• Chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele distinguishes between heat transfer and conduction.
• Physicist Pierre Prevost shows that all bodies radiate heat, no matter how hot or cold they are.
• The New York Stock Exchange has a 300-ton comfort cooling system installed; the free cooling is provided by waste-steam-operated refrigeration systems.
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building, Buffalo, N.Y., is designed specifically for air conditioning. The system uses carbon dioxide as a refrigerant.
• Clarence Birdseye’s flash-freezing system moves food products through a refrigerating system on conveyor belts.
• General Electric introduces the “Monitor Top,” with a sealed refrigerating system. Its refrigerating unit was said to look like the gun turret of the Civil War ironclad ship, Monitor.
• Frigidaire markets a room cooler that uses sulfur dioxide refrigerant and has a capacity of 1 ton.
• Southern California Edison installs a heat pump air conditioning system in its Los Angeles office building.
• Albert Henne synthesizes R-134a. He also is a co inventor of CFC refrigerants.
• Packard Motor Car Company markets an automobile with an air conditioning option for $274.
• The National Appliance Energy Conservation Act mandates minimum energy efficiency requirements for refrigerators, freezers, and room and central air conditioners.
• The U.S. Energy Policy Act mandates minimum energy efficiency standards for commercial buildings, using research and standards developed by ASHRAE.
Publication date: 09/19/2011
