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Conceptually speaking, air conditioning has been around since the first primitive humans ducked into cool, damp caves to take refuge from summer heat. But aside from fans of various shapes and sizes, the technology of temperature control didn’t progress beyond the stone age until the 1830s. That’s when John Gorrie, a doctor from Florida, decided to do something about the stifling heat in his hospital, which he reasoned wasn’t doing his malaria and yellow fever infected patients much good. In response, he created a simple contraption that was little more than a fan that blew over a bucket full of ice—and though it was mighty inefficient, it worked.
A more complex device was rigged up in the bedroom of dying president James Garfield in 1881. Naval engineers constructed a kind of box filled with ice water-soaked rags. A fan blew hot air overhead, forcing the cool air to stay low to the floor, where the ailing president’s bed was. Half a million pounds of ice and two months later, the president was dead, though the engineers had succeeded in lowering the room’s temperature an average of twenty degrees during that time.
But those were experiments, not the norm. Refrigeration first came into common use in some large cities during the late 1800s, typically piped from a central cooling station to meat lockers, keg rooms and even bank vaults where important documents were stored. “Manufactured air,” as it was known, was primarily an industrial-use phenomenon until the turn of the century, when men like Willis Carrier, an engineer and air conditioning pioneer, began to experiment with systems practical for use in commercial and residential spaces. The key was precise control of the temperature-humidity relationship in the air, achieved by a series of chilled coils that both lowered temperature and the moisture level. His invention, built for the Brooklyn-based Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company, was called the “Apparatus for Treating Air,” and it kick-started a revolution.
Suddenly cooled air didn’t have to come from a centrally-located supply; any business with enough money could have their own local system. Schools, hospitals, printing plants and textile manufacturers lined up to have air conditioners installed (as well as one wealthy private citizen, Charles Gates of Minneapolis, the first person to have his home—pictured at left—air-conditioned). The thing stopping Carrier’s units from going into every home in America, however, was their gigantic size. Further, the potential danger of the toxic ammonia they used as coolant didn’t help. In 1922, however, Carrier solved those problems by replacing the ammonia with the relatively safe chemical dielene, and added a compressor to the systems, which reduced their size and expense.
Soon the inventions were popping up in movie theaters all over the country, which became refuges for sweltering cineastes during the summers. Before long, air conditioning was debuting in office buildings, department stores and in fancy trains everywhere. World War II slowed things down a bit since resources were scarce, but when the troops came home and embraced the suburban American dream, many of them wanted that dream air conditioned. Within a few years, window units began selling like hotcakes: from just 74,000 in 1948 to over a million in 1953.
This article was written by Ransom Riggs and excerpted from the mental_floss book In the Beginning: The Origins of Everything. You can pick up a copy in our store.
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John Gorrie has a museum in Apalachicola Florida where his hospital was. His grave is across the street from the museum out in the blistering heat.
posted by Shawn Montgomery on 7-12-2008 at 3:21 pm
One side-affect of the rise of air conditioning was the fall of the front porch — no longer do you have to sit outside during the day and in the evening to cool down. Explains why older houses have porches and verandas, and newer suburban houses just have a small stoop in front of the door for when you’re standing fumbling around in your pocket for your keys.
posted by Talbert on 7-12-2008 at 3:50 pm
The effect of the Air Conditioner on America cannot be denied. I mean, before Air Conditioning, most of the people in the USA were in the North. They’ve been moving south ever since. I once heard a Joke that AC was both the rise and the fall of Syracuse, New York.
posted by Anon on 7-12-2008 at 3:58 pm
See also: Life before air conditioning.
mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7424
posted by Miss Cellania on 7-12-2008 at 5:58 pm
I’ve spent pretty much my whole life in Florida, and I don’t know how anyone could possibly have lived here before there was A/C. We use ours probably 80% of the year. I love it here, but no way would I survive without A/C! This time of year you literally walk outside for 30 seconds, walk back in and feel like you need another shower. It’s awful.
posted by Celeste M. on 7-13-2008 at 12:09 am
I’ve always been amused by the phrase “air conditioner”. A heater heats the air but to bring the temperature down we “condition” the air. Seems to me it should be called a “cooler” but, of course, that means something else.
reCAPTCHA: comfort Chester
by using an air conditioner!
posted by KJ on 7-14-2008 at 7:32 am
I work in the HVAC industry as a Mechanical Insulation Estimator/Girl Friday, & My parents own a commercial/industrial HVAC/Pl. company. I think the most interesting advances in the heating & cooling industry has happened in the past 20 years. The A/C units are not only much, much smaller, but they are tons more efficient and can condition even larger spaces, among many other technical advances. It’s also interesting that one of the largest suppliers of air handling units (AHU’s) and heating units today is Carrier. Also, it is called “conditioning” for the simple fact that it is not just cooling the air around you, but also monitoring the humidity level, therefore conditioning the space. This is why A/C units have condensate drains.
posted by Kathryn B on 7-14-2008 at 9:10 am
i too work in the hvac world. i was really excited to see you do this article (a little to excited) and the one thing i have to say is that when people get hot (i work in florida mind you) they get mighty cranky like evil cranky so if your reading this and your ac breaks dont take it out on the lady who answers the to the customers she didnt screw up, the tech did. HA!
Oh and keep on rocking in the free world willis carrier you devil!
posted by meta on 7-14-2008 at 3:08 pm
Fun article. When I was about 8, we had a school assignment on our favorite invention, living in Alabama, mine was air conditioning!
posted by Sabrina on 7-14-2008 at 5:21 pm
I remember my class trip to Washington D.C., in the Congress building, I think, were statues of people that made the largest impact on their state. My good ol’ home state of Florida’s choice? John Gorrie. And we all still thank him to this day…
posted by Melody on 7-14-2008 at 6:02 pm
Air conditioning is so cool!
(O-kay, even I am groaning at my bad pun.)
posted by Tdave on 7-15-2008 at 1:44 am
I am too young to know what it was like to not have air conditioning. I own a air conditioning company here in austin tx. And the city is growing everyday. With out air conditioning austin would never grow.
posted by txacman on 4-17-2009 at 11:12 am
Thats where it came from and geothermal is where it is heading.
posted by kim on 8-20-2009 at 8:53 pm