Bartlett Heating and Air Talks About Air Conditioning History

We use our air conditioning all summer, have you wondered about the history of how it all came about? In 1758 Benjamin Franklin was doing an experiment and found out that certain liquids evaporating can cause the temperature to drop below freezing. In 1830 John Gorrie made a machine that made ice into buckets and he took that ice and blew fans over it trying to cool the room. The more modern air conditioning was invented by Willis Carrier in 1902. Carrier needed to control humidity for a printing client because it really affected the ink on the paper.In 1906 Stuart Cramer found a way to add vapor to the air using a ventilation system that helped with making yarn stronger and easier to spin. He was also the first one to call it air conditioning. In 1914 Charles Gates in Minneapolis was the first person who had air conditioning in his home. It measured 7X6X20 feet and was possibly never used because no one was ever home. In 1931 the first window air conditioner was invented. It sat on the window ledge and cost $10,000-$50,000 which is equivalent to $100,000 to $600,000 today. In 1939 the first auto air conditioning came out. It did not have dashboard controls at first. In order to turn it off you would have to stop the car, open the hood, and disconnect the belt. In post WWII 1950s residential air conditioning boomed. In 1953 there were over 1 million units sold. In 1970 central air came along. It was made up of a coil, condenser, and refrigerant 12. It works like the central air systems of today. In 1994 refrigerant is banned due to depleting the ozone layer. They are phasing out the R22 and using 410A. the 410A is a stronger coolant and better for our environment and all new systems are made with 410A. Eventually you will not be able to manufacture R22 refrigerant. This is a short history of air conditioning. Bartlett Heating and Air can help you with all your cooling needs so call us today!