Page:Journal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Volume 33.pdf/644



THEIR RELATION TO THE PROBLEMS OF METEOROLOGY AND OF AIR CONDITIONING

Associate Member of the Society

A specialized engineering field has recently developed, technically known as air conditioning, or the artificial regulation of atmospheric moisture. The application of this new art to many varied industries has been demonstrated to be of greatest economic importance. When applied to the blast furnace, it has increased the net profit in the production of pig iron from $0.50 to $0.70 per ton, and in the textile mill it has increased the output from 5 to 15 per cent, at the same time greatly improving the quality and the hygienic conditions surrounding the operative. In many other industries, such as lithographing, the manufacture of candy, bread, high explosives and photographic films, and the drying and preparing of delicate hygroscopic materials, such as macaroni and tobacco, the question of humidity is equally important. While air conditioning has never been properly applied to coal mines, the author is convinced that if this were made compulsory, the greater number of mine explosions would be prevented.

2Although of so much practical as well as scientific importance the laws governing many of the phenomena of atmospheric moisture are but partially understood, while the present engineering data pertaining thereto are both inaccurate and incomplete. Accepted data used in psychrometric calculations are based largely on empirical formulae, which are incorrect as well as limited in their range. Recent investigators have determined the most important properties of water vapor with final accuracy. At the same time, sufficient error has been shown in previous steam data, especially at atmospheric temperatures, to warrant the revision of all calculations based thereon. , 29 West 39th Street, New York. All papers are subject to revision.