Air Conditioning

Consumer1900 to 1945

Willis Carrier, USA, patent 808,897 of 1906. Humidity control that reshaped cities and climates.

Overview

Carrier's Apparatus for Treating Air, patented 1906, was born from a Brooklyn printer's humidity problem. His rational psychrometric formula sized coils scientifically. Movie theaters adopted cooling in the 1920s, drawing summer crowds. Postwar window units and skyscraper central plants enabled Houston, Dubai, and Singapore as we know them. The Carrier company spans his name. Computing itself depends on his chillers: server farms are air conditioning first.

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