science · 07 October 1950 · 75 years ago
death
Died 7 Oct 1950 at age 73 (born 26 Nov 1876).
American inventor who initiated modern air conditioning. In 1902 (a year after graduating with an M.E.), he designed his first system to control temperature and humidity in a Brooklyn printing plant. By 2 Jan 1906, he patented an “Apparatus for Treating Air,” the world's first spray type air conditioning equipment, (U.S. No. 808,897). His “Rational Psychrometric Formulae,” (1911) remain essential for air conditioning engineers. In 1915, he started the Carrier Engineering Corporation, to deal with temperature and humidity conditions in the industrial environment. Eventually the technology reached public buildings and then homes. He developed the first safe, low pressure centrifugal refrigeration machine using nontoxic, nonflammable refrigerant.