ASHRAE Journal - December 2019 - 46

ASHRAE - CELEBRATING 125 YEARS

one-ﬁfth the cost! In 1905,1 a Pittsburgh theater operaFigure 2 Rivoli Theater. The theater's refrigeration plant was prominently featured
tor co-opted the name of a Boston music facility, The
on opening day on Memorial Day in 1925. Source: Cool: How Air-Conditioning Changed
Everything [Carrier]
Nickelodeon, for a movie theater.1 By 1908, there was
estimated to be 8,000 theaters across the United States,
with millions of attendees. The unintended consequence of this success was a generation exposed to the
oppressiveness of spaces with no windows or ventilation
in highly occupied spaces for hours at a time. Odor and
stale air were associated with these nickelodeons and
were initially masked with perfume!
Movie production houses saw the future of entertainment at their feet but also saw that the conditions would
limit the middle and upper class from seeing movies
unless interior conditions improved. Higher income
streams were the way to further develop higher quality feature-length ﬁlms. By the 1910s, movie theaters
became more and more opulent. In 1915, the Rivoli
in New York City (Figure 2) opened, the ﬂagship of the
reluctance to embrace ammonia-based refrigeration
Paramount Pictures chain. These theaters utilized
systems. In 1912, the Isis Theatre in Houston installed an
two primary types of ventilation without mechanical
air washer, and ice continued to be used at several other
cooling:
theaters,1 either to cool water or air
Figure
3
Balaban
and
Katz
Theater
Poster.
directly; outcomes were inconsistent.
* Exhaust-driven. Fans were used
Advertisements for movie theaters in the 1910s
In 1917, the New Empire Theater
to drive air from a space, relying on
and 1920s used air conditioning as a major feature,
often emphasizing temperatures cooler than in
in Alabama installed a 6 ton (21 kW)
make-up air to enter as possible.
today's ASHRAE thermal comfort zone. Source: Airvertical single-acting belt driven
Often these theaters had to keep
Conditioning America/Chicago Daily Tribune, 23 June
enclosed type refrigerating machine,
their lobby doors open, resulting in
1919
becoming the ﬁrst known air-condiscomfort for patrons at the rear of
ditioned movie theater. There was
the theater. Very rarely were purposelittle press coverage of this, as much
built makeup air openings provided.
of the attention on motion pictures
* Plenum system. In this case,
was occurring back in larger cities
outdoor air was actively delivered to
like New York City and Chicago. At
the space, but without exhaust fans.
a similar time, Barney Balaban and
The concept was that the supply
Sam Katz opened the Central Park
pressure would be enough to force
Theater in Chicago (Figure 3), with a
out hot, stale air. The Typhoon Fan
goal of treating every patron, rich or
company specialized in this type of
poor, as royalty. Balaban had been
system, which was used initially at
working in the meat-packing trade
the Rivoli. The challenge with these
and was exposed to mechanical
systems was air delivery. A simple
cooling.1 Frederick Wittenmeier, an
system would introduce air by fans
engineer for the Kroeschell Brothers
into the theater, while others utilized
Ice Machine Company, had been
mushroom-type ventilators at the
developing a large-scale refrigeration
ﬂoor. Both systems created discomfort, either due to too much or too little air movement. system using carbon dioxide, rather than ammonia, as
the refrigerant. The Central Park theater incorporated a
Eventually, movie theater operators realized that
Wittenmeier system and used it as a prominent feature
mechanical ventilation alone would not be enough for
in drawing audiences. The Central Park Theater was able
comfort. The air needed to be cooled, but there was a
46

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