There is nothing better on a hot day than walking into a nice cool air conditioned building. Just the thing happened to me today. It started me thinking about air conditioning and how we take it for granted. An air conditioner is one of those modern marvels we tend to forget had to be invented.
The modern air conditioner was invented in 1902 by Willis Carrier of Syracuse, New York. If you have ever spent a summer in Upstate New York you can understand his impetuous. He was not the first to study the concept of cooling the air. Egyptians did it with water running over reeds in their windows. Benjamin Franklin, the inventor of almost everything, experimented with evaporation discovering how it aided in cooling. It was Carrier though who was able to make an electric machine that worked not unlike a refridgerator. The term air conditioner was coined by a gentleman named Stuart Cramer. The original air conditioners used highly toxic and flammable chemicals to cool the air and it wasn't until 1928 that Thomas Midgley invented for DuPont Chemical Company the gas we use today, Freon. The window models commonly seen today were brought to the market in 1935 by oddly enough Chrystler Motor Company. Who knew!
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