Willis Carrier didn't invent Florida, but he gets a certain amount of credit for making life there possible. He was a genius that knew how to make things work, especially things that got too hot. His first triumph was in a printing plant, after the first color went down the humidity and temperature in the plant changed the size of the sheets, and the next color wouldn't line up. (I was a printer for many years, I know exactly what he was dealing with.) For two decades his systems were used to cool machines and industrial processes - he was involved in solving problems in cotton mills and macaroni factories. He didn't like bankers, but built lasting teams and kept them together through the depression. He believed in mentoring long before it was fashionable, and thought that time spent staring into space was well spent. He had a great-grandmother (several greats there, not sure how many) who was known for a "keen sense of justice and a sharp tongue," so they hanged her for a witch in Salem Village. Why does the name ring a bell? In 1914 his employers, a major manufacturer of heating equipment, closed its engineering shop and he had no choice but to start the company that is today the largest manufacturer of air conditioning equipment.
The first lion to be exhibited in the US was shown in a private home in Boston, rather than a zoo, on this day. The story we all know as Alice in Wonderland was given as an early Christmas gift to 12-year-old Alice, King Tut's tomb was opened (although the discoverers wouldn't open the door until the next day, they did peek in), and what is still the largest electrical generating station to get its power from the tides was opened on this day. Somehow I don't think the tide changes can by synchronized to match the maximum air-conditioning needs in Brittany.
1716 - The first lion to be seen in America, tamed for exhibition, was shown by Captain Arthur Savage at his house in Brattle Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
1864 - Charles L. Dodgson sent a handwritten manuscript of a story called Alice's Adventures Underground to his young friend Alice Liddel, an early Christmas present for the 12-year-old girl. Exactly one year later it was published as Alice in Wonderland, attributed to Lewis Carroll.
1922 - Howard Carter and his crew cleared the entrance to the second door in the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings at Luxor, Egypt. He broke part of the door away and held a candle inside to test the air, then he and his sponsor, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, looked into a treasure room filled with items from the reign of the boy king who ruled Egypt in the 14th century BC.
1966 - French president Charles de Gaulle opened the world's first tidal power station at the Rance estuary in Brittany. A 700-meter combination of seawall and dam blocks the estuary, 24 "bulb sets" generate water as the tide rises, filling the estuarine reservoir, and again as it falls. The unique bi-directional bulb turbines were developed for the project, each generates 10 megawatts.
Day of the Proclamation of Mongolia, Mongolia - Commemorates the creation of the Mongolian Peoples Republic on this day in 1924, creating the world's second socialist country. After declaring independence from the Manchu Qing Dynasty of China in 1911, various Chinese and Russian warlords attempted to take over, the Socialist party sponsored by Russia gained power in 1921.
1876
- Willis Haviland Carrier, US engineer and inventor - Born at Angola,
New York, home schooled by his mother until her death in 1887, received
Masters in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1901. Hired
by Buffalo Forge Company, in 1902 he designed a system to control temperature
and humidity in a printing plant in Brooklyn, New York. Received first
(of 80) patent for "An Apparatus for Treating Air" in 1906. Had a flash
of inspiration while waiting for a train in 1911, charted relationship
between temperature, humidity, and dew point. He presented this as "Rational
Psychrometric Formulae" to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
later that year, that work is still the basis for planning air conditioning
systems. In 1915, after Buffalo Forge closed its engineering department,
left to start Carrier Engineering Company with six friends. In 1921 developed
the "Centrifugal Chiller" using nontoxic and nonflammable refrigerants
- replacing piston-driven ammonia systems. First systems for comfort (rather
than industrial requirements) installed in department store in Detroit
in 1924, soon theaters were installing them and advertising the comfort
of watching movies. Brought out first home system in 1928, just in time
for the depression. It was only after World War II that the company started
to grow again. Carrier died at this New York City home on 7 October 1950.
Aristotle taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is
not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain
persons.
- Will Cuppy
One cool judgment is worth a dozen hasty councils. The thing to do is
to supply light and not heat.
- Woodrow Wilson
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain
always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
- Thomas Jefferson
The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool.
- William McFee
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.