2020 RETA Breeze Jan-Feb

to the scrutiny of the society. Something Benjamin would do in 1798. Since the heat produced was accurately measured, it would be determined as to how large of fire would have been required to produce the same amount of heat and thus the expenditure required to produce the same heat. The driving force behind the contraption was a simple horse, harnessed to the device. This experiment demonstrated that this device could be used as a portable heat generator. A horse could spin the cylinder and produce heat. Thus, the concept of horsepower per hour in thermal units. With failing health, Benjamin would return to England in 1798. Back in England, his health improved and he continued his study of heat as well as other philanthropical pursuits. His accomplishments include: • Construction of a modern fireplace. Increasing efficiency by over 12% in some cases 50% • Determining the amount of heat generated by burning various fuels • The thermos It can be argued that Benjamin was the father of the concept of convection heat. Having fully recovered, the next stage of Benjamin’s life would take him to France. In 1804, Benjamin would marry the widow Lavoisier and retire to her villa at Auteuil, He would die 10 years later.

the mouth of the bore of the cylinder being closed at the same time, by means of the circular piston, through the center of which the iron bar passed.” “The result of this beautiful experiment was very striking, and the pleasure it afforded me amply repaid me for all the trouble I had had in contriving and arranging the complicated machinery used in making it.” “The cylinder, revolving at the rate of about thirty two times a minute, had been in motion but a short time when I perceived, by putting my hand into the water, and touching the outside of the cylinder, that heat was generated, and it was not long before the water which surrounded the cylinder began to be sensibly warm.” “At the end of one hour I found, by plunging a thermometer into the water in the box (the quantity of which fluid amounted to 18.77 lbs. avoirdupois, 2.25 wine gallons), that its temperature had been raised no less than 47°, being now 107° of Fahrenheit’s scale.” “When thirty minutes more had elapsed. or one hour and thirty minutes after the machinery had been put in motion, the heat of the water in the box was 142°” “At the end of two hours, reckoning from the beginning of the experiment, the temperature of the water was found to be raised to 178°.” “At two hours and twenty minutes it was at 200°, and at two hours and thirty minutes it actually boiled!” “It would be difficult to describe the surprise and astonishment expressed in the countenances of the bystanders, on seeing so large a quantity of cold water heated, and actually made to boil, without any fire. “Though there was, in fact, nothing that could justly be considered as surprising in the event, yet I acknowledge fairly that it afforded me a degree of childish pleasure, which, were I ambitious of the reputation of a grave philosopher, I ought, most certainly, rather to hide than to discover.”

The Refrigeration Historian /

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