With refrigerated AC the evaporator would just be in the air flow from the furnace and use its blower. So the cooled air does not just come out in one place but in every room with a heating duct, which are on the walls near the ceiling, which is actually better for cooled than heated air. The swamp cooler goes on top of the duct on the roof. There is a sheet metal plate that can be moved from one slot to another to close off the duct to the roof or close off the furnace. There is a sheet metal box leading up to the roof from above the furnace, above where the ducts branch off to the rooms. In the Southwest In typical one floor houses built decades ago or even mobile homes the hot air furnace is around the middle of the house. How jealous we were whenever we saw a car with one of these strapped to its side window. These swamp coolers were first made in the 30s, and finally petered out in the late 60s or so, although one can still buy new ones for that typical overdone look, with every available and conceivable accessory that so many restored old cars sport. This one is Firestone branded, undoubtedly sold through their one-time huge chain of stores. There were several main manufacturers, and Thermador was one of the biggest. I’m not sure where the cut-off point was in their sales Nebraska or Kansas, maybe? The drier the air, the better they worked, so they were particularly popular in the South West.
The cool air was then routed into the interior. The technology of an evaporative cooler was certainly simple and reliable enough: A canister with a ram tube, some kind of pad of porous material, and a reservoir of about a gallon of water to keep the pad wet. Maybe later… But let’s take a quickie look at the way to keep cool before air conditioning, provided you lived in the western half of the country. (first posted ) I’ve been hoping to find a vintage automotive “swamp cooler” for quite a while, since I remember these so well from our annual trips to Colorado.