-
In 1758 Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley recognized that evaporation of any liquid besides water can cool down an object enough to freeze water
1758 All liquid evaporation has a cooling effect. Benjamin "I invented everything" Franklin and Cambridge University professor John Hadley discover that evaporation of alcohol and other volatile liquids, which evaporate faster than water, can cool down an object enough to freeze water -
Michael Faraday discovers this evaporation in England
1820 Inventor Michael Faraday makes the same discovery in England when he compresses and liquifies ammonia. -
Dr. John Gorrie envents an ice making machine in a hospital in Florida
1830s At the Florida hospital where he works, Dr. John Gorrie builds an ice-making machine that uses compression to make buckets of ice and then blows air over them. He patents the idea in 1851, imagining his invention cooling buildings all over the world. But without any financial backing, his dream melts away -
When President James Garfield was assinated and shot the naval engineers built a boxy makeshift cooling unit
1881 After an assassin shoots President James Garfield on July 2, naval engineers build a boxy makeshift cooling unit to keep him cool and comfortable. The device is filled with water-soaked cloth and a fan blows hot air overhead and keeps cool air closer to the ground. The good news: This device can lower room temperature by up to 20 F. The bad news: It uses a half-million pounds of ice in two months… and President Garfield still dies -
Willis Carrier invents the Apparatus for treating air
1902 Willis Carrier invents the Apparatus for Treating Air for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y. The machine blows air over cold coils to control room temperature and humidity, keeping paper from wrinkling and ink aligned. Finding that other factories want to get in on the cooling action, Carrier establishes the Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America -
A textile mill engineer in North Carolina named Stuart Cramer invents a decive that adds water vapor to air of textile plants
1906 Stuart Cramer, a textile mill engineer in North Carolina, creates a ventilating device that adds water vapor to the air of textile plants. The humidity makes yarn easier to spin and less likely to break. He's the first to call this process "air conditioning." -
Air conditioning finally comes out
1914 Air conditioning comes home for the first time. The unit in the Minneapolis mansion of Charles Gates is approximately 7 feet high, 6 feet wide, 20 feet long and possibly never used because no one ever lived in the house. -
J.Q. Sherman and H.H. Schultz invents an room air conditioner that sits in the windows
1931 H.H. Schultz and J.Q. Sherman invent an individual room air conditioner that sits on a window ledge—a design that's been ubiquitous in apartment buildings ever since. The units are available for purchase a year later and are only enjoyed by the people least likely to work up a sweat—the wealthy. (The large cooling systems cost between $10,000 and $50,000. That's equivalent to $120,000 to $600,000 today.) -
Packward invents the first air conditioned car
1939 Packard invents the coolest ride in town: the first air-conditioned car. Dashboard controls for the a/c, however, come later. Should the Packard's passengers get chilly, the driver must stop the engine, pop open the hood, and disconnect a compressor belt. -
The first summer peaking power plant was built by the U.S. to hold the air conditioning
1942 The United States builds its first "summer peaking" power plant made to handle the growing electrical load of air conditioning.
