# Einstein-Szilard A/C?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 12, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511 "2007-10-12T21:32:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511/1 "2007-10-12T21:32:18Z")

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Has anyone ever tried to make an air conditioning system using a Einstein/Szilard system? What are the technical challenges of such a system?

Thanks for your help,  
Rob

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511/2 "2007-10-13T05:36:23Z")

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[Einstein refrigerators](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator) have been made, but apparently are not very reliable due to the ammonia leaking. I don’t know if anyone’s ever made an Einstein air-conditioner.

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**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511/3 "2007-10-13T12:24:06Z")

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[This transcript of a talk](http://www.dannen.com/budatalk.html) by Gene Dannen discusses the attempts to commercialise the Einstein-Szilard patents and the practical problems encountered in a fair amount of detail. In one case there were difficulties with inconsistent pressure in domestic water supplies and in the other noise from the fridge.  
Their electromagnetic pump ideas did eventually find their way into the cooling systems for nuclear reactors.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/einstein-szilard-a-c/422511/4 "2007-10-13T14:55:17Z")

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[QUOTE=friedo]  
[Einstein refrigerators](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator) have been made, but apparently are not very reliable due to the ammonia leaking. I don’t know if anyone’s ever made an Einstein air-conditioner.  
[/QUOTE]

I find this quite surprising. There was an article in Scientific American a few years ago about the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator. The article claimed that the thing that motivated it was that an entire family had died while sleeping from an ammonia leak from a conventional refrigerator. So I am surprised that they used ammonia. I don’t recall their mentioing this in the article. I also thought that it was based on sound in some way. At any rate, the invention of freon, an odorless, totally inert and harmless (who knew about ozone layers?) as a coolant ended any possibility of developing it.