fun facts about a/c
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It's the middle of July, and while much of the country swelters, I'm
staying cool with nothing more than open windows and the sea breeze. A
good thing, too, because my backup plan in case of unusual summer heat
is a box fan. The few uncomfortably warm days we get here in an average
year don't come close to justifying a/c. But I grew up in D.C. I
remember the day may parents had central air installed in our 1950s
rambler, the comforting hum, the quiet whoosh, and of course, the
incredible cool inside the house. As the years pass, fewer and fewer of
us will remember life before air conditioning. A press release from
Carrier offers some historical perspective on its founder's most
important invention:
- Even though it’s a people-pleaser, Carrier’s original invention was designed for paper - not comfort.
A Brooklyn, N.Y. printing plant challenged Carrier to stabilize the
temperature and moisture in the air so the dimensions of the paper would
remain constant and the different color inks would line up correctly.
This innovation gave birth to the air conditioning industry.
- “Industrial
conditioning” was the primary focus of Carrier’s early work, helping
many manufacturers out of sticky situations, including chewing gum
factories. If the air was too warm and moist, the gum was too
sticky to cut; if the air was too cool and dry the gum sheets were
brittle and shattered.
- Carrier first applied air conditioning to
a residence in 1914, and later introduced the Carrier Room Weathermaker
in 1932. However consumers were slow to embrace the idea. In
fact, Fortune magazine recently reprinted an article from its archives
with the headline, “Air conditioning remains a prime public
disappointment of the 1930s.” What a difference a few decades has made. Today air conditioning is found in more than 85 percent of U.S. homes.
- Willis
Carrier is referred to as the Father of Cool, and with good reason.
Over his career, he had a number of industry “firsts,”
including applying modern air conditioning to department stores (J.L.
Hudson's, Detroit), movie theaters (Rivoli Theater, New York City),
office buildings (T.W. Patterson Building, Fresno, Calif.), ships (S.S.
Victoria), railroad cars (Martha Washington dining car), the chambers of
the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and even the bus from
Bagdad to Damascus just to name a few.
- Though a genius, Carrier struggled with math as a child – particularly fractions.
To help him grasp the concept, his mother had him cut apples into
halves, quarters and eighths and then add and subtract the parts. He
later went on to develop the “Rationale Psychrometric Formulae” that
calculates dew point control. This formula still forms the basis for
modern air conditioning.
Stay cool. --b.d.s.
