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A mechanical fan is a device used to produce an airflow for the purpose of creature comfort, ventilation, exhaust, or any other gaseous transport. more...

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Mechanically, a fan can be any revolving vane or vanes used for producing currents of air. Fans produce air flows with high volume and low pressure, as opposed to a gas compressor which produces high pressures at a comparatively low volume. A fan blade will often rotate when exposed to an air stream, and devices that take advantage of this, such as anemometers and wind turbines often have designs similar to that of a fan.

Typical applications include climate control, cooling systems, personal comfort (e.g., an electric table fan), ventilation (e.g., an exhaust fan), winnowing (e.g., separating chaff of cereal grains), removing dust (e.g. sucking as in a vacuum cleaner), drying (usually in addition to heat) and to provide draft for a fire. It is also common to use electric fans as air fresheners, by attaching fabric softener sheets to the protective housing. This causes the fragrance to be carried into the surrounding air.

History

The first recorded mechanical fan was the punkah fan used in the Middle East in the 1500s. It had a canvas covered frame that was suspended from the ceiling. Servants, known as punkah wallahs, pulled a rope connected to the frame to move the fan back and forth.

The Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s introduced belt-driven fans powered by factory waterwheels. Attaching wooden or metal blades to shafts overhead that were used to drive the machinery, the first industrial fans were developed. One of the first workable mechanical fans was built by A.A. Sablukov in 1832. He called his invention, a kind of a centrifugal fan, an Air Pump. Centrifugal fans were successfully tested inside coal mines and factories in 1832-1834. When Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla introduced electrical power in the late 1800s and early 1900s for the public, the personal electrical fan was introduced. Between 1882 and 1886, Dr. Schuyler Skaats Wheeler developed the two-bladed desk fan, a type of personal electric fan. It was commercially marketed by the American firm Crocker & Curtis electric motor company. In 1882, Philip H. Diehl introduced the electric ceiling fan. Diehl is considered the father of the modern electric fan. In the late 1800s, electric fans were used only in commercial establishments or in well-to-do households. Heat-convection fans fueled by alcohol, oil, or kerosene were common around the turn of the 20th century.

The first American made fans, made from around the late 1890s to the early 1920s were very stylish. They had brass blades, a lot of them also had brass cages, and though they were built very well internally, they were far from finger safe, as a lot of them had cage openings so big that one could put an entire hand or arm right through it. Many children had hands and fingers severely injured by those fans.

Read more at Wikipedia.org