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7 Cool Facts You Definitely Didn’t Know About the History of Air Conditioning
It’s that time of year again…time to open the windows, clear out the closets, and start getting your A/C serviced and ready for what’s predicted to be a long, hot Boston summer.
But before we jump ahead to Summer 2016, let’s take a look back at the history of a technology most of us couldn’t imagine living without…our good ‘ole A/C.
7 Cool Facts You Definitely Didn’t Know About the History of Air Conditioning
Cool off the presses – In 1902, Willis Carrier invented the Apparatus for Treating Air for a Brooklyn lithography company to keep its press’ paper wrinkling-free and aligned. Based on his success in Brooklyn, Carrier established the Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America.
Chiller theater – Enterprising theater owners in the late 1910s installed units to rescue paying customers from their hot-box homes and apartments. Theater ads featured lettering dripping with icicles.
That’s cold! – The first U.S. president to enjoy an air-conditioned Oval Office was Herbert Hoover, who spent $30,000 on the system just months after the 1929 stock market crash.
I cool dead people – One of the earliest successful ventilation systems was used for cadavers in Cornell University’s medical school dissecting rooms (1899).
A cool million – After WWII, residential air conditioning became a way to keep up with the Joneses. More than 1 million units were sold in 1953 alone.
Cold and gold – Charles “Spend-a-Million” Gates – heir to a barbed-wire fortune – built the first fully air-conditioned residence in Minneapolis in 1913. The mansion also boasted gold plumbing.
Cold hard cash – In 1931, H.H. Schultz and J.Q. Sherman invented an individual AC unit that sat on a window ledge. The larger version of their cooling systems cost between $10,000 and $50,000 – equivalent to $120,000 to $600,000 today (luckily, you can get a much better one today for considerably less – contact us to learn more!).
