Earliest history
The first air compressors weren't
machines, but human lungs: Primitive people blew on cinders to
create a fire. We now know that healthy lungs can exert pressure of
.02 to .08 bar (1 bar = 14.5 psi). However, this pressure was
inadequate with the birth of metallurgy about 3000 B.C. As people
began to melt metals such as gold, copper, tin and lead, higher
temperatures were needed, and a more powerful compressor was
required. Egyptian and Sumerian metallurgists used the wind, then
blowpipes for their work. The first mechanical compressor, the
hand-operated bellows, emerged soon after, and in 1500 B.C. the
more efficient foot bellows came into use.
The next phase
Bellows driven by foot or by water
wheel proved a reliable compressor for more than 2,000 years. But
as blast furnaces developed, so did the need for increased air
compression. In 1762, John Smeaton, the first professional
engineer, built a water wheel-driven blowing cylinder that began to
replace the bellows. Inventor John Wilkinson introduced an
efficient blasting machine in England in 1776; the machine was an
early prototype for all mechanical compressors.
New uses
From its human origins to the late
18th century, air compression was used mostly for the mining and
fabrication of metals. Blowing machines supplied a combustion blast
to metallurgic furnaces and ventilation to underground mines,
although some scientists and philosophers used vacuum pumps during
experiments.
The idea of using compressed air to transmit energy became popular
about 1800 as metal manufacturing plants grew and emphasized the
limited power of steam. A plant powered by water and compressed air
was built in Wales in the 1820s, and, despite a few air leaks, new
uses for compressed air began to emerge.
The first successful large-scale transmission of energy by
compressed air took place in the Alps on the border of southeastern
France and Italy. Railway managers decided to use a newly invented
pneumatic rock drill to connect the two countries with an 8-mile
(13.6 km) rail tunnel under Mt. Cenis. The work began with manual
drilling in 1857, but a few years later engineers installed "wet"
compressors (which used water to cool air inside the cylinders) on
the French and Italian sides, and two teams drilled through the
rock toward each other. When they met, there were about 4 miles
(7,000 meters) behind each team, proving that compressed air could
transmit energy over long distances.
Energy evolution
The Mt. Cenis tunnel attracted
international publicity in newspaper and technical journals, and
discussion turned to the possibility of a compressed air network
that would provide energy to industries. Austrian engineer Viktor
Popp made it happen in Paris in 1888, when he installed a 1,500 kW
compressor plant that grew to 18,000 kW by 1891.
As compressed air's availability grew, inventors bustled to
improve on it. Patent officers issued patents on machines and tools
from motors to clocks to beer dispensers. The novelty of many
services now available in Paris started a backlash against
electricity by many engineers who saw compressed air as the energy
distribution system of the future. However, electricity advocates
held strong to their belief that pneumatic plants were inefficient
and would eventually be trumped by electricity. Neither side was
truly right.
Working together
As both energy systems have
developed, compressed air has become an important complement to
electricity. Pneumatic tools are lightweight and safe, and
compressed air is used for monitoring, control and regulation,
frequently in combination with hydraulics and electricity. The two
working together have given the world new ways to use power.
Sources
Atlas Copco Manual - Produced by
Atlas Copco AB, Stockholm Sweden, Edited by Torgny Rogert, Atlas
Copco AB, Stockholm Sweden and S. Bertil Anderssen, Atlas Copco
Airpower, NV.Printed by Ljungforetagen AB, Sweden 1975.
Bartleby.com search for Columbia Encyclopedia,
Energy Matters: Energy Through History,