Air-Cooled by Refrigeration
By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
During the salad days of motoring, the term “air conditioning” referred to how low one could roll down their car window! Back then, ice was delivered by horsedrawn wagon and the weather dictated a person’s comfort level. To quell the heat, people cooled off by drinking a cold glass of lemonade or by mopping their brow with a wet rag.
Willis Haviland Carrier
Inside the automobile, conditions were much worse. Steaming engines. This hot weather savior was refrigerated air-conditioning, a temperature changing miracle invented by Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) in 1902! Carrier was a whiz with gadgets and earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. One year after graduation, he put his knowledge to good use when he designed and patented his “Apparatus for Treating Air” (patent #808,897). Now, the adjustment of air temperature and humidity—along with cleanliness and circulation—was within reach.
Carrier’s amazing refrigerator for cooling down air was more than just clever: it utilized a low-pressure, centrifugal system that sucked in the warm air through a filter. From this stage, it passed over metal coils that were filled with a stable, non-toxic coolant. This coolant chilled and subsequently removed all of the moisture. A small, electrically powered fan directed this cold, dry, “conditioned” air back into the living quarters or work area. The remaining warm air that whirled around the machine’s motor was directed into the great, uncooled outdoors by way of a vent.
However, the new technology remained cost prohibitive for the small business. The fledgling cabins and tourist camps popping up along the motor trails of America could ill afford this newfangled amenity. But relief from the summertime heat was on the way for everyone: In 1915, Carrier took $35,000 in capital and formed the Carrier Engineering Corporation with the goal of making his device smaller and more affordable. As the years passed, Carrier came up with a myriad of improvements and patented related products. By the 1940s, he made it possible for hotels, motels, grocery stores, restaurants, and other businesses to install a simple box that chilled the air, cooled the brow, and increased patronage.
Mel Keeps Cool With Carrier
Of course, tourist cottages, motels, and motor courts wasted little time advertising the fact. The simple roadside signs that at one time featured only a business name and a vacancy indicator were now expanded to include the enticing phrase, “air cooled by refrigeration.” This was the all important arrangement of words to look for, since the two words “air conditioning” could simply mean that there was steam or gas heat. In more than one instance, hopeful lodgers discovered that the stale, stagnant air in a motel room was “conditioned” by the swirling blades of a ceiling fan or just the cross-currents created by two opposing windows!
Today, the principles behind Carrier’s “Rational Psychometric Formulae” are still the basis for all work performed in the field of air conditioning. His chilling legacy lives on in virtually all motel accommodations. During the heat of summer, no informed traveler would dare check into a room that lacked one of his gadgets.
After all, there’s few activities that can compare to the ritual of checking into a motel room, throwing your luggage on the floor, and cranking down the thermostat on that wall-mounted, push-button air conditioner. Conserve energy? Forget it! Unlike your home, office, or local mall, you can make the air in a motel room as icy cold as you want it … for as long as you want it.
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