Air conditioning is the angel and the devil of our society. Although we understand its use as a technology that improves many lives, the increasing energy demand due to climate change and rising temperatures in recent years has led to environmental challenges. The interesting thing about the invention is that it was not born for us. The fault was a printer and humidity.

Magazine and printing house. As we’ll see, the concept of cooling the air has been around for a long time (the ancient Egyptians had already hung water-soaked reeds in windows, and the Persians had devised a type of “cool” trapping chimney), but if we’re to believe that the first air conditioner was built, we have to go back to New York in 1902. There, in a building in Brooklyn (still standing) that housed the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing Company print shop.

Problem? After two summers of extreme heat threatened his printing business, he complained bitterly to one of his clients, the illustrated humor magazine Judge, Sackett & Wilhelms. Apparently, the paper used for printing absorbed so much moisture from the Brooklyn air that it expanded, and the colors used in the printing process did not align correctly. Moreover, the ink on the pages did not dry and the deadlines were not met.

The invention of the carrier

Carrier to the rescue. Enter Willis Haviland Carrier, a 25-year-old recent graduate engineer who has been toying with an idea for a while: getting rid of humidity as a way to cool the air. The key: dry the air by creating artificial fog. So their original plan was to force air through pipes filled with cold water drawn from a well between two buildings, a solution that involved fans, ducts, heaters, and perforated pipes.

Carrier built the machine in Buffalo and developed a primitive cooling system to reduce the humidity around the printer by using an industrial fan to blow air over steam coils filled with cold water; excess moisture would condense on the coils and produce cold air. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had just created the precursor to modern air conditioning.

Patent. After fighting for it for several years, on January 2, 1906, the engineer was granted U.S. patent No. 808,897 for “a device for treating air.” In 1913, Carrier developed the Carrier air humidifier, designed to humidify the air in a single room. A milestone as it is the first stand-alone unit to combine fan, motor, separator and aerosols in a single package.

Carrier Engineering Company. The company was founded together with seven of the engineer’s colleagues. It took place on June 26, 1915 in New York. Since then, the company has gone through numerous mergers and acquisitions and became a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation in 1980. Today, it remains the world leader in commercial and residential refrigeration and air conditioning.

First practical centrifugal refrigeration compressor

It will be better after 20 years. The truth is that the engineer’s original machine already performed the four basic tasks of an air conditioner: controlling temperatures, humidity, air circulation and ventilation, and purifying the air. But in 1922, a breakthrough occurred. Carrier developed his own centrifugal refrigeration compressor: safer, smaller, faster, and more powerful than its predecessor.

In fact, one of the first practical centrifugal refrigeration compressors is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History dating back to that year, and the New York Stock Exchange building, which purchased Carrier’s system, became the first building to have air conditioning solely for human comfort.

Cinema and the post-war era. The truth is that air conditioning was sweeping the industrial sector, but on an individual level it was another story, and here two important facts emerge in the spread of air conditioning to homes. First of all, cinema. Movies were the ones that managed to introduce the public to cold weather in movie theaters. Later, in the middle of the 20th century, in a scenario where people were trying to “embrace” prosperity after the wars, air conditioning became a destructive element.

“The 1950s were a time to keep up with the neighbors,” said Salvatore Basile, author of Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything. Magazines like Life ran headlines that read: “Air conditioning will be cheap enough to install in private homes after war.” The technology was described as a prewar luxury that would be produced in large quantities and sold at a reasonable cost in the postwar era.

The first was the concept. But long before air conditioning became what it is today, the concept of cold weather already existed. For example, Professor William Cullen of the University of Glasgow was already evaporating liquids in vacuum in 1748, thereby creating the technology of refrigeration. Later, John Gorrie, a Florida physician, used a small steam engine to cool the air so his patients could be comfortable. He called his invention “ice machine”.

If you’re wondering why Gorrie’s invention never gained traction, we should probably point to the Northern icemakers who profited from shipping ice to the South, who lobbied against Gorrie and raised public suspicion of the artificially cooled air produced by an ice machine. In fact, Peter Liebhold of the Smithsonian has reminded us that for a long time, efforts to control one’s environment also raised moral questions. “There was this idea that trying to control the environment was against the will of God,” Liebhold says.

1970s advert

Air conditioning today. The future looks complicated, to say the least, for the original system created by Carrier. Although its use in terms of electricity has become widespread and rapidly increasing, improvements and efficiency are sought. The Paris Olympics are already saying they want very little air conditioning, inventions that consume five times less are emerging, and the use of cheaper alternatives is even being encouraged.

One factor to consider plays in AC’s favor: the planet doesn’t seem to be cooling down, quite the opposite.

Image | Willis Carrier, Schezar, NMAH, PICRYL, Public Domain, SenseiAlan, PICRYL, PICRYL

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