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Willis Haviland
Carrier is the man we can thank for air conditioning. In 1914, Mr.
Carrier was issued U.S. Patent No. 1,085,971 for "dew point control", a
discovery that led to automatic controls for air conditioning systems.
By then, Carrier had designed and installed air conditioning systems for
manufacturing plants, factories, breweries, and a host of other
commercial and industrial customers.
In 1914, Buffalo
Forge Company foolishly decided to lay off their entire air conditioning
research division - still considered a "speculative" business at
the time. Mr. Carrier and six other engineers formed a new company
in 1915 called Carrier Engineering Corporation. The company became
the Carrier Corporation in 1930 and is still the world leader in air
conditioning, heating and refrigeration systems.
While the first
couple of decades of air conditioning served machines - not people,
Carrier predicted that it would one day be used for human comfort.
In 1922, Carrier invented the centrifugal refrigeration machine, which
was the first system able to practically condition large spaces using
non-toxic, non-flammable chlorofluorcarbon refrigerants. Previous
machines used reciprocating compressors employing toxic, flammable refrigerants,
such as ammonia.
In 1924, Carrier
installed centrifugal chillers in the J.L. Hudson Department Store in
Chicago and in the Palace movie theater in Dallas and the Texan and Iris
movie theaters in Houston. Box office sales went "through the
roof" in the summer. Some even credit Carrier with helping fuel
the growth of the entertainment industry, which had always suffered poor
attendance in the summer months.
In 1928, Carrier
began marketing the "Weathermaker" residential air conditioner and he
air conditioned the U.S. House of Representatives in the same year.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. Senate hired Carrier to install air
conditioning in 1929.
In the war years
(1941-1945), Carrier converted his plant to manufacture items needed for
the war effort. After the war, air conditioning finally began to
lose its luxury status and eventually became prevalent in homes and
businesses throughout the world.
Willis Haviland
Carrier died in 1950 at the age of 73.
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