March is Women's History Month! Throughout this month I plan on sharing stories about women and how they influenced the world, especially if she is a pioneer in the real estate and/or construction fields! To introduce this month, I would like to discuss Alice H. Parker, known as "the mother of modern day heating." Parker's innovative design, though never realized in her lifetime, laid the foundation of modern day natural gas heating for buildings.
Prior to modern furnace systems, keeping a home warm in cold temperatures required much effort and time. People had to collect or buy wood and/or coal to heat their homes. In addition, the heat emitted from the fireplaces insufficiently and inefficiently warmed the most proximal areas to the fireplace compared to rooms most distal to the fireplace. In an attempt to overcome these struggles, Alice H Parker, an African American woman in the early 20th Century, designed a new heating system.
While furnaces were not a new inventor during her time, Parker, improving prior furnace designs, created the first furnace powered by natural gas. Her design contained several unique features:
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Cool air enters the furnace and is warmed via a heat exchanger.
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This warm air is distributed throughtout the building through individually controlled air ducts.
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The system uses natural gas instead of coal or wood.
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Known as "zone heating," her design allows for different temperatures settings for different rooms in the building.
Unfortunately, a year after receiving her patent in 1919, Parker passed away, never witnessing how her invention shaped modern heating. Her designs, unable to be actualized in her time due to safety reasons, became the foundation for modern day heating.
Many of unique features of her design are now common features of modern central heating. Parker's invention was further improved in 1935 by scientists who created forced convection wall heaters that use a coal furnace, electric fan, and ductwork throughout a home; thus, added to the evolution of future Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) models.
Source: wikipedia