One hundred years ago on July 17th, Willis Carrier, a 25-year-old apprentice engineer employed by the Buffalo Forge Company, handed in his plan to solve a new client's problem - and air-conditioning was born.
The client, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing Co. of Brooklyn, experienced problems when its sheets of paper used for production were expanding and contracting in the heat and humidity causing ink not to dry properly. The publishers of one of Sackett-Wilhelms' biggest clients, Judge magazine, were not pleased with the production problems and threatened to take their business elsewhere.
Carrier, just a year removed from Cornell University, was confronted with the client's problem and came up with the idea for air conditioning. He figured if a production plant was heated by blowing air through coils pumped full of steam, they why could the plant be cooled by blowing air through coils of cold water?
On July 17, 1902, Carrier completed his drawings for what became recognized as the world's first air-conditioning system, and submitted them to his employer and client. This marked the birth of air-conditioning according to Carrier Corp.
