Re: 1940 Air Conditioning

Posted by HH56 On 2020/3/30 10:28:07

Quote:

According to Henney Motor Co, A Complete History by McPherson the first successful AC in a funeral car was offered in 37 on a Buick chassis via a joint venture between Kelvinator and Sayers and Scoville. No details on how large or how it was placed or operated.

Henney followed in 38 with a joint venture with Trane which modified & repackaged a standard one ton Trane commercial refrigeration unit to fit under the floor of an ambulance. It could be thermostatically controlled by the driver and was operated by a separate electric motor which was powered from a 110v generator driven by the engine. Book states there was no interior space lost to the unit which kind of makes you wonder if the first S&S AC unit was so large as to require some interior space.

Goes on to state the Packard AC unit of two years later was the first unit to have a compressor directly operated by the engine. Didn't say exactly when or how much of the Packard unit Henney adopted or how it was packaged but did say they were able to get rid of the inefficient generator and motor system.