Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

I
RESEARCH PROJECT 471
HEAT TRANSMISSION: A NATIONAL RESEARCH
COUNCIL PROJECT.*
By F. E. AIatthews.
Member Engineering Division National Research Council; Official Representative of
the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers.
Heat transmission, than which there is no subject more basicallj
important to so many lines of engineering, has been made the subjecl
of a recently authorized project of the Engineering Division of the
National Research Council,' with two main sub-committees dealing
specifically with heat transfer—viz., heat transmission through build-
ing and insulating materials, and heat transmission between fluids
and solids. The refrigerating industry, with its numerous refrigerating
media, primary and secondary, the former occurring in both
the liquid and gaseous phases, is vitally interested in both of these
subjects.
Just how inadequate and generally chaotic present information
bearing on heat transmission really is, is most frankly admitted by
those engineers most vitally interested and most familiar with such
data. There seem to be two generally admitted outstanding facts
regarding heat transmission data: that they are fundamentally important
and shamefully inadequate. The responsibility of providing
himself with reliable data in order that he may turn out accurate
results (impossible without them), is the engineer's and his alone.
Rough rules have been employed for determining necessary areas of
the heat transmitting members of refrigerating systems, such as
evaporators and condensers of refrigerating media, based on certain
conditions, but not necessarily on the most advantageous conditions
realizable. Similar rules' have been employed for determining the
amount of <strong>insulation</strong> employed for the conservation of the refrigeration
produced at the expense of the fuel by the refrigerating machine.
Rare indeed are the instances in which due recognition is given to
the fact that the more it costs to develop refrigeration the more one
can afford to spend for its conservation.
Numerous sporadic efforts have been made to procure better heat
transmission data, but the results have fallen far short of the objective
which the time and money expended should have insured, due
largely to poor physical equipment, unscientific procedure, and in<strong>complete</strong>
description, which should be eliminated by the standardiza-
tion of method, procedure, and specification proposed for building
and insulating materials, heat transmission investigations, and made
•Extracted from Proceedings of the Fourth Internstional Congress of Refrigeration,
London, 1924, Volume 1.
' Means for carrying on research work in America under governmental supervision
was originally provided for in 1863, when the Charter of the National Academy
of Science was approved by President Lincoln. The National Research Council
was established in 1916 by the National Academy of Science for war purposes, and
perpetuated by executive order of President Wilson in 1918, for the "promotion
of scientific research and the dissemination and application of scientific knowledge."
It was organized with the cooperation of over seventy major scientific and technical
societies, in thirteen major divisions of which Engineering is one of the most important.