For moving air thru out the house? I saw the recent thread on air conditioning and it got me wondering. When did bladed fans start come into being? I imagine it was or about the same time as propellers for ships. But maybe not. Any insite from youse guys?
ANd no. I’m not asking about slaves waving rugs! Oh Pleaze . . .
Probably with the advent of electricity in houses.
In the dusty museums in minor palaces and modest mansions of India, which are often quite transpartly a motly collection of whatever was hanging around in the basements, large displays of antique (and often perplexingly going right up to shmatzy plastic modern model) fans are a fairly common display.
You’re going to have to be a bit more specific. Do you mean ceiling fans, or just general rotary fans?
I have seen pictures of belt driven rotary fans connected to steam engines from the 19th century. I can’t tell you the exact date but they were being used in some sort of factory. Theye were basically just fan blades attached via a belt to an overhead drive shaft that presumably connected to the engine. So you certainly don’t need electricity to produce working rotary fans.
I have seen references to fans connected to an external combustion (or Stirling) engine . These were quite small and could be used in the home. I think they date from the turn of the last century or even earlier