Fairfield Heritage Govan - Blowing Hot and Cold

This talk is not about air conditioning per se but its invention on Clydeside by Alexander Stewart in 1898. Head of the Electrical Department at J&G Thomson’s Clydebank yard, soon to be John Brown & Co., Stewart was involved in the construction of many ocean liners while there. He saw that heating and ventilation on board was basic which led him to invent what we would now term air conditioning. His invention led to the formation of a company established by him and his two brothers known as Thermotank. Based in Govan, Thermotank was very successful for quite a long time until a series of amalgamations and the decline in shipbuilding in the UK sealed its fate. 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.