10 things I learned from the book || Cool : How Air Conditioning changed everything

Book Post : 23

Book Name : Cool : How Air Conditioning changed everything

Author : Salvatore Basile

Genre : Non-Fiction/Science

What is it about?: A book detailing the history of Air Conditioning right from its earliest beginnings to the modern era. As the author states there were two struggles in the story of Air conditioning: one was actually making a perfect cooling device and the other was to convince people that they needed such a device.

How I came to read it : With my recent career change to energy efficiency in buildings I wanted to read books about Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. A quick google search lead me to this book and I obtained it by making an Inter Library Loan request from the Okanagan Regional Library. Also the recent heatwaves in Canada resulting in a huge surge in demand for home ACs played a factor.

   

Did I like it? :  This was a decent read. Not overly exciting and at the same not too bland it was an okay read. It gets a bit repetitive in the middle but slowly pics up pace at the end. 

Top 10 things I learned from this book: 

1. The first proper Air Conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in 1902. Yes the same Carrier which is a huge AC manufacturing company now. The first AC was built for a company called Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing company. The summers of 1900 and 1902 were very hot and humid and a large amount of paper stock was ruined because of it. So an Air Conditioning system was built for them by Willis Carrier (while working for Buffalo Forge) which not only kept the facility cool but also kept the humidity under control.  

2. Willis Carrier mentioned that when the problem of the above publishing company was assigned to him to solve he did not even know what Air Humidity was. Imagine Carrier, who is almost regarded as the father of AC, not knowing what Air humidity was. This only reinforces the fact that it doesn't matter if you don't know something, what matters is how you move from that point. Another modern example of this would be Elon Musk who knew nothing about Rockets. Now he has started off a revival of interest in space with his company SpaceX. 

3. In 1922 it was Willis Carrier again who invented the first centrifugal compressor, a very important piece in every modern AC system. 

4. The first Air Conditioned plane was the Boeing 247 operated by United Air Lines. It started operation in 1934 and was the first 24 hr coast to coast flight.

5. The first Air Conditioned skyscraper was the Milam building in San Antonia, Texas. For the first time 21 stories of office space were Air conditioned, a remarkable achievement at that time. It was Carrier who installed this system. This was in 1928. 

6. Fun Fact: When the 103 floor Empire State Building was built in 1931 it was the World's tallest building and it had no Air Conditioning. None at all. 

7. There was a time when theatres did not have ACs and watching a play in the summers was known to be a tough ordeal. People falling unconscious because of the heat was a common recurrence. This is the reason theatres were one of the earliest adopters of methods to try to cool the air. 

8. In those days (1800s and early 1900s) people believed that heat is something that is nature's way and it shouldn't be messed with. It took a lot of convincing by the early pioneers of ACs to change that view. ACs sort of had a 'Personal computer moment' in the early 1900s when most people believed that a personal home AC system is not needed and what use could an AC actually have for a small home. The 1950s changed all that and ACs were soon a rage. 

9. In 1911, Willis Carrier published a paper called the 'Rational Psychrometric Formulae' at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This is regarded as the most significant document prepared in Air Conditioning. It presented the correlation between temperature and humidity. Engineering students still learn those formulae and I did too when I was doing my Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. '

10. A textile Engineer from North Carolina, Stuart Cramer was the first person to coin the term 'Air Conditioning' 

'The Existential Pleasures of Engineering'.A Review.

'The Existential Pleasures of Engineering' by Samuel C.Florman
is a book about engineering and what engineers feel about their profession.In a very highly enthusiastic tone the author talks about engineering as a most basic impulse of man.He celebrates the fact that engineers have shaped the modern world and staunchly defends it against people who say it has bought more problems than solutions.

        The book starts off with detailing the rise and subsequent fall in popularity of the engineers.He calls the period between 1850 and 1950 to be the golden age of engineers.At this point of time engineers were a respected lot and people termed them as 'benefactors of mankind'. He bought in the industrial revolution with his locomotives,electric power,steam power,mass production and bridges.After that industrial revolution life was never the same again for mankind.Things have improved dramatically for humans.It then goes on to describe the negativity that engulfed the engineering profession during the cold war when the perception of the engineering profession changed from 'benefactors of mankind' to 'Prophets of doom'.One of the chief reasons for this was the Atomic Bomb.

       This negativity then led to the advent of a new type of critic of engineers called the 'Anti technologists' .This is described in the second part of the book.This part describes the viewpoints of the anti technologists who in their criticism have declared that man in his continuing quest of new technology has become the slave of this very technology he created for his benefit.The third and final part is the most exciting part of the book wherein the author answers the anti technologist point of views.He counter questions them and provides some thought provoking standpoints.In addition to defending the engineers from the anti technologists the author urges the engineering community to bring in a measure of sophistication to their profession and life.He urges them to move beyond their profession and bring in a bit of imagination,social concern and culture.He also calls for engineers all over the world to express their love for engineering uninhibitedly.He calls engineering fun and something that gives a 'kick' to a man.

       All in all this book is a must read for anybody who is even a least bit interested in engineers or engineering.The author has an infectious enthusiasm that is visible all through out the book.He celebrates engineering as something that is vital to the very existence of man.If not the whole book the first chapter of part 1 and chapter 11 of part 3 are a must read.

      On a closing note I would like the reader to look up the story of sisyphus who the author calls the symbol of the modern engineer.He says the following regarding the story of sisyphus.'We are beginning to realize that for mankind there will never be a time to rest at the top of the mountain.There will be no Arcadian age.There will always be new burdens,new problems,new failures,new beginnings.And the glory of man is to respond to his harsh fate with zest and ever renewed effort.An engineer's work springing as it does from the most basic impulse of humanity can fill him with existential joy'

Top Five Muslim Scholars you should know

           In the recent years the image of Islam has taken a beating due to the various terrorist groups wrongly claiming to be followers of Islam and doing the god's work. Everything good thing about Islam is overshadowed by these terrorists and the world believes Islam to be a religion of intolerance and  backwardness.However this was not the case always.Once upon a time,called the golden age of Islam,It was at the forefront of the values of tolerance and equality and also in the field of science.     To raise awareness about this period and the scholars who came then and afterwards I present this small list of Five Muslim scholars who everyone should know.
   
             In the period before the European Renaissance unfairly called the Dark Ages, much of the world thinks that there was no progress made in science.But in the Islamic world which was spread over the middle east , a golden period of science and learning was taking place.It was accelerated by the Caliph Al Mamun who started arguably one of the most significant movements in the history of mankind,the translation movement.The translation movement led to the growth of a number of scholars in the golden age of Islam and directly and indirectly influenced much of the modern world.
Here is the list of top five famous scholars of the Golden Age of Islam and after.This post has been directly influenced by Jim Al Khalili's book 'Pathfinders'

1-Al-Khwarizmi
Some of the many reasons why you should know him:
   Suppose you are given a equation to solve.For example
                           2x-10= 90
the first step to solve this is,as most of you will have learnt in school,adding 10 on both sides
the equation then becomes
                       2x-10+10= 90+10
This step of adding/subtracting to cancel terms was first described in Al-Khwarizmi's book-'The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing' This step is known as Al-jebr.By know you must be getting an idea about where I am going.The term Algebra is derived from the word Al-jebr.In this book Al Kwarizmi presented the first systematic solutions to linear and quadratic equations

Areas he is known for:
Mathematics,Astronomy,Geography

Legacy:
A crater on the moon is named after him.
In 1983 the soviet union issued a stamp commemorating Al khwarizmi's 1200th birthday.

Born-Died: 
780CE-850CE

2-Ibn Al-Haytham
Some of the many reasons why you should know him:
His book on optics 'Kitab al-Manazir' or the book of optics was read by and greatly influenced European scholars like Leonardo Da Vinci,Galileo,Rene Descartes and Johannes kepler.His theory of vision was very influential and inspired many other works of later centuries.Some call him 'The Father of Modern Optics'

Areas he is known for:
Optics, astronomy, mathematics, meteorology,visual perception and the scientific method

Legacy:
The crater Alhazen on the Moon is named in his honour.Also an asteroid is named as Alhazen

Born-Died: 
965 CE-1040 CE

3-Ibn sina
Some of the many reasons why you should know him:
He wrote the book 'The Canon of Medicine' which is about health and diseases. It remained a standard medical text in Europe and the Islamic world till the 17th century.Even now in colleges of India and Pakistan it is followed as Unani system of medicine.

Areas he is known for:
Medicine,Astronomy,alchemy,geography,geology,psychology,logic,mathematics,physics,poetry

Legacy:
George Sarton, the author of The History of Science, described Ibn Sina as "one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history.His portrait hangs in the Hall of the Avicena Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris.

Born-Died: 
980CE-1037CE

4-Ibn Khaldun
Some of the many reasons why you should know him:
 He was regarded among the founding fathers of Economics,Histriography and sociology.Historian Jim Al Khalili goes on to say that when compared with Adam Smith,the man many economists of today consider to be the father of economics,it is Ibn khaldun who is more worthy of the title.He wrote the 'Muqaddima' which is a treatise on human civilization.He was one of the first who called for creation of a science to explain society.

Areas he is known for:
History,historiography,economics,sociology

Legacy:
There is an Ibn Khaldun award given by Tunisian Community to any Tunisian/American whose works constitute a direct or indirect service to community.

Born-Died: 
1332 CE- 1406 CE

5-Al Jazari
Someof the many reasons why you should know him:
 He invented the camshaft and the crankshaft.It is one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind.A crankshaft is a mechanical part that can perform a conversion between reciprocating motion and rotational motion.Internal combustion engines used in vehicles have these to covert the reciprocating movement of the pistons into the rotary movement of the tyres. He also made many automated moving devices which later may have influenced Leonardo Da vinci.He wrote 'The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices'

Areas he is known for:
Mathematics,Mechanical Engineering,Inventions,Art

Born-Died: 
1136CE-1206CE

Based on the feedback I receive I plan to write about a few more scholars.