July 17, 1902: An Invention to Beat the Heat, Humidity

1902: With human comfort the last thing on his mind, a young mechanical engineer completes the schematic drawings for what will be the first successful air-conditioning system. Willis Haviland Carrier, recently graduated from Cornell University and pulling down 10 bucks a week (about $260 in cold cash today) working for the Buffalo Forge heating company […]

willis_carrier_with_1st_chiller

1902: With human comfort the last thing on his mind, a young mechanical engineer completes the schematic drawings for what will be the first successful air-conditioning system.

Willis Haviland Carrier, recently graduated from Cornell University and pulling down 10 bucks a week (about $260 in cold cash today) working for the Buffalo Forge heating company in upstate New York. He was tasked with finding a solution for a printing company in Brooklyn that was having problems: Its paper was expanding or contracting in the variable East Coast humidity. That played havoc with the color register for four-color printing, since the ink, applied one color at a time, required pinpoint calibration to avoid badly aligned, muddy illustrations.

The system that Carrier devised still forms the basis of the air conditioner (or, more accurately, humidity controller) today: Air was forced through a filter of a piston-driven compressor, where it was pumped over coils that were chilled using coolant. The cold air was then expelled into a closed space using a fan, cooling the room and stabilizing the humidity.

Carrier later switched from piston power to the centrifugal chiller, which allowed much larger spaces to be cooled. He also replaced the toxic ammonia that had been the original cooling agent.

The air conditioner was just what the Brooklyn printer needed. The humidity problem vanished, and — as the word got out — other companies began clamoring for Carrier's machine.

Paper victories aside, the salubrious effect on humans was also recognized early on. Although commercial outfits such as manufacturing plants were the first customers, Carrier kept fiddling with his invention.

By 1915, he was running his own company, Carrier Engineering Corp., which supplied cooling systems to hotels, department stores, theaters and, eventually, private homes. Among Carrier's early big-ticket customers were the U.S. Congress, the White House and New York's Madison Square Garden.

The impact of air conditioning can't be overstated. Sun Belt cities and other places where stifling hot weather is a factor enjoyed an economic boom as people settled in large numbers, protected from the elements by Carrier's invention. That population shift in turn changed the political balance of the nation. Even the nature of architectural design changed, with perhaps the most conspicuous example being the smoky glass-clad skyscrapers that now dot almost every big-city skyline.

The chlorofluorocarbons used in air conditioning have in recent years been blamed for the growing hole in the Earth's ozone layer. Sealed, air-conditioned buildings and other closed spaces utilizing circulated forced air, like commercial airliners, are also criticized as breeding grounds for communicable diseases. There's no denying, though, that a good air conditioner can beat the heat.

Carrier died in 1950, at 73, but his company still exists and remains a major manufacturer of cooling and refrigeration systems.

Source: Various

Photo: Willis Carrier poses proudly* in 1922** with the first chiller.
Courtesy Carrier Corporation
*

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