American engineer Willis Carrier was the father of modern air conditioners. He was born in Erie County, New York in 1876. Air conditioning was invented in 1902 when Mr. Carrier, at age 26, submitted drawings of an AC system he had designed for a Brooklyn publishing company. His invention was installed that same year, and it was the first air conditioner with humidity control. Early air conditioners were spray-type systems that heated water to generate humidity and cooled water to dehumidify the air. From that point on, air conditioning was defined as having four properties:
• Temperature control
• Humidity control
• Cool air circulation and ventilation
• Air cleaning properties
In 1911, Carrier presented his “Rational Psychrometric Formulae” to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His ideas about relative humidity, absolute humidity and dew point became the “Magna Carta of Psychrometrics.” These principles allowed engineers to create AC systems that matched exactly the cooling requirements of any given space. In 1914, Willis refined his air conditioners to include automatic controls.
Since 1902, Mr. Carrier had worked for Buffalo Forge Company. With World War I in 1914, Buffalo Forge limited itself to manufacturing. In 1915, Carrier and six other engineers pooled their resources to create a New York company called Carrier Engineering Corporation. The company later relocated to Newark, New Jersey and expanded to over four cities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
With the development of the centrifugal refrigeration machine, the AC industry grew rapidly during the 1920s. Commercial and residential air conditioning figured largely in the migration to America’s Sunbelt. However, with the stock market crash of 1929, Carrier Engineering Corporation faced financial difficulties.
Carrier Engineering merged with Brunswick-Kroeschell Company and York Heating & Ventilating Corporation in 1930 to become Carrier Corporation. Willis Carrier was appointed Chairman of the Board and started Toyo Carrier and Samsung Applications in Korea and Japan the same year. Today, South Korea is the world's largest air conditioning producer.
In 1937, Carrier Corporation consolidated, moved to Syracuse, and become one of New York's largest employers. Although the Great Depression slowed the growth of commercial and residential air conditioner installations until the end of World War II, air conditioning became widespread during the post-war economic boom of the 1950s.
Carrier Corporation became a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation in 1980 and, as of 2007, employed over 45,000 workers and reported annual sales of over $15 billion. Today, The Carrier Corporation is an undisputed leader in the heating and cooling industry.
Indoor comfort has taken a giant leap forward ever since air conditioning was invented. We can't imagine being without it, especially in hot, humid climates like McKinney, TX. As a local, family-owned HVAC company with deep roots in the community, Bill Joplin’s Air Conditioning & Heating has been helping residential and commercial clients to keep their cool for over 30 years. We’re a full service HVAC company, and we do everything from small window unit AC repairs to high-efficiency air conditioning installations for new construction.
