WEBVTT - Invention Playlist 3: Air Conditioning, Part 1 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:08.520 Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:11.440 welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamp and I'm 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:15.440 Joe Mccormickin Today, we're gonna be beginning and exploration of 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:17.919 the invention of air conditioning. This is going to be 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.400 a multi part series. And for the purpose of this conversation, 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.000 we're not going to be talking about all cooling, refrigeration, 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.760 all making stuff colder technology that has ever existed. We're 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.800 going to be focusing on the invention of systems primarily 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.559 for cooling and removing humidity from interior spaces, primarily, but 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.880 not exclusively, for the comfort of humans and other animals. 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:41.760 Right that. Now that being said, we are going to 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:46.680 mention some some some various cooling technologies and air circulation 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.920 technologies on the path to modern air conditioning exactly. So, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:53.960 I will say that I can speak from pre recent 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.480 personal experience, actual actually multiple experiences, to say that if 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.720 you are lucky enough who have air conditioning in your home, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.800 in your workplace, and the places that you dwell, especially 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.920 in the hottest months of the year, especially if you 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.880 live somewhere hot like in the American South or anywhere 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.080 near the equator, I guess, or Atlanta or Hotlanta, as 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.840 they know that they do not call it. If you 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.399 are one of these lucky people who has this technology, 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.160 you should not take this blessing for granted. You should 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.839 remember every sweltering day to be thankful for this luxury. 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.000 I once lived in an upper floor apartment in an 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.840 old house in North Carolina, as though there was an 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.520 apartment below me, and I went the better part of 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.800 a blistering summer there with no air conditioning. And you know, 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.880 I don't want to over dramatize my my own struggles, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.840 but I just remember, like my brain didn't work. I 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.440 remember standing at the refrigerator with the freezer door open 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.080 and my head stuck in it, which don't do that, folks. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.960 I mean, that's not energy efficient, but you know, it 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.280 just short circuited all my rationality to be in this 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.400 hundred degree apartment. I remember I would lie on top 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.240 of my bed and try to sleep at night, just 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.080 making like a human sweat angel, like a you know, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.600 a human shaped sweat imprint on the top blanket. It 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.480 was disgusting and and more recently actually just last year, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.160 our home air conditioning and it completely broke down. In 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.919 the middle of summer, and it was several weeks before 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.320 we get the problem fixed. And again, maybe I'm just 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.639 a whimp, but I found that in a house that's 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.120 like ninety degrees plus are close to a hundred degrees 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.040 with high humidity, my brain just broke. I remember sitting 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.080 at a desk trying to do work with like a 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.000 wet towel around my neck and a box fan propped 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.880 up pointing at my head, and it just it never 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.520 felt like enough. The hot, swampy summers down here can 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.240 be brutal, and it really makes you appreciate again how 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.160 lucky you are if you have access to this modern convenience, 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.120 especially in Hotlanta or swamp Planta. We can call it that, 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:54.959 I guess, but I got to give a shout out 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.920 to my A C guy, Mike, who Robert here referred 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.119 me to. Yes, my Mike is great. Effects fixed mine 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.320 up as well. And indeed, air conditioning is one of 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.079 those things when when it's working properly, you you hardly 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.280 notice it at all and you just take it for granted. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:14.320 When something goes wrong, that's when you start sweating, and 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.200 in all possible ways. Uh, sweating at night getting the 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.040 proper terrifying night sweats on. And you know, one of 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:23.960 the things is, is I get older, I do find 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.240 that I enjoy the heat. Like I I love to 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.400 read and write on my front porch, and I'll generally 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.200 like push that as far as humanly possible in either direction. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.400 Like when it's colder, I'll bundle up as much as possible, 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.080 but I can't quite bundle my fingers. And then at 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.320 that point I'm driven inside and I have to come 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.040 out when you know the warmer person portion of the day, 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.440 and then what is it gets hotter and hotter. Uh, 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.000 you know, I'll do whatever I need to do to 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.080 try and keep the mosquitoes away, you know, burning like um, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.360 you know, ritual citronella candles, and wearing more clothing than 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.880 it's perhaps temperature appropriate, just to keep them from biting 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.640 that sort of feasting of my blood, that sort of thing. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.440 But but but you know, I don't mind sweating out there. 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.480 I can also, you know, bring out a fan if 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.240 I need to to keep the air moving. And of course, 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:14.680 as is common with with a lot of you know, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.120 front porch scenarios, if you have a porch swing or 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.320 a hammock on hand, like, that's ideal because you're able 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.280 to keep the air circulating by keeping yourself in more 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.240 or less continuous motion. Um. But then eventually you reach 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.680 the point or I reached the point where I I 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.200 have to come inside because it will just get too hot. 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.239 And I enjoy having the choice, the privilege of being 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:40.560 able to come inside and enjoy the you know, the 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.120 cooler air. And you know, it's not only a privilege 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.080 of our modern age, it is a privilege in our 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.400 modern age. Yeah, there are millions of people around the 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.280 world in hot climates these days without air conditioning, and 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.520 air conditioning does not come without costs, that's right. I 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.080 should also say that on my front porch, having uh, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:02.040 you know, a readily refillable supply of ice water is 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.800 a must. And of course that's that the history of 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.440 refrigeration is is right up there with the history of 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.159 keeping spaces cool. Uh. So you know, both of these 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.400 are technologies that we take completely for granted. So many 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.600 of us that are listening to this podcast you have 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.520 not only um uh you know, cool air inside your home, 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.120 but you have a miraculous machine that can turn liquid 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:27.040 water into ice, perhaps automatically, and even if not automatically, 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.120 like still very passively, you're not having to actually crank 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.159 it out. All right. Well, before we start talking about 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.000 air conditioning systems or pre air conditioning systems for enclosed spaces, 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.240 we always like to ask the question what came before? 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.360 I guess the deepest you can go on what came 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.800 before for air conditioning technology is biological cooling systems and 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.880 thermoregulation in the body, right, and for us that means 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:52.880 sweat and and this is going to be key to 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.479 the methodology of all these various air conditioning and temperature 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.400 control UH technologies that we're going to discuss in these episodes. So, 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.360 your body produces sweat and UH with the in sweat 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.919 evaporates from the skin to cool the body. That's essential 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.960 is the evaporation, right. It's kind of how in fact 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:14.440 it works for anybody of water. Right. You can take 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:18.359 a just a bucket full of water, and the evaporation 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.799 off the surface of that water will cool the water 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.719 in the rest of the bucket because that evaporation is 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.200 an energy hungry phase transfer, and it as to suck 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.160 energy out of the heat from the rest of the water. Yeah, basically, 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.680 liquid water evaporates into vapor using the thermal energy in 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.599 the air, resulting in a lower air temperature. The water 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.880 in sweat absorbs your body's heat energy and then evaporates, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:46.800 lowering your temperature in the process. That is evaporateate of cooling. Yeah, 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.800 evaporate of cooling is one of the really cool things 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.960 about chemistry when you really think about it. Here's the 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.080 questions kind of similar. Um, how come when you boil 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.360 a pot of water on the stove and it reaches 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.920 the boiling point, the entire pot of water doesn't transform 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.039 into steam all at once? Do you even think about that? Yeah? 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:09.600 I was wondering about this one time, one one contemplates 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.680 while watching the pot of water boil. Right, one of 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.640 the most entertaining of activities. But yeah, it can. It 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.360 can raise some interesting questions in your mind. And I 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.720 think the way this works is that as water boils, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.760 some of that liquid water is turning into steam. That's 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.080 a phase transition. It's the same thing that's happening on 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.360 your skin. Liquid water in your skin is turning into water, 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.800 vapor into steam and coming off of your skin. But 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.200 as that happens in the pot, as that water is 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.880 turned into steam. The pot of water loses energy in 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.520 that process because it's a massively energy hungry process to 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.720 turn water into steam. And so as the water is 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.760 turning into steam, the water is constantly cooling back down 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.000 and you have to keep putting more energy into the 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.400 bottom of it to keep it boiling. And because it's 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.880 largely a good thing, because I'm thinking about scenarios in 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:00.240 which in which like large portions of water um are 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.040 turned to steam instantly, and you're generally talking about an 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.800 explosive situation. You're talking about an expansion of steam that 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.440 can you can have, you know, catastrophic effects. You wouldn't 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.280 want the pot of water you're boiling for spaghetti to 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.360 suddenly become steam all at once, No, I mean you 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.240 need massive energy inputs for that kind of thing to happen, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.520 just because it takes so much energy to turn water 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.440 into steam. And again that's a good thing for your body. 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:27.280 Taking that energy from the body cools the body off. Now, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.400 when we turn to technological solutions for cooling a space, 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:36.680 there were actually tons of brilliant inventions or little innovations 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.040 and tweaks in the design of homes and buildings, UH 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.480 for this purpose before the invention of modern like electrical 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.920 air conditioning using heat pumps or refrigeration or anything like that. Yes, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.520 the accumulation of all these little tweaks, all these little 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.679 advantages that all add up to make hot temperature environments 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.000 more bearable. It reminds me of like, you know, the 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.880 the argument that you you you win a battle of 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.320 all the small, little advantages to your side, you know, 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:05.680 and it's very much that the case with you know, 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.640 waging war against a hot climate. Let's talk about some 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.640 of these little innovations throughout history. The first is I 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.600 would say the absolute most dirt simple probably doesn't even 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.680 need to be mentioned, but won't mention it anyway. How 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.559 about a roof that's having having a top level covering 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.920 provides shade and that blocks the radiation heating from the sun. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.200 So that's one of the most important innovations in designing 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.360 a cooler space. Yeah, in the same way you would 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.600 take you might take comfort beneath the tree or you know, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.040 by the side of a cliff, some naturally occurring shade. Uh, 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.480 we are able to construct our own shade as well. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.599 But of course, by having a house that has a 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.320 roof on top if all else fails for keeping the 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.160 house cool at night, one option you would sometimes have 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.000 in the ancient world as you could go out and 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.000 you could sleep up on your roof. This seems to 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.040 have been common, for example, in ancient Egypt, where a 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:57.080 significant amount of living and sleeping happened on people's rooftops. 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.160 That's right. In in past episodes of No I honestly 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:02.680 can't remember it was this show or stuff to blow 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:04.360 your mind, we talked about some of the ancient cities. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.360 I think this was in our toilets episodes. We're talking 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:12.400 about the archaeological remains of cities in which you know 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.880 there were entrances on all the roofs um. But also 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:20.000 we can look to ancient accounts, say Herodotus writing of 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.079 the hanging gardens of Babylon, or in Jewish lore, King 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.080 David glimpsing Bathsheba bathing uh while resting on the roof 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.200 of the palace. Yeah, I guess the idea is probably 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:31.920 that it was like nice and cool out in the 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:33.880 open air on the roof and where also you're going 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.200 to be. But there are tons of other little ways 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.800 that once you go beyond just having a structure with 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.480 a roof to block the sun. And you start building 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.840 houses with openings and windows and different hallways and rooms, 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.559 there is uh, there's all this investment in the architecture 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.360 of a house to help aid in cooling. And this 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.320 would include the positioning of windows or other openings, the 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.600 shape of rooms and floors that allow ventilation of the 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.679 inside and encourage cross breeze is to pass through. Also, 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.680 something that I feel like is is less uh is 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.880 thought about less in modern home design is the positioning 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.959 of windows away from direct sun or in the shade. 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.760 I think because houses are designed with the idea of 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.160 air conditioning in the mind often these days that there's 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.640 less planning put into Okay, where where are the windows, 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:21.959 What kind of light are they going to get? Is 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.800 there a tree to shade the window? And so forth. Yeah, 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.560 we'll definitely come back to this in the future. But 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.760 we we we see this, uh, this this trend where 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.680 all these tiny advantages were discussing in the With the 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.160 advent of modern air conditioning, so many of them were 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.760 just abandoned because they weren't seen as useful anymore as 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:45.400 necessary to keep a cool uh you know, habitat, and 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:47.800 part of the problem then, is when the air conditioning 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.400 goes away, or when the electricity goes away, whatever is 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.000 disrupting things, you have to fall back on a habitat 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.200 or building that is not built with any of these 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.800 advantages in place, or even if you're not talking about 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.120 using your air conditioning, if you're just considering energy efficiency. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.560 I mean, I think that there are some houses that 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.559 are designed without proper thought about energy efficiency for heating 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.880 and cooling in the house, even if you have modern 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.160 heating and cooling devices. Yeah. I mean when you're when 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.640 you're a kid and you're around air can I remember 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:19.199 just loving it. I was like, I just love the 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.160 smell of the air conditioning and just wanted on all 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.400 the time. You know, when you're adult and you're actually 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.880 paying the bills, you don't necessarily want the air conditioning 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:28.520 all the time. It would be nice if it went 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:34.280 off a few times during the month of August. Uh So, yeah, 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:35.959 you know, it would be nice to have so many 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:40.880 of these other little, um, you know, design advantages in 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.280 place as well to just reduce you the necessity of 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.319 running the a C. Here's another design advantage that predates 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.360 modern air conditioning. How about construction that takes advantage of 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.319 the fact that warm air rises, also known as the 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.720 chimney effect. So one example of this might be high ceilings. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:01.160 Another is top side ventilation including passive roof vents or 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.640 more recently, an attic fan, and so that this can 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.960 be paired with windows to create this ideal airflow situation 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.200 where cool air flows in through open windows on the 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.480 lower floors and then is drawn up through the house 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.000 in a sort of air column that goes up towards 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.200 the attic and towards the roof, creating pressure that pushes 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.959 the warm rising air out through vents in the upper 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.480 floors or in the ceiling of roof. Yeah, well, I 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.520 have one of these attic fans in my house, and 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.080 it's it's it's like being a spaceship, you know, because 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.480 you can just especially if you have only like one 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:34.960 window open, you can just create this terrific flow of 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.720 air through the house, which can make a huge difference 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.920 of you know, you get kind of like it's gotten 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:41.880 a little warm, it's got a little hot inside the house, 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.600 and you have a like a nice comfortable temperature drop 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.200 outside of the house. You can easily equalize things like 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.120 that a couple of other things would just be what 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.840 do you make the house out of, Is it insulated 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.200 in the proper way, something that's not going to heat 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.520 up and pass heat from the outside to the inside. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.320 And then another thing would be the outside color ration 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.680 of the house that can affect how it absorbs heat. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.120 Do you live in a like a black obelisk or 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:06.960 do you live in uh, you know, some sort of 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.599 a white reflective uh domicile, And it's gonna make a 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:12.839 huge difference. And back to your point about a heat 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.160 rising uh you know this also you see this in 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.600 designs of you know, older houses with high ceilings. Obviously 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:20.920 it's not the heat is going to rise out of 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.560 the area in which you were living. But also you 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.680 look at a lot of modern houses and the reliance 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.040 on a c and where do you see the master bedroom. 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.120 You see it on an upper floor, right like it 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.560 becomes more of a selling point of you're you know, saying, okay, 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.880 it actually has a master on the main floor. And 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.240 a lot of that has to do with, you know, 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:40.880 individuals get older. It's nicer to not have to go 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.080 up a flight of stairs in order to get to 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.520 your bedroom. But but also you have to to realize 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:48.360 it's going to take more to keep that cool up 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.560 there like it's it's it's ultimately from a temperature standpoint, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.800 perhaps it's better to have the master bedroom on the 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.680 main floor. Yeah. Absolutely. The one thing I think we 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.680 shouldn't forget is how common I mean we mentioned people 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.400 sleep being on the roofs. You shouldn't forget that in 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.080 hot climates, it used to be extremely common for people 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.800 to sleep outside. Oh yes, I was reading about this, 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.480 and in times before air conditioning, and in places where 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.280 there's no air conditioning. Now it's just very common for 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.960 people to sleep on porches in front of their home, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.960 or on the deck behind their home, or in or 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.520 just up on the roof for somewhere out in the yard. 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.520 I mean, this remains a way to stay cool at night. 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:29.680 So we've talked to you about a number of examples 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.960 of passive cooling design, uh, you know, far different from 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.680 the active cooling system that you may have in your 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.680 home or your apartment window. But we also have to 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:43.160 just consider that many of humanities, the oldest civilizations, they 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.760 resided in some pretty sweltering places. And while perhaps you know, 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.240 such people's were less coddled by temperature control technology. Uh, 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.120 you know, they still had to do what they could 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.440 to keep things chill. So I ran across a very 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.160 insightful article. This was This was an in g conservation 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.160 and management in two thousand and eight and it was 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.320 a paper by um Hatamapur and A. Betty and it 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.640 considers it concerns the town of the city of Bosher 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.600 in southern Iran. This is a region where today you 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.000 see more than of total annual power consumption going to 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:22.760 power a c window units. But people have been living 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.400 in this region for at least five thousand years. And 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.360 in this paper the authors point out the various strategies 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.440 that were utilized to keep things cool. Some of these 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.360 we've already discussed, but but just to you know, tie 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.320 them to a specific location in a very long habited 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.120 habitat region of the Earth. They pointed out that the 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.760 buildings were constructed closely together but with spaces for circulation 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.400 around each and they were built in the direction of 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.040 seasonal fresh and cold winds. The lanes were narrow for 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:56.480 the generation of circulation, and they employed ventilation shafts, balconies, terraces. 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:00.480 The separation of heat generating spaces such as kitchens. Uh, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.640 that's another key one, you know, I think about because 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.399 I think a number of us have probably noted, especially 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.919 during the summer, just how hot it gets in the 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.040 kitchen when you're just doing something like cooking, you know, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.520 frozen pizza. You could keep things a lot cooler if 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.440 you made sure that your your kitchen was somewhere else, 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.240 was located in an adjacent building. I mean, I think 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.200 it's one of the appeals of grilling in the summer, 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.200 like it's nice to be out in the in the 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:27.919 nice weather while you're cooking, but also the thing that 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.040 gets hot is not inside your house. Yeah, I think 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:36.119 it's a great point. Um Also balconies, coverings for direct sunshine, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.919 windows and walls, trees planted for shading, colored glasses in 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.760 the windows, and wooden screens outside the windows, high roofed buildings, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.720 light roof colors, and low conductivity materials like gypsum for 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.199 shell walls. So so yeah, I found that, you know, 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:56.879 again insightful considering that you know, this is a region 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.800 that uh, people have been living in for at least 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.600 five five thousand years, and throughout that five thousand history, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:04.840 most of it has been without the aid of a 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.440 modern a C unit, but instead of having modern electrical 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.800 air conditioning, they had this sort of army of other 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.840 little ingenious design solutions to help keep things cool. Yeah, 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.480 every little advantage. And later in the episode we're going 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:20.960 to talk about one really ingenious system that you see 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.040 especially in ancient Persia. This this city was in ancient Persia. 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.879 But maybe we should take a break now and then 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.320 when we come back we can talk about ancient Egyptians 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:38.080 and ancient Romans. All right, we're back. So the ancient 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.280 Egyptians were known to have employed a simple but really 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:47.800 kind of ingenious system for for cooling their interior habitats, 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.199 and that was they utilized wet mats of reeds that 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.200 they hung in windows. Water evaporated from the wet mats, 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.200 reducing air temperature in the process, and then a breeze 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.480 is blowing through the window and uh and moving through 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.160 these mats, lowering the indoor temperature. This is the same 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.520 principle that we see later in stuff like the swamp cooler, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.760 right that uses like evaporation in a window in order 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.919 to do this, And that there are places where this 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:18.960 is still a pretty common way of cooling your house. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.359 Actually just like hanging a wet towel and a window, 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.080 maybe in conjunction with a fan. Yeah. I've also read 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.240 that it has been common if you're if you have 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.639 laundry that you're drying, you hang them in the window, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.960 and then you're killing two birds with one stone. Yeah. 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.080 Of course the ancient Romans got in on the act 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.480 in large part thanks to you know, the aqueducts. Uh. 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.080 They had many advances in plumbing, which we've covered on 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.960 the show before and regards more to sewers, but it 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.240 also meant the Romans had the ability to channel water 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.960 through indoor pipes in certain homes, cooling them in the process. Yeah, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.280 it seems like they had a few strategies that were 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.480 based on water and evaporation of water. Uh. This next thing, 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:58.880 it's hard to confirm that this story is true, but 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.480 it's reported it in ancient sources, including the Latin text 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.960 known as the Historia Augusta or the Augustine History, that 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.960 the third century Roman emperor Ella Gabalus had snow carried 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.199 down from the mountains to his palace so that it 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.520 could be piled up in a in a mountain of 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.560 snow in his orchard to help keep it cool in 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.960 the summer. Now, I do have to say that that 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.160 this sounds like just an ethically Roman emperor thing to do. 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.080 But but I do want to point out that in 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.480 the seventy grade Inventions of the Ancient World, Brian and 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.880 Fagin points out that in az Tech markets you would 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.800 have found mountain ice brought down from the mountains and 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.000 it would have just been available to purchase, at least 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.119 if you were Aztec nobility. Uh, you could purchase it. 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.480 But you know, that's got another like non Roman example 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.320 of of ice as a regional commodity. Oh yeah, and 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.720 this does appear to be in smaller quantities, something that 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.120 did definitely go on in the Roman world. Now, as 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.960