HISTORY OF AIR CONDITIONING & HEATING IN AUTO

In mid-1990, Givens (1990) presented the first of a three-part series of articles on the technical history of automobiles. Unfortunately, completed in succeeding months, the series did not address heating or air conditioning subsystems used in autos at any stage of their development. Other authors' works reviewed here are likewise directed solely to their own alleged improvements to heaters or air conditioners and are not even claimed to be for cars of one manufacturer or conglomerate or another -- foreign or domestic.

The history of automobile air conditioning, in particular -- as opposed to the history of vehicle heating, can be inferred from the biographical materials reviewed here concerning several pioneers of space air conditioning. Of particular interest is the return of modern researchers -- for thermodynamically compelling reasons -- to the use of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, after many decades of its abandonment following its 1920's use in the earliest public-building air conditioners.

Curhan has claimed that "over the past several years . . . recent trends" in vehicle engine designs have led to efficiency improvements but consequent decreases in the availability of 'waste' heat for passenger compartment heating (Curhan, 1990, p. 55). Curhan asserted that three available options for overcoming the drop in available heat to be dispersed through conventi

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n dining car, and in 1931 it demonstrated an improved steam-jet and closed chilled water system for the same application (Galson & Galson, 1995, p. 78). The "De La Vergne unit" that was the first self-contained hermetic room air conditioner with a reverse cycle was patented by Henry Galson, a mechanical engineer with the De La Vergne Company, in 1933 (Galson & Galson, 1995, p. 78). Galson also received a patent for his improvements to Pullman sleeper car air conditioning in 1932, and he received still further patents for smaller railcar units in 1935. In 1943, while working for Carrier, whom he had joined in 1937, Galson developed a portable cooler for Air Force aircraft, whose war-years billeting in the California desert made them too hot to approach, much less maintain (Galson & Galson, 1995, p. 80). The following excerpt from the Galsons' article (apparently about their famous father, Henry L. Galson) is reproduced verbatim because it hints, enigmatically and unclearly, that H.L. Galson may have invented the first automobile air conditioner (a "window unit"): In 1946-47, he designed a window air-conditioning unit . . . for the Fedders-Quigan Corporation, now [1995] Fedders-North American. The company's Buffalo plant was
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Some common words found in the essay are:
HVAC INNOVATIONS, BaTiO3 Curhan, Galson Galson, AUTOMOBILES INTRODUCTION, IMPROVEMENTS Curhan, Plymouth MI, Los Angeles, Fedders-North American, University California, Texas Instruments, air conditioning, curhan 1990, nagengast 1993, galson galson 1995, galson galson, galson 1995, et al, stefanides 1991, air conditioner, lorentzen pettersen, pettersen 1993, lorentzen pettersen 1993, galson 1995 78, engine air conditioner, riffat et al,
Approximate Word count = 2231
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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