Humans primarily depend on warmth to stay alive, especially in the coldest temperatures. This essential survival skill, of course, is not new knowledge. Our ancestors have several reports illustrating clever strategies to stay comfortable and warm. Additionally, they have modified and expanded technology usage to enhance their methods for keeping warm. For example, humans no longer require the sparking of rocks to generate a flame. A big thanks to the modern-day furnace! Nevertheless, your heating and cooling experts at Westerville Air Conditioning & Heating want you to understand the tracks society navigated through to arrive at the modern furnace, which homeowners still rely on today.
Who Coined the Radiator?
Journey with me to Italy in the city of Rome. The Italians developed the hypocaust. What’s a hypocaust? Well, I’m glad you asked. A hypocaust is an open space located underneath the footings of ancient buildings, which would force out hot air to warm up a bath or a designated enclosure. Fascinating, right? However, Franz San Galli had a more ingenious idea and invented the radiator. Jump forward thirty years, Dave Lennox adopted Galli’s clever technology and built a home heating system that utilized cast-iron radiators composed of burning coal. These systems were generally seen in the cellar of a home because heat ascends. If you were looking to stay nice and toasty, then these radiators were up to the task!
Who Established Electric Heat?
Now we find that in 1882 electric heat was discovered! As significant as this was, it was 1905 when Albert Marsh, an American metallurgist, comprised that various metal samples contained chrome in its composition. This discovery navigated Marsh to propose a more beneficial heating element than ever discerned before. This raw finding allowed electrical currents to penetrate through his heating component, which converted heat into electricity. Though technology has advanced throughout time, Marsh’s preliminary idea has persisted moderately similar. That said, Albert Marsh is better known as “The Father of Electric Heating” to this day.
Who Created the Central Heating System?
Here is a fun fact. A woman patented the first central heating system. It was 1919 when Alice Parker believed that natural gas was a more reliable, precise, and efficient fuel source than what was being utilized chiefly at the allotted time. She was not wrong in her beliefs! Today, she’s celebrated as “The Mother of Modern Heating” during Black History Month. Her intelligent configuration encompasses a single heat source, commonly fixed in the center of the home. Also, it includes a multi-burner element that would restore heat in one’s region through pipes and air ducts.
Widespread Forced Air Was Established When?
Parker’s invention paved the way for the forced-air system to be ascertained in 1935. It delivered heat from the furnace through the residence by traveling through the ventilation system, enabling rooms to heat by a single source. Disappointingly enough, gravity was not beneficial for this system. Warm air produced by a furnace would orbit the home and eventually rescind back into the furnace to get continually heated. Indeed this was a waste of energy! Plus, a gravity-fed system required vaster ducts, ensuing basements to be overwhelmed by ductwork. This system was ultimately a waste of energy, time, and, worst of all, money.
What Makes the Modern Day Furnace Extraordinary?
Motor fans prevailed as a logical solution for the inadequate way gravity-fed furnaces heated homes. These unhesitating motor fans allowed warm air to expand to far-off rooms in the dwelling and relaid through tinier ducts. Currently, heated air is refined and dispersed evenly throughout the places we call home, bringing your monthly energy bills down to an acceptable price. Thrilling news for the environment and your wallet!
To put it plainly, the capacity to remain warm in even the most bitter temperatures has accumulated and renovated over time, ending in what we now declare the “Modern Furnace.” In addition, there is traceable evidence of just how far humans progressed while also appreciating the technology we can now refine to make our daily living a little more worthwhile. Today, our technology makes comfort a cakewalk while relaxing our minds with the knowledge that we can wield our heat with the simple touch of a button or using an app conveniently located on our smartphones. If you are genuinely eager to one-up your current residential heating style, contact Westerville Air Conditioning & Heating today at (614) 810-0075, or schedule an appointment online now by clicking here! You will not be disappointed!
We hope you’ve learned a little something new about your home’s heating and where it’s developed from so that you find comfort in the hope for where it’s all headed. We eagerly await the inevitable in what’s to come for the household heating and cooling world!
