Here on Our American Stories, we often look at the everyday things that change everything. Think about beating the heat on a scorching summer day. What’s your secret weapon? For millions of Americans, it’s the humble yet revolutionary air conditioner. This isn’t just about personal comfort; it’s about how a brilliant invention transformed our homes, businesses, and even entire cities, letting us escape the sweltering heat and enjoy a refreshingly cool life. It’s a modern marvel that many of us simply can’t imagine living without.
But how did this incredible cooling technology come to be, and how did it go from a luxury to a necessity in American homes and beyond? We’ll explore the ingenious minds and early attempts to beat the heat, tracing the journey from Willis Carrier’s pivotal invention in 1902 to the window units that finally brought affordable air conditioning to the masses. Discover how AC didn’t just bring personal comfort; it reshaped our cities, boosted productivity, improved public health, and even created a thriving, year-round tourism industry. Get ready to appreciate the invention that truly cooled down America.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
One of the single greatest inventions in modern history is the air conditioner. Americans spend more than twenty-two billion a year on electricity to cool their homes. With air conditioning, an average of twenty-two hundred dollars per household, it’s hard to imagine how people live without it. Ancient Egyptians cooled themselves at night by sleeping in wet sheets. Early Americans placed large blocks of ice in front of fans. Willis Carrier invented modern air conditioning in nineteen oh two for a publishing company in New York that was experiencing problems when humidity caused ink to smudge and paper to expand. The New York Stock Exchange Building in New York City was one of the first buildings to use air conditioning in nineteen oh three, but it wasn’t until nineteen oh four when the first private home was equipped with an air conditioner in Minneapolis. Movie theaters were among the first businesses to install air conditioning. In nineteen twenty-two, Carrier installed his system in a movie theater, which advertised its new system by saying that the theaters were, quote, “cool as a mountain top.”
Yes, you lucky people, just sit back for a moment, relax and notice a delightfully clean, cool, and refreshing atmosphere of this scientifically air-conditioned bitter. Great, isn’t it? Remember, you can enjoy great motion picture entertainment all summer long in cool comfort at this bitter.
In nineteen thirty-nine, Packard became the first automobile manufacturer to offer air conditioning in its cars, but it would be decades before AC became commonplace in homes across the country. Here’s historian Gary Mormino.
Air conditioning had existed in the larger cities since the nineteen twenties. You could go to the premiere movie theater and enjoy air conditioning comfort, but it was unaffordable and really unrealistic for a homeowner to even dream about air conditioning. The Carrier window unit came in nineteen fifty-one, and what’s interesting is it wasn’t an immediate hit. For instance, everyone, I think, assumes that everyone went out and bought a window unit in the summer of nineteen fifty-one. It was much slower than that. First of all, it was very expensive. Most homes were modestly priced and made no sense to purchase a one-thousand-dollar unit for a six-thousand-dollar house. The first census to ask homeowners whether they had air conditioning was nineteen sixty, and in nineteen sixty only one home in five was air-conditioned. But the future was lock-set. Almost all the new developments included air conditioning. Climate control was the future for growth. Air conditioning is omnipresent now. In Hollywood, Florida, a neighbor’s newly installed air conditioner rattled all night, and his neighbor took him to court, and the judge ruled, “You might as well get used to it.” This is kind of like the Model T. It’s the wave of the future, and as one of those new sounds introduced after World War II and the War of the air conditioner, air conditioning has also created a twelve-month tourist industry. Before air conditioning, many beach communities opened only a few months a year, and hotels in the nineteen thirties—The Royal Palm, The Breakers, the dawn says are—they generally only operated in the winter months for three or four months. Clothes for the season would be the sign. In summer, ooh, this.
Hot summer is got mad down.
You can fry an egg on the street. He wears a wiggling on the sidewalk, ups a drop, a light flies on the beat.
I need a new lover, runitate me and protect me.
Bro, this humid air.
Beeaf in Brooklyn, Stateon Island of Queens, head them care.
You don’t matter kind of love you’re into.
Or how big your apartment might be.
Oh, you need an air conditioner, and you have the man for me. Without air conditioning, we wouldn’t have certain medications today. Some medications could only be studied and developed in a cool environment. Kids can thank air conditioning for summer vacation. The four air conditioners. It’s too hot to learn during the summer, so the kids were granted a break, and the idea stayed.
This lucky baby will sleep quietly through the night. Yes, no matter how high the temperature goes outdoors, this baby’s RCA…
…air conditioner will keep…
…his room filled with cool, dry, fresh air, and keep that room so comfortable and quiet you’ll never need a middle-of-the-night lullaby. Yes, ‘quiet’ is the word for this new nineteen fifty-four RCA air conditioner, as the wonderful heart of a cold compressor silently…
…cools the air for you. Without air conditioning, life would be a lot harder. Not only would we be uncomfortable, we’d be fighting for our very survival. According to a recent study, heat-related deaths have declined eighty percent since nineteen sixty. This can be directly attributed to widespread adoption of residential air conditioning.
Harry, uh, you sleep?
Who can sleep in this sheet? Thank you? Open the window a little wider so we can let some more hot air in when you’re trying to beat the heat.
We think you’d have better luck with the Kelvinator Speedy-Mount air conditioner on your side.
Even the cold water is hot.
According to the National Academy of Engineering, air conditioning and refrigeration is the tenth most important achievement of the twentieth century. If you’re sitting in an air-conditioned room or car right now, take the time to appreciate everything AC has given us: comfort, productivity, health, cities, and much more. Air conditioning makes us more productive and allows us to live longer, happier, cleaner, and more comfortable lives. And don’t risk a breakdown during the hottest days of the year. Keep your artificial oasis going by remembering to schedule a professional AC maintenance every spring and calling a professional technician as soon as you notice a problem. For Our American Stories, I’m Jesse Edwards, yours.
Call, and great job as always to Jesse. And you know, you just forget. There was a time: nineteen oh three, the first building to use AC, the New York Stock Exchange; the first car, the Packard, in nineteen thirty-nine; and in nineteen sixty, only one in five homes had AC. Hard to imagine the story of air conditioning, the history of air conditioning. Here on Our American Stories, Lee Habib here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily, again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.
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