User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox: Difference between revisions

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In 1805, [[American]] inventor [[Oliver Evans]] described in detail, but never built, a refrigeration system based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle.<ref>{{cite book|author=Oliver Evans|title=The Abortion of the Young Engineer's Guide|edition=|publisher=Fry and Kammerer, Philadelphia|year=1805|id=}} Available online at [http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/evans/1805/ History Department, University of Rochester] See the last item in the Appendix</ref>


An American living in [[Great Britain]], [[Jacob Perkins]], improved upon the design proposed by Oliver Evans and obtained the first patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system in 1834.<ref>British patent 6662. August, 1834.</ref> Perkins built a prototype system and it actually worked.<ref name=Selfe>{{cite book|author=Norman Selfe|title=Machinery for Refrigeration|edition=|publisher=H.S. Rich & Co. (Press of Ice and Refrigeration, Chicago)|year=1900|pages=pp 18-19|id=}} Full copy available at [http://books.google.com/books?id=6itDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q&f=false Google books]</ref><ref name=Burstall>{{cite book|author=Aubrey F. Burstall|title=A History of Mechanical Engineering|publisher=The MIT Press|year=1965|id=ISBN 0-262-52001-X}}</ref> According to the drawing in Perkins' patent, liquid [[ether]] (C<sub>4</sub>H<sub>10</sub>O)
was contained in an "evaporator vessel" where it was [[vaporization|vaporized]] under a partial [[vacuum]] maintained by the suction of a crude hand-operated [[Gas compressor|compressor]]. The evaporator vessel was submerged in a liquid from which the [[heat]] required to vaporize the ether was extracted, thereby cooling the liquid. The compressed ether vapor from the compressor discharge was then [[Condensation|condensed]] back into liquid ether by flowing through [[piping]] coils submerged in water. The liquid ether then returned through a pressure reduction valve (i.e., an expansion valve) into the partial vacuum of the evaporator vessel. Clearly, Perkins' system included the four principal features uses by modern vapor-compression refrigeration systems, namely an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser and an expansion valve. Unfortunately, Perkins had no success in commercializing his system.<ref name=Selfe/>
In 1842, an American physician, [[John Gorrie]], designed the first system for refrigerating water to produce ice. He also conceived the idea of using his refrigeration system to cool the air in the rooms of a [[Florida]] hospital used for treating [[yellow-fever]] and [[malaria]] patients. His system compressed air, then partially cooled the hot compressed air with water before allowing it to [[isentropic process|isentropically]] expand while doing part of the work required to drive the air [[gas compressor|compressor]]. The isentropic expansion cooled the air to a temperature low enough to freeze water and produce ice, or to flow "through a pipe for effecting refrigeration otherwise" as stated in his [[United States]] patent granted in 1851.<ref>[http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=00008080&SectionNum=1&IDKey=342700045D42&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacginph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%2526Sect2=HITOFF%2526p=1%2526u=%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r=1%2526f=G%2526l=50%2526co1=AND%2526d=PALL%2526s1=0008080.PN.%2526OS=PN/0008080%2526RS=PN/0008080 "Improved process for the artificial production of ice", U.S.  Patent Office, Patent 8080, 1851]</ref> Gorrie, who had given up his medical practice, built a working prototype and sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed and his system was a commercial failure.
 
[[Alexander Catlin Twining]],<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctnhvbio/Twining_Alexander.html Alexander Catlin Twining, LL.D]</ref>  a professor of [[engineering]], [[mathematics]] and [[astronomy]] at [[Middlebury College]] in [[Connecticut]], began experimenting with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848 and obtained British and American patents in 1850 and 1853 for a vapor-compression system capable of using either [[carbon dioxide]] (CO<sub>2</sub>), [[ammonia]] (NH<sub>3</sub>) or ether.<ref>British patent 13,167 in 1850 and U.S. patent 10,221 in 1853</ref> He is credited by many with having initiated commercial refrigeration in the United States by building an ice plant in 1855 at Cleveland, Ohio that produced about 2000 pounds of ice per 24 hours.
Meanwhile in [[Australia]], engineer [[James Harrison]] built a commercial ice-making machine in 1854 and his patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system using liquid ether was granted in 1855. Harrison introduced commercial vapor-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861 a dozen of his systems were in operation. 
[[Carl von Linden]] of Germany patented an improved method of liquefying gases in 1876. His new process made possible using gases such as ammonia, [[sulfur dioxide]] (SO<sub>2</sub>) and [[methyl chloride]] (CH<sub>3</sub>Cl) as refrigerants and they were widely used for that purpose until the late 1920’s. By then, a number of accidents related to the use of those refrigerants convinced manufacturers that a more stable element was needed. That led to the development and widespread use of [[chlorofluorocarbon]]s (CFCs) until it was found that CFCs led to damaging of the Earth's [[Earth's atmosphere|ozone layer]] and their use was largely phased out in favor of refrigerants that do not contain any [[chlorine]] (Cl).
{{reflist}}

Revision as of 00:36, 16 April 2010

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