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Keeping our cool
How air conditioning tamed temperatures in the great indoors
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By Harry Sauer Jr. (sauer@umr,edu) cle
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long history. Even during the time of Christ, the Roman architect Vitruvius considered ventilation in his building plans. By the end of ventilating fan. While these and other crude forms of "air conditioning" appeared centuries ago, air conditioning as we know it today had century. As the 20th century approached, engineers were starting to recognize the
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1928 Stuart W Cramer co ins the term "a ir conditioning,"
widespread implications of cooling systems.
1936
One of the milestones for air co nditioning took place at the 1904 SI. Louis World's Fair. Boston engineer Gardner Voorhees, who was initially in charge of the cooling plans for the World 's Fair, proposed an ambitious program to entice commercial participants to hook up to the fair's central refrigeration plant for airco nditi oning purposes . But World 's Fair officials broke their co ntract with Voorhees, and hi s drea m of coo ling the many restaurants, ex hibits and theaters was never reali zed, Fa irgoers , however, were treated to one ai rconditioned building, The State of Mi ssouri Building's rotunda and j ,ODD-seat auditorium were cooled using some 35 ,000 cfm (cubi c feet per minute) of partially recirculated air. That air was cooled by direct expansion and delivered through mid-height wa ll registers, The installation proved impressive to fairgoers, many of whom experienced comfort cooling for the first time, Before air conditi onin g, life in America follow ed seasonal patterns determined by the weather. In many instances , factories, stores and th ea ters closed down on hot SUlllmer day s. The more affl uent people fl ed the cities for mountain and seaside resorts, Low-tech solutions helped the less fortunate cope with the heat,
A customized Cadi llac becomes the first air-conditioned car. - --\ United Air Lines uses air condi tioning in its "three-m iIe-a-m inute" passenger planes,
(Con tinued on page J7)
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1906 Passenger compartments of Mississippi River steamboats are air cond iti oned,
the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci had built a
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Public debut of air conditioning at the St. Louis World's Fair,
Humanity 's quest for cool comfort has a
its real beg inning near the end of the 19th
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1904
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1929/1930 The U,S, House of Representatives becomes air conditioned, fo llowed by the Senate (1929) and the White House (1930)
1946 After World War II, demand for room air cond itioners increases; 30,000 produced,
1974 Air conditioners become first appliances labeled with energy consumption information,
1999 Stay Cooll Air Conditioning America exhibit opens at the National Build ing Museum in Washington, D,C,
1995 CFC production in the United States ends Dec. 31; ASHRAE celebrates its centennial.
Photo Source: Clevenger, Martha R, Ed itor. Indescribably Grand: Diaries and LeIters From the 1904 World's Fair, Missouri. 1996.Ryan, William and Guinness, Desmond. The White House: An Architectural HisIOlY. New York, 19BQ, Severns. WlillamH . and Fellows, Julian R. Air Condltionmg and Refrigeration. London, 1958.
MSM¡UM R ALUMNUS I Winter 1999
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