Fairfield Heritage Govan - Blowing Hot and Cold

Alexander Stewart, Head of the Electrical Department, at James & George Thompson’s shipyard (soon to be John Brown & Co. Ltd) pioneered a device aimed at maintaining a constant temperature in ships’ cabins irrespective of external temperature. This was later termed air-conditioning. However, it is a little-known fact that Stewart made this invention in 1898 at Clydebank. So successful was his invention, that he and two brothers established a company to expoit it. The company was called The Thermotank Ventilating Company Ltd. which set up manufacturing premises in Govan in 1908. The company was later simply known as Thermotank, employing typically a thousand people. Ian Johnston, shipbuilding historian, describes how he came across this story and the writing of his newly published book “Blowing Hot and Cold: Thermotank and the story of air-conditioning at sea”. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the talk.