With the advent of practical steam power, ceiling fans could finally be used for ventilation. Reid installed four steam-powered fans in the ceiling of St Georges Hospital in Liverpool, so that the pressure produced by the fans would force the incoming air upward and through vents in the ceiling. Reids pioneering work provides the basis for ventilation systems to this day. He was remembered as "Dr. Reid the ventilator" in the twenty-first century in discussions of energy efficiency, by Lord Wade of Chorlton.