What is Cooling?

The decrease the temperature of a substance or ambient below to the temperature of the surrounding volume and maintaining at this temperature is called “cooling”. . . . .

The simplest and oldest cooling type is to preserve the naturally occurring ice and place them to the hot ambient to be cooled. The cooling method by preserving the snow and ice occurring in the winter season for use in hot seasons is known as the method used since 1000 A.D. It is known that this cooling method is still used is in some part of our country. Meanwhile, it is known since ancient Egyptian times that, the water that is exposed to the open sky can be cooled. Such cooling is possible because the temperature in the deep darkness is at the absolute zero degree (-273°C) and therefore, it is possible to make use of that temperature by radiation.

The first ice trade for commercial purpose was realized by Frederic Tudor in 1806. Tudor carried 130-ton ice mass to the Antilles with his ship named Favorite. Having named as “King of Ice” thereafter, Tudor lost 3500 US$ in his first adventure, he nevertheless realized that he lost just because he did not have the means of storage and that the ice business was a profitable. He then continued in ice trading and expanded his business to the level to earn as much as US$150,000 in 1850s. In 1864, he included the Antilles, Iran, India and S. Africa into his export portfolio and his ships were visiting more than 53 harbors. The cooling by making use of the natural ice had widely been used until the end of 1800b.

It is clear that the cooling by making use of ice will not be practical and cost effective in most cases, considering the time and space made available. Instead, the cooling by means of mechanical devices and equipment is preferred, which in fact falls in the scope of the science of cooling methods. The first patent on the mechanical cooling ever known belonged to Thomas Harris and John Long, British citizens in 1790. In 1834, Jacop Perkins, American inventor, obtained the patent of the device operated with the ether. This machine looked like a reciprocating pump. John Gorrie (1803-1855), a medical doctor, first constructed a cooling machine for commercial purpose (1844-Apalachicola, Florida, USA) and made history as the father of “Air Conditioners – Cooling – Commercial Ice Production”.

The practical application of the mechanical cooling was first implemented in 1860 by Dr. James Harrison (Australia) in cooling the beer during the production process. The system made use of the sulfuric ether as the refrigerant.

In 1861, Dr. Alexander Kirk developed absorption equipment operating with the heat of coal. The commercial production of the ice via mechanical cooling had been initiated by the end of 1800s.

First large-scale application of the air conditioner has been the cooling system installed in New York Trade Exchange with a 450 ton/frigo in 1904.

The automatic refrigerators were first manufactured by Kelvinator Company in 1918. The company sold 67 refrigerators in first year. In 1918-1920 period, altogether 200 refrigerators were sold. First refrigerator operating on the basis of the absorption principle (Electrolux) was launched in 1927.