Cool: How Air Conditioning Modified All the pieces

Value: $12.99
(as of Apr 02, 2023 17:01:18 UTC – Particulars)

It’s a contraption that makes the lists of “Best Innovations Ever”; on the similar time, it’s accused of inflicting world catastrophe. It has modified the whole lot from structure to individuals’s meals habits to their voting patterns, to even the way in which massive enterprise washes its home windows. It has saved numerous lives . . . whereas inflicting numerous deaths. Most of us are glad it’s there. However we don’t understand how, or when, it acquired there.

It’s air con.

For 1000’s of years, humankind tried to do one thing concerning the sluggish torture of sizzling climate. All the pieces was tried: water energy, slave energy, electrical energy, ice constructed from steam engines and chilly air constructed from lethal chemical compounds, “zephyrifers,” refrigerated beds, air flow amateurs {and professional} air-sniffers. It wasn’t till 1902 when an engineer barely out of faculty developed the “Equipment for Treating Air”―a machine that would truly cool the indoors―and everybody assumed it might immediately change the world.

That wasn’t the case. There was a time when individuals “ignored” sizzling climate whereas studying every day’s record of heat-related deaths, girls wore furs within the summertime, heatstroke victims had been handled with bloodletting . . . and the notion of a machine to chill the air was thought of preposterous, even sinful.

The story of air con is definitely two tales: the wrestle to excellent a cooling machine, and the trouble to persuade folks that they really wanted such a factor. With a forged of characters starting from Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Nixon to Felix the Cat, Cool showcases the myriad reactions to air con― a few of them dramatic, many others comical and splendidly inconsistent―because it was developed and introduced to the world. Here’s a distinctive perspective on air con’s fascinating historical past: how we rely so fully on it as we speak, and the way it would possibly change radically tomorrow.

Writer ‏ : ‎ Fordham College Press; Reprint version (June 1, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0823271781
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0823271788
Merchandise Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.9 x 0.6 x 6 inches