Reid's drawing of House of Commons ventilation. 1845.

Reid's 1845 drawing of his House of Commons ventilation system. "Light Red tint - Fresh Air; Light Blue tint - Vitiated Air; Light Indian Ink - Smoke channels in roof"

David Boswell Reid

1805 – 1863

David Boswell Reid

Building services engineer and researcher. "The grandfather of air-conditioning"

Engineering Achievements

Reid was the first to study the relationship between freshness of air and human wellbeing or disease in his custom-built laboratory in Edinburgh. His use of questionnaires for user feedback is probably the first attempt at occupant satisfaction surveys and post occupancy evaluation of completed buildings.

His design for St George's Hall, Liverpool is regarded as the earliest example in the world of a modern, integrated heating and ventilation system.

He was appointed to make improvements to the House of Commons ventilation for the temporary accommodation after the fire of 1834, and later appointed to the new building but his uncompromising nature and differences of priorities led to a quarrel with the architect Charles Barry who resented his requirements for large air ducts. So his design was only partially adopted, and not without unwelcome (to Reid) constraints.

He is regarded as the grandfather of air-conditioning. 

His Life

  1. 1805 Born in Edinburgh in June, 1805, the second son of Dr Peter Reid (1777–1838) and Christian Arnot.
  2. 1817-21 Age: 12-16 Educated at High School of Edinburgh
  3. 1822-24 Age: 17-19 Assistant in Joseph Astley's chemical works
  4. 1825-30 Age: 20-25 Studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating on 12th July 1830
  5. 1828 Age: 23 Gave classes in practical chemistry at University of Edinburgh, as assistant to Professor Thomas Charles Hope
  6. 1831 Age: 25 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 4th April
  7. 1831 Age: 26 Elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2nd August
  8. 1833 Age: 28 Had a disagreement with Hope who was creaming off one-third of his teaching fees, and failed to be appointed to a personal Chair
  9. 1833 Age: 28 Resigned from the University and set up independent teaching classes at Roxburgh Place, building a chemistry teaching lab with fume extraction
  10. 1834 Age: 28 Married Elizabeth Brown, daughter of James Brown, merchant in Edinburgh on 18th May
  11. 1834 Age: 29 Visit of British Association for the Advancement of Science to his laboratory in September, including politicians Earl Grey and Lord Brougham
  12. 1835 Age: 30 Gave evidence to select committee on ventilation of the houses of parliament, suggesting a ventilation plan for the temporary accommodation after the 1834 fire. It was in use for 15 years before the new building was completed and was regarded as highly successful.
  13. 1836 Age: 30 In Spring 1836, built a model House of Commons in his Edinburgh classroom to show that applying external heat would create a through-current and evacuate putrefied air
  14. 1836 Age: 31 Published "Rudiments of Chemistry: with Illustrations of the Chemical Phenomena of Daily Life"
  15. 1836 Age: 31 In November, invited Press to a demonstration of the success in clearing smoke from a room of 540 people by applying heat below an external chimney that brought clean air in through the floor. The design for the temporary parliament building included several new concepts like filtration, displacement ventilation and varying the volume dependent on occupancy. Reid used questionnaires to assess the perceived quality of the environment by the occupants.
  16. 1839 Age: 34 Appointed "practical engineer" to the new Palace of Westminster in October, architect Charles Barry
  17. 1840 Age: 35 Moved to 15 Duke's Street, London
  18. 1844 Age: 39 published "Illustrations of the Theory and Practice of Ventilation"
  19. 1840-41 Age: 35-36 Designed an air purification system for three steamships of the Niger expedition to deal with the generally held belief that disease was caused by breathing unhealthy tropical air. The crews succumbed to fever anyway and the expedition had to be abandoned.
  20. 1842 Age: 37 Gave a series of lectures on "The Chemistry of Daily Life" for the Privy Council Committee of Education, advocating public education on the hazards of air pollution
  21. 1843 Age: 38 Appointed as one of 13 health of towns commissioners to investigate public health in large towns.
  22. 1843 Age: 38 Disagreements between Barry and Reid were threatening the Palace of Westminster project
  23. 1845 Age: 40 Produced the commission's report on the sanitary condition of Newcastle, Gateshead, North Shields, Sunderland, Durham, and Carlisle.
  24. 1846 Age: 41 Campaign against Reid led by "Punch" and "The Times". Responsibilities for ventilation split between Barry (House of Lords) and Reid (House of Commons)
  25. 1851 Age: 46 St George's Hall, Liverpool completed, the only building with a ventilation system to Reid's exact specification,
  26. 1852 Age: 46 Reid blamed for continuing problems with House of Commons and sacked from Palace of Westminster
  27. 1855 Age: 50 Left England and settled in USA, lecturing at The Smithsonian
  28. 1856 Age: 51 Appointed US government medical inspector on national sanitary commission
  29. 1861 Age: 56 Became inspector of military hospitals in the American Civil War
  30. 1863 Age: 57 Died on 5th April in Washington, USA, possibly of a "congestion of the lungs"

Legacy

Reid is now regarded as the first ventilation design engineer in that he applied scientific principles to the determination of the requirements and then to the design of systems to deliver these. His designs were innovative and are examples of the first application of many principles in an integrated approach. Not all of the projects in which he was involved were regarded as successful, most notably the then new Houses of Commons and Lords at the Palace of Westminster, however where there were problems it was often due to his advice not being followed, aggravated by his uncompromising nature, driven by his scientifically derived principles providing no scope for compromise, perhaps rightly so. 

He developed ventilation solutions for hospitals, prisons and other public buildings which were then followed by other designers, improving the air quality in these buildings markedly, promoting wellbeing and reducing incidences of cross infection.

More Information

David Boswell Reid. 'Illustrations of the theory and practice of ventilation' London, 1844

Hugo Reid, 'Memoir of the Late David Boswell Reid' R Grant & Sons, Edinburgh, 1863

Henrik Schoenefeldt, ‘The Temporary Houses of Parliament and David Boswell Reid’s architecture of experimentation’, Architectural History, 57 (2014), pp175-215.

Henrik Schoenefeldt, ‘The Lost (First) Chamber of the House of Commons’, AA Files, 72 (2016) pp161-173.

Henrik Schoenefeldt, ‘Reid’s Short-lived ventilation system for the Permanent House of Commons’, in Studies in the History of Construction (Cambridge: CHS, 2015), pp167-82.

Henrik Schoenefeldt, 'Rebuilding the Houses of Parliament: David Boswell Reid and Disruptive Environmentalism'. Routledge, 2021.

Moritz Gleich, 'Architect and Service Architect: The Quarrel between Charles Barry and David Boswell Reid'. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 37 (2012), No 4, pp332-344.

Neil Sturrock and Peter Lawson-Smith 'The Grandfather of Air-Conditioning – The Work and Influence of David Boswell Reid, Physician, Chemist, Engineer (1805-63)'. Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Construction History. 3: 2981–2998.

Edward J Gillin, 'The Victorian Palace of Science: Scientific Knowledge and the Building of the Houses of Parliament'. Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Boswell Reid’s pioneering work on occupant evaluation in the Houses of Parliament, CIBSE Journal https://www.cibsejournal.com/general/question-time-boswell-reids-pioneering-work-on-occupant-evaluation-in-the-houses-of-parliament/

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry (full text available to subscribers and UK library members). E. Gillen, 2016

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