People knew they wanted air conditioning much before they were able to create a machine that could do it. The first serious attempt to build the air conditioner took place in the 1830s in Florida, USA. Dr. John Gorrie created a system that forced air over buckets of ice suspended from the ceiling to lower the temperatures of the rooms of hospital patients. Naval engineering then made a box, which melted ice water onto a cloth that was on a fan that blew hot air. This device lowered the temperature of a room by 20 degrees but if used continuously for several days it could consume 1/2 million pounds of ice.
What we recognize today as an ‘A.C.’—a device that cools, cleans, and dehumidifies air, was not invented until 1902. Willis Carrier, a young engineer, created what he called an Apparatus for Treating Air. He built the machine for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co. in Brooklyn, New York. Carrier used cold coils to cool the air and lower the humidity to 55 percent. The exactness of the machine was most incredible. His machine became a template which all future machines would made from. Initially air conditioned buildings were mostly industrial. It was not until decades later the machine was used for personal comfort. Carrier’s systems were dangerous, huge, and expensive. The first coolant was toxic ammonia, but in 1922 Carrier had a huge breakthrough, replacing the toxic coolant with a sage coolant called dielene and introduced a central compressor making the machine more compact. It came when Carrier sold his invention to the movie theater companies. Only a few were air conditioned in the early 20’s but the most important debut was at the Rivoli on Broadway in New York City where 2,000 people experienced his miracle on opening night. Soon office buildings, department stores, and railroad cars got central air. In 1928 the US House of Representatives got it, a year later the Senate, another year later the White House, and another year later the Supreme Court. The biggest growth spurt was yet to come. After the Second World War, the first window units appeared in stores. Sales took off immediately flying from 74,000 in 1948 to over a million in 1953. Today, air conditioning is used all over the world to cool the tensions of heat. It has changed every place it has gone to. It is something that most people now can not live without.
