here I am, sitting in a tiny room with a very small oscillating fan trying in vain to fight the muggy late-night heat. In the other corner, my computer is quite happily chugging away, heating the room up even more.

And, here, a story about air conditioning. That I don't have. Meanies.

Graduate of two high schools?

[Weffs11]

From the article.
"Carrier graduated from both Angola High School and the old Hutchinson-Central High School in Buffalo."

How do you graduate from two high schools?

Not much there.

[spongman]

A few quotes and the standard journalist rambling. It might be appropriate on this day to find out/brush up on how they work.

lower temperature inside - what about outside?

[evalhalla]

Anybody knows whether there are studies about the impact that air conditioning may have on the climate? expecially in cities/towns.

At least the microclimate near air conditioned buildings is influenced: sometimes you can't just pass near them because of hot air.

I know that there are some places around the world where you couldn't live without AC, and that there are places where you need it for computers and other sensible stuff, but I feel that in most places it is abused. (Things like 18C inside when outside there is only a perfectly tolerable 25C)

Re:lower temperature inside - what about outside?

[Scratch-O-Matic]

but I feel that in most places it is abused.

One thing that really pisses me off is the total misunderstanding of the thermostat. How often have you seen someone on a hot day throw the thermostat down to 65? Obviously, most people think the number on the thermostat is the temperature of the air that comes out of the vent.

I once went into a grocery store in the middle of summer, and it was COLD in the store. I asked the cashier: "Aren't you cold?" She replied: "Yeah, but we don't mind, since it's so hot outside." ??

I think a series of public service ads featuring a brief explanation of the thermostat, plus a recommended temperature, would go a long way toward reducing abuse.

Re:lower temperature inside - what about outside?

[Hektor_Troy]

Well, I'm no engineer, but I work with some, who specialice in, of all things, air conditioning, and one of the things I've learned is:

1) The "perfect" temperature to aim for is 17 C, as both humans and electrical equipment will heat up the air to up around 20 C.

2) If your building is affected by solar heating, you cannot simply use passive cooling/convection to cool it down, and the temperature will rise quite quickly to intolerable levels (more than 25 C)

3) If it's sunny and 25 C outside, and your building is slightly succeptible to solar heating, it will rather quickly become REALLY hot inside if you don't use airconditioning. I know this myself, as we DON'T have any kind of AC in our building (even though that's what we do for a living), and if it's 20 C+ outside and sunny, it will rise to an abyssmal 5 C hotter than that inside; I guess it's because we don't have movement of air inside, as opening windows usually results in too powerfull drafts throwing papers all over the office and leaving me to find them and sort them out again - yes, I'm speaking from experience :-(

Anyway, modern air conditioning can recycle up to 95% of the heat you suck out of a building, so in the winter time hardly any heat is wasted, but in the summertime there's really no need to recycle it.

Air conditioning has destroyed architecture

[Bastian]

8' (as opposed to 10') ceilings, poor placement of windows leading to no cross-ventilation, cutting down all the trees around a lot to ease construction but destroying the shade, the death of the porch.

I love air conditioning, but I want to hate it. . .

Re:Air conditioning has destroyed architecture

[Bastian]

So... I fail to see how air conditioning caused these problems. Especially "cutting down all the trees around a lot to ease construction". Seems more like the rush to build cheaper and cheaper houses and not a big A/C conspiracy.

Once A/C become common, the need to build houses so that they stay cool naturally went away - and it's much cheaper to just use AC, too.

Hence, ceilings didn't need to be as high, and one didn't need to put as much thought into the placement of windows, because with A/C there was no need for a good breeze to keep the houe cool.

It's cheaper to cut down the trees when building the building, yes. With A/C, those trees (and the shade they provide) lost much of their importance for keeping the house cool.

It's not that I think that there's an A/C conspiracy, it's just that A/C made it more feasible to cut a few corners when building a house. Personally, I'd like to have a house that has all of the stuff I'm lamenting the loss of /and/ A/C.

Thanks?

[Comrade Brightski]

This is probably a pretty unpopular comment to make to a crowd of geeks in the heat of summer, but I'll say it anyways. While air conditioning is a great scientific and engineering achievement, I'm not sure that it's been a great advantage to society. It's done very little to improve the quality of life for humans and quite a bit to degrade it. I am by no means an avid environmentalist, yet anyone can recognize all the damage caused by freon and the tremendous strain that condensors place on the power grid.

What amazes me most is how Americans have begun to view air conditioning as a "necessity". Are we insane? The necessities in life are food, oxygen, and heat in climates with extreme cold. Nevertheless, the petroleum supplies are depleted at an increasing rate so that people can be more comfortable as they sit in traffic with the A/C on full blast.

Yes, it's a nice invention. Hospitals can benefit tremendously from it. But it's nowhere near a necessity and if humans would tolerate a little discomfort, the Earth might be in much better shape.

Re:Thanks?

[guran]

Unpopular, a bit oversimplyfying, but nonetheless interesting.

Compare housing in america to housing in, say italy or greece. (or mexico for that matter.)
My feeling is that the widespread use of AC has made architects forget how you build a house for a hot climate. You don't have large south-facing windows. You have wooden or even stone floors and not a carpet. (Carpets are germ infested discusting things anyway) You have proper insulation and ventilation. You make sure that you get some freaking shade.

Or,... you just put in some AC, and hope that power will never be a problem.

Re:Thanks?

[yatest5]

Instead people insist on wearing more than they need and then draining power from the grid to make up for their own insecurity.

I'd much prefer to waste the earths resources than see the sweaty hairy hacker next to me's ballbag attempting to escape from his shorts, believe me...

Is this anyway related to...

[MoThugz]

this poll that's currently running on /.? BTW, it seems that most /.ers don't have the luxury of being cooled by ACs (according to the poll).

Re:read this the other day...

[Detritus]

AC was also an important feature of the U.S. Navy's fleet submarines in World War II. By keeping the temperature and humidity down, it made the long war patrols in the Pacific bearable for the men and the equipment on the submarine.

air conditioning is ancient.

[Artifex]

You are correct. Various types of air cooling and conditioning have been in use for thousands of years. Here is a brief list of some of the types of air conditioning methods used in the history of Texas for the last few hundred years. It is worth noting that many large buildings still use the ice-chiller system to cool air, and it's being used in new construction, as well. "Refrigerated air" is simply not terribly efficient in large spaces.

Carrier

[benh57]

And in an amazing coincidence, it was Mr Carrier's grandson "No" who invented the computer modem. He left his mark on his invention with the familiar signoff..

NO CARRIER

American air conditioner craze

[magi]

Americans seem to be rather crazy about the air conditioners. Not that they are nice in a hot day, but why the hell do they have to turn their houses into freezers with them?

I mean, last time I was in Florida, I was shivering all the time I was indoors. Being indoors with shorts and a T-shirt was very unconfortable. In my hotel, the entire room was filled with a freezing gale from an enormous air conditioner. I tried to find some controls or a switch to turn it off, but couldn't. Luckily the beds had enough blankets to sleep in Siberian winter, so I didn't have to sleep outside.

After a few days, I got a bad cold, and had to end my conference&vacation trip early. I wasn't in a condition to be able to go to the Space Center, Epcot, or other sights in Orlando. Some other Finnish people I know tell that they get a cold every time they visit US.

What's the problem with you? Is it that the businessmen and others have to be able to wear a suit in hotels all the time, or what?

Re:I live in Amherst Buffalo

[liquidsin]

This frickin' humidity sucks. I think the only way to beat it is with beer. The Buffalo-area chapter of slashdot members should hold it's meetings just over the river, at the Canadian ballet. (if you're from the area, you'll get it)

didn't work anyways

[prisoner]

I know. The house I grew up in had all of those features you love. Inside the house it was still hot as fuck in the summer, even at night. Can't sleep outside in this part of Virginia as the bugs would drain you dry. I sweated my ass off every summer for 18 years. I don't miss it. 'Course, after I left for college my parents had central AC istalled....BASTARDS...:)

John Gorrie and Apalachicola- the REAL inventor

[pkeck]

I remember from visiting Apalachicola, Florida, that they have a sign proclaiming to be the birthplace of air conditioning. Google it and see. Here's a decent page: http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/florida/lessons/gorrie/g orrie.htm .

He had rooms cooled by mechanical refrigeration 50 years before the usurpers in Buffalo! Let the revisionist history be cast down!

important in submarines -now-

[cascadingstylesheet]

AC was also an important feature of the U.S. Navy's fleet submarines in World War II

I was a crew member of one a few years ago. We could stay submerged for weeks or months. Air conditioning was pretty vital. We had two huge R-114 units. Man, it got hot during drills involving loss of non-vital electrical loads ...

Re:But now you can live in certain places....

[sien]

This is exactly right. In the book Dot Con it is pointed out that AC has probably had a bigger effect on the US economy than the Internet.

And indeed, it has led to its own boom in housing prices in the South of the US. If it wasn't for AC who would live in Texas or Florida ?

This isn't to say AC is all good, as other posters point out it is over used in the US, but that doesn't reduce its importance.

A/C in cars

[Peyna]

While working at a General Motors truck plant last summer I noticed that nearly every truck we built had an air conditioner and a radio except for the ones we sent to Mexico. You would think somewhere as hot as mexico they would want A/C. At first I thought this was because nobody down there could afford it, but then I realized it's because they are more adapted to living in the heat than we are. IIRC most buildings in Mexico don't have A/C, but nobody really cares either.

Maybe all of us in the states like our A/C so much because most of us came from parts of Europe where it is a bit cooler most of the year than it is here.