The Underappreciated Side of Springfield

[Ocklawaha]

Dr Gorrie's air conditioning was to hand a block of ice in a suspended bowl above the patient and let convection currents coming off the ice fall and cool the patient.   The system was not practical. The big invention was the steam powered ice maker that made the ice.

A while later fellow named Carrier modified it and made the systems we are familiar now.

You can visit the Dr Gorrie museum in Apalachicola. 
http://www.floridastateparks.org/johngorriemuseum/default.cfm

Where did this information come from Overstreet my friend? It is not correct according to my history texts, which credit Gorrie as the first truely successful AC guy.

Dr. John Gorrie
Refrigeration Pioneer


Dr. John Gorrie (1803 - 1855), an early pioneer in the invention of the artificial manufacture of ice, refrigeration, and air conditioning, was granted the first U.S. Patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851. Dr. Gorrie's basic principle is the one most often used in refrigeration today; namely, cooling caused by the rapid expansion of gases. Using two double acting force pumps he first condensed and then rarified air. His apparatus, initially designed to treat yellow fever patients, reduced the temperature of compressed air by interjecting a small amount of water into it. The compressed air was submerged in coils surrounded by a circulating bath of cooling water. He then allowed the interjected water to condense out in a holding tank, andreleased or rarified, the compressed air into a tank of lower pressure containing brine; This lowered the temperature of the brine to 26 degrees F. or below, and immersing drip-fed, brick-sized, oil coated metal containers of non-saline water, or rain water, into the brine, manufactured ice bricks. The cold air was released in an open system into the atmosphere.

The first known artificial refrigeration was scientifically demonstrated by William Cullen in a laboratory performance at the University of Glasgow in 1748, when he let ethyl ether boil into a vacuum. In 1805, Oliver Evans in the United States designed but never attempted to build, a refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid. Using Evans' refrigeration concept, Jacob Perkins of the U.S. and England, developed an experimental volatile liquid, closed-cycle compressor in 1834.

Charles Smyth experimented with air cycle cooling (1846 - 56), the problem was resolved by Willis Haviland Carrier's U.S. Patent in 1906, in which he passed hot soggy air through a fine spray of water, condensing moisture on the droplets, leaving drier air behind. These inventions have had global implications.

Ocklawaha

[ChriswUfGator]

Dr Gorrie's air conditioning was to hand a block of ice in a suspended bowl above the patient and let convection currents coming off the ice fall and cool the patient.   The system was not practical. The big invention was the steam powered ice maker that made the ice.

A while later fellow named Carrier modified it and made the systems we are familiar now.

You can visit the Dr Gorrie museum in Apalachicola. 
http://www.floridastateparks.org/johngorriemuseum/default.cfm

That's not really true.

Gorrie did originally start off hanging blocks of ice in hospitals, yes. But later, he invented the first mechanical refrigeration system ever created, and was granted Patent No. 8080 for it in 1851. I'm assuming this is what Ock is referring to.

Willis Carrier wasn't even born until 1876, a full 25 years after Gorrie had already invented mechanical refrigeration. So any suggestion that Carrier is the true inventor is pure myth, as you can quickly discover yourself, when you realize that Gorrie's 1851 Patent No. 8080 for mechanical refrigeration was granted a full 25 years before Carrier was even born, let alone manufacturing air conditioners. That would be some feat! I can't picture a bunch of sperm manufacturing an AC unit.

So it wasn't just ice suspended from a ceiling, he actually did create the first machine that used the evaporation and condensation properties, of brine solution as ock mentioned, together with mechanical pumps, to create refrigeration. Others had thought up the theory before, but Carrier was the first to actually do it. And Carrier simply carried forward with Gorrie's creation. Gorrie was a doctor, and was concerned solely with cooling hospitals and making ice for patients. I doubt it ever occurred to him to use his invention to cool private homes. Carrier, on the other hand, saw that potential.

So I guess you could say Carrier was definitely the better business man.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Great article!!! So many improvements. The potenial in Jax is amazing

[billy]

Are the Lauderdale Apartments occupied at present?
It looks like the windows are boarded up.

[billy]

Also what is the building above the photo of Waafa and Mikes?
Is that the old Jewish Community Center?

What is the address?

[Springfielder]

Also what is the building above the photo of Waafa and Mikes?
Is that the old Jewish Community Center?

What is the address?

Yes, the old Job Corp right across from Klutho park at Silver street

[krazeeboi]

Great neighborhood with really good bones. Thanks for the tour.

[halimeade]

It's so nice to see how Springfield has improved over the past 10 years. My brother used to get bussed out to Kirby-Smith for the magnet program when we were kids, and I HATED to have to go out there. Private yards with 6 ft. tall fences and barbed wire make a big impression on a young kid that it wasn't a place I wanted to be. Plus the arson across the street from the school. It was scary.

Anyway, all of you who live in Springfield and love it have really made the difference, and I wish you all continued success.

[stjr]

These are great pictures and good info.  A wonderful tour.

It's hard to believe all this is in Jax.  It shows how much untapped potential we have.  If only the City leaders could get it.

Imagine if we took just a fraction of the hundreds of millions for 9B, the billions for the Outer Beltway, and the wasted millions on the $ky-high-way and invested them in connecting grids of street car systems in Springfield, Downtown, Riverside/Avondale, and San Marco what we could do with our historic infrastructure.  It's so obvious, you have to wonder why our community hasn't figured out how to make it happen.  Sad and many lost opportunities (and jobs!).

[zoo]

Agreed. 9B is completely unnecessary, dilutes resources that could strengthen our regional core, and continues the disastrous development pattern favored in Jax (sprawl!)

When it comes to urban core revitalization, organic, neighborhood-level economic growth is completely ignored in favor of the knight-in-armor-delivered mega-development projects.

[b real]

the springfield warehouse district could one day be like Castleberry Hill in ATL. that area has great potential.

[b real]

oh and Vanderleigh's is an awesome place...if you are in the area i would recommend visiting them.

[Noone]

Awesome job. The Fab 4. The MJ 4. You can take this show on the road and pack an Auditorium. I'd pay.

[KuroiKetsunoHana]

oh and Vanderleigh's is an awesome place...if you are in the area i would recommend visiting them.

i've never managed to catch them open...moot point, though, since i only go by there when i'm beïng dragged around by what i laughingly refer to as my dog.

[thelakelander]

The S-Line through the Springfield Warehouse District in 1943.