Evaporative Cooler - History

History

Civilizations throughout the ages have found ingenious ways to combat the heat in their region. An earlier form of air cooling, the windcatcher (Bâd gir), was invented in Persia (Iran) thousands of years ago in the form of wind shafts on the roof, which caught the wind, passed it over subterranean water in a qanat and discharged the cooled air into the building. Nowadays Iranians have changed the windcatcher into an evaporative cooler (Coolere Âbi) and use it widely. There are 9 million evaporative coolers in central Iran, and in just the first two months of year 1385 in the Persian/Iranian calendar (April–May 2006) 130,000 evaporative coolers were sold in Iran.

The evaporative cooler was the subject of numerous US patents in the 20th century; many of these, starting in 1906, suggested or assumed the use of excelsior (wood wool) pads as the elements to bring a large volume of water in contact with moving air to allow evaporation to occur. A typical design, as shown in a 1945 patent, includes a water reservoir (usually with level controlled by a float valve), a pump to circulate water over the excelsior pads and a squirrel-cage fan to draw air through the pads and into the house. This design and this material remain dominant in evaporative coolers in the American Southwest, where they are also used to increase humidity. In the United States, the use of the term swamp cooler may be due to the odor of algae produced by early units.

Evaporative cooling was in vogue for aircraft engines in the 1930s, for example with the Beardmore Tornado airship engine. Here the system was used to reduce, or eliminate completely, the radiator which would otherwise create considerable drag. In these systems the water in the engine was kept under pressure with pumps, allowing it to heat to temperatures above 100°C, as the actual boiling point is a function of the pressure. The superheated water was then sprayed through a nozzle into an open tube, where it flashed into steam, releasing its heat. The tubes could be placed under the skin of the aircraft, resulting in a zero-drag cooling system.

However these systems also had serious disadvantages. Since the amount of tubing needed to cool the water was large, the cooling system covered a significant portion of the plane even though it was hidden. This added complexity and reliability issues. In addition this large size meant it was very easy for it to be hit by enemy fire, and practically impossible to armor. British and U.S. developers used ethylene glycol instead, cooling the liquid in radiators. The Germans instead used streamlining and positioning of traditional radiators. Even the method's most ardent supporters, Heinkel's Günter brothers, eventually gave up on it in 1940.

Externally-mounted evaporative cooling devices to cool interior air were used in some automobiles, often as aftermarket accessories, until modern vapor-compression air conditioning became widely available.