The History of Central Heating Essay Example

wrought iron air chamber encased with bricks. This chamber had ducts that fed into rooms and blew heated air into the rooms. The way this chamber was built was to keep the hot air from escaping from the chamber and having heat loss. They were referred to as cockle, belper, or derby stoves.

Isaac Orr invented the airtight stove so there would be no heat loss inside the chamber in 1836. Professor Warren Johnson taught at a school in Wisconsin, where the only means of room temperature control was to tell the janitor to go to the basement and adjust steam valves. Johnson developed an electric annunciator system in 1873 that was used to signal the janitor when heat needed adjusting. He continued experimenting and in 1885, patented a thermostat that relied on compressed air to operate steam valves. He then established the Johnson Electric Service Co. to manufacture and install his system.

Johnson went on to invent the humidistat for control of the humidity in buildings in 1905. In 1905-1908, Milton Fessler invented a residential oil burner so that residents could have their own house heated easily without stoking coal in a fireplace every hour. Coal-less Mondays were introduced in 1917 to save coal and stimulate the use for oil and gas since there wasn’t much coal around or to be found regularly. In 1926, the Electric Refrigeration News began to publish that heating had advanced from the campfire in a cave, to something so silent, so unnoticeable.

And in present day, thermostat controls air and ducts are fed in a way we can’t see the m and as well as

fed to each room through a vent in which air is blown out of. We take advantage of just “turning on the heat” every day that we don’t even bother to thing what had to happen way back when to heat thing up. The way of heating has been a system that not everyone thinks about. It has gone from the campfire, to the hypocaust, to stoves, to compressed valves, to thermostats, to an automatic heating with the push of a button. Over time, the way of heating has improved and impressed many along the way.

It used to be having a chimney and stoking coals for five minutes ever hour just to keep the coals burning and hot and giving off heat. To progress this way of heating, there cannot be only one inventor. There are many who have created accessories, or major parts to different systems. The inventors go from ancient Roman empires and ancient Greek empires to people we have never heard of, but have improved life as we know it tremendously. This is the way of heating. Going into B. C. years, there were some unknown dates and some known dates. First was campfire.

We all have heard off the story where cavemen are in a stark cold cave with a campfire. That’s just an obvious fact. Later on the hypocaust was made my ancient Romans and ancient Greeks. The word hypocaust refers to a subfloor radiant heating system: suspended floor with space for gases and hot smoke. The word hypocaust comes from the Latin word Hypocaustum which originally meant a 'burning underneath'. Hypocausts were very important to Roman’s system of

heating. The hypocaust heated baths and large rooms. Along with the hypocaust, there were sometimes hollow walls in ancient structures.

These hollow walls would help maintain even temperatures as well as eliminate condensation. The small pillars of stacked bricks would have supported a fireproof floor that was heated by means of air circulation in the under floor chamber with an external furnace as heat source. The art and science of the hypocaust systems was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Western heating science had advanced very little in the period of the Dark Ages. Around 2500B. C fixed central hearths were excavated in Greece. In 80 B. C. Sergius Orata brought high art designs to Roman technology.

At first Romans were only heating up their floors, but later used heated walls and some were designed as early as warm air heating systems. By this, introducing heated air through floor openings. This is the end of the B. C. heating ways. Now going into the A. D. times, from 1600-1800 specifically. In the late 1600’s, Dalsme invented the first freestanding stove, not mounted to a wall, called the Furnus Acapnos to the smokeless stove. He also introduced fresh fuel in the same combustion air directing all products over already burning fuel, a design that ensured itself. The smokeless stove was a great advance but, it was accepted slowly.

The earliest stove introduced into North America was the cast iron box stove which was invented by Dr. John Clarke in 1652. This kind of stove was originally made in Holland and later imported into England after1600. Louis Savot invented a raised gate

system and designed a circulating fireplace. He used a hollow iron bottom and back in a hearth, at which cold air entered the bottom, was warmed, and entered the room through openings, in early 1600’s. In 1653, Sir Hugh Platt proposed using hot water to dry gun powder and Sir Martin Triewald proposed warming greenhouses with hot water.

This might be referred to as the hydronic system, which is the heating of an object by water. In 1735, John Desaguiliers designed the first modern heating blower which was turned by hand by an operator referred to as the ventilator for the British Houses of Parliament. The design of centrifugal, acting from or away from the center, blowers was continually improved in England and Europe during 18-19 century. The early fans were mostly operated by steam engines. In the late 1700’s, M. Bonne in France constructed an actual hot water heating system using a boiler.

The French idea was introduced into England by the Marquis de Chabannes later in 1816. By the 1790’s, the steam heating way had only progressed in England, being used to heat mills and factories. The advantage of steam heating is the avoidance of the expense of insurance. This is the end of the 16th and 17th century. Moving ahead to the 18th and 19th century, there were many important events, inventions, and inventors. In England at about 1805, William Strutt had invented at warm air furnace that included a riveted wrought iron air chamber that is encased with bricks.

The design had a couple inches of space between the brick and iron chamber allows air to circulate. A

large space on the outside is split horizontally on two sections, the lower for cool air and the upper for heated air. Cool air moves from the lower chamber through the openings and moved out through the upper openings into the heated air chamber. As well as ducts were fed into rooms in which heated air is blown out of them. His hot air furnaces were referred to as cockle, belper, or derby stoves.

December of 1815, Marquis de Chabannes obtained a patent for a method of conducting air, and regulating the temperatures in houses or buildings. Hot air systems were introduced in the U. S. before 1820. The fist building to be centrally heated was the Massachusetts Medical College in 1816. In 1831, Angier Perkins realized the drawbacks of bulky heating systems. So he designed a high pressure hot water system using a small diameter, thick walled wrought iron pipe that he patented. His system heated water in pipe coils placed in a furnace, then circulated hot water to coils of pipe in the rooms to be heated.

In 1833, Eliphalet Knott invented the base burners for stoves, and in 1836, Isaac Orr invented the air tight stove so that there would be no heat loss. Joseph Nason and James Walworth introduced the Perkins method of high pressure hot water heating system in the U. S... But in that same year of 1842, the method was not used. The use of hot water systems had been limited till 1880’s when that had surprisingly become popular. Steam heating for residents had rapidly declined and hot water became the dominant method especially in the

eastern part of the United States.

Joseph and James installed steam systems afterward, using small diameter wrought iron pipes. They installed numerous amounts of steam systems in large buildings, including the White House and the Capitol building. In 1846, James and Nason installed the first fan type system for the United States Customs House in Boston. Later in 1849, F. P. Oliver had invented a stove with thermostatic draft control. By 1851, catalogs started to list cast iron registers, which are often 12-by-24-inch grills covering a large air-intake tube. Outflow vents vary in size depending on the room.

A common size is 10 by 12 inches for most living spaces, available in black, white, finished, gold, bronze, or just with nickel plating. They would package them with straw in a wooden crate. Packing was expensive. Stephen Gold was a Connecticut stove maker who began experimenting. The steam heating systems seemed too complicated and unsafe, but furnaces had seemed completely uncomplicated and very safe. Many people were uncomfortable in building heated by air because they had seamed scorched. Gold had overcome these issues and was granted a patent for improvement in warming houses by steam.

Gold’s system was unique at the time. Large steam systems used coils or rows of pipe to heat rooms, while Gold used the first radiator, a device consisting of two dimpled iron sheets that were riveted together at dimples. The edges were rolled over with a piece of cord as a gasket, which is a rubber seal. Gold’s radiator came to be called “the mattress radiator” due to the way it looked, in 1854. In the same year,

Gold invented a boiler which was made of wrought iron and included a draft regulator along with a water valve.

This system was later manufactured by Connecticut Steam Heating Company. Radiators date to 1863. Joseph Nason and a new face of Robert Briggs patented a new design including vertical wrought iron tubes screwed into a cast iron base. The golden age for warm air furnaces was after the Civil War. In 1869 a shoemaker by the name of Benjamin F. Sturtevant patented a combination fan and heat exchanger for two purposes: 1) for cooling 2) for heating. He established a company to manufacture and sell fans and heating systems. Here is a story that took place in 1873.

Professor Warren Johnson taught at a school in Wisconsin where the only way to change the temperature was to run down to the janitor and have him turn the valves of air to change it to either warm or cool. Johnson developed an electric annunciator, which is electronic signaling device, system that was used to signal the janitor when heating need to be adjusted. In 1885, he created and patented a thermostat that relied on compressed air to operate the valves. He later established the Johnson Electric Service Company to manufacture and in install his systems. By 1874, Nelson Bundy invented the most popular cast iron radiator.

In 1886, Albert Butz patented a thermostat that controlled damp drafts. The thermostat was electric, using battery to activate a spring loaded motor. In the 1890’s, the heating systems were quite sophisticated. Some included thermostatic and zone control, which is a forced air system. All of the

early inventions of forced air systems had concerned themselves with large buildings. These combinations of the 1890’s of a fan and a heater were referred to as the plenum or the hot blast systems. In 1895, Charles Foster patented a damper type register. In 1899, Novelty Manufacturing Company was the first to make the steel register.

The most successful hot blast system was the Vento sectional cast iron surface invented by John Spear in 1903, which was manufactured by American Radiator Company. Professor Warren Johnson went to invent the humidistat to control the humidity of a home in 1905. In that same year, manufacturers were frightened and formed the Federal Furnace League to elevate warm air heating to the rightfully deserved position. In 1905-1908, Milton Fessler invented a residential oil burner so that residents could have their own house heated easily without stoking coal in a fireplace every hour.

During 1912, residents and homeowners had to wake up early to stoke the coal in the fire and replace the coal with fresh coal. Guesswork and experience helped tell how much coal to use. The first electric coal stoker that was controlled by a thermostat was invented in 1912, and by 1920 electric coal stokers could be found by anyone. During WWI, there was a coal shortage and the government had to find a way to conserve energy gave a slight nudge to the automatic systems. Lawrence Soule improved his idea of Aerofin heating surfaces. This Aerofin idea used spirally wrapped copper sheets to produce a light weight eat exchanger, during the 1920’s. After WWI, Butz Thermoelectric Regulator Company had pushed the idea of

oil burner controls and had met with the Honeywell Heating Specialties in 1927 to form the Minneapolis Honeywell Regulator Company, or know to us today as Honeywell Incorporated. The heating systems of the 19th century operated with a low pressure, only using one to two pipes and a boiler or steam engine for the steam source. This is pretty much the last of the 18th-19th century events and inventions. This last paragraph explains the inventions and events in the 20th century.

There are four main different types of modern central heating, consisting of gas and oil burners, solid fuel central heating, radiators, and electric heating. Gas and oil burners can be chimneys because they use gas to and oil to burn the wood to make a fire, which warms up the room. Solid fuel central heating systems provide hot water, warm water, or any kind of heated liquid. Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. They distribute the heat by natural air circulation.

The process of electric heating involves electrical energy being converted to heat through an electrical appliance. Other ways to heat homes are wood stoves, forced air systems, and by radiant heat. We also use thermostats that just “change” the temperature of rooms by the push of a button, that we often just take advantage of it. Houses often had ducts that come from a furnace that go to each room and blow air when you change the temperature on the thermostat. Some houses have a large panel of widows instead of a wall and the suns radiation

waves go through the window and transfer into radiant heat to warm out the house.

Another system houses have is called the forced air system. Air is pushed by fans into a furnace and when it comes out, there are more fans after the furnace to push the air down the ducts and into the vents which lead into the room. This leads up to the year of 2013. So as it’s obvious, central heating has come a long way and improved much over the years. Many are impressed by this complicated technology and impressed by the intricate designs and inventions over the years. As spoiled people with high expectations of high quality technology, we have taken advantage of the heating systems.

We just “turn on the heat” or “turn on the AC” and not even thinking about what has had to happen for this technology to come up to where it is. Heating is very important because without it we would not exist. We would freeze to death, literally. We owe a lot of thanks to all the inventors way back then who made this invention a lifestyle and a luxury. Heating has advanced so tremendously, from the campfire in a cave to something so silent so unnoticeable in life, from the hypocausts to the furnace, from the freestanding stoves to the chimneys.

When we use heat or use a thermostat, we don’t tend to think about how heat has progressed. We think about the necessity of warmth, and how we are going to “freeze to death. ” This paper and research has made me more aware of what happened for

society to get heat, and has made me appreciate what I have. Fifty-four percent of the energy used in the average home is for heating and cooling rooms, and there are 114,199,622 households in the US as of the 2010 census. That’s a lot of energy used! The most simplistic way to put it is that we take advantage of things we have every day. I am thankful for heat, are you?