You Have A New York Man To Thank For Air Conditioning

It looks like it could be a rather warm Memorial Day weekend in the Southern Tier with the temperatures in the upper 70s. If you plan on cranking up the AC this weekend, then you have Willis Carrier to thank.

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If the Carrier name sounds familiar, it's probably because you've been to the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University. That was the name of the indoor stadium with the inflatable roof since 1979, it was recently changed to the JMA Wireless Dome.

The Carrier name may be gone but we relax in cool comfort because of Willis Haviland Carrier. He designed the first modern air-conditioning system and that would lead to a better way of life for everyone.

We've all heard the saying, "the greatest thing since sliced bread" but in my opinion, we should say "the best thing since the air conditioner." It changed the way we live, play, and work and it all began on a foggy day in Pittsburgh.

Willis Carrier Invents The Air Conditioner

Carrier was on a Pittsburgh train platform in 1902 and as he was looking through the mist, he realized that he could dry air by passing it through water and create fog. On July 17th, 1902, he finished his invention to control humidity and the modern air conditioner was born.

Controlling the indoor environment changed everything and we can thank his mom for that. The "Father of Air Conditioning" was just a boy when he was struggling with fractions.

How The Apple Helped Invent Air Conditioning

His mother taught him that by cutting whole apples into different-sized pieces. Carrier said that lesson was the most important thing he ever learned because it taught him the value of problem-solving...which is sadly missing today.

Carrier died on October 7th, 1950 but his legacy lives on today. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986 and named one of TIME magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century" in 1998.

You can read his incredible story here while sitting in your air-conditioned home or cubicle at work.

Highest Temperatures on Record

via AAA Gas Prices, U.S. Department of Energy

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Source: You Have A New York Man To Thank For The Existence Air Conditioning

Filed Under: air conditioning, Carrier Dome, Willis Carrier