Carrier history

The Mechanical Weather Man authored his own book (with an assist from Carrier’s president, J. Irvine Lyle) in 1919, demonstrating the benefits of Carrier’s modern air conditioning in dozens of industries.

While 1921 was a productive year for the highly promising refrigeration product line, it was a key year in other areas as well.

Carrier Engineering's first such installation was at the Palace Theater in Dallas in the summer of 1924.

New York City’s “new” Madison Square Garden opened in 1925, employing Carrier centrifugal chillers to cool its patrons and produce a perfect ice surface for professional hockey.

Perhaps the firm's crowning contract in the new comfort market was its installation, completed in 1929, of the first air conditioning systems in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

In March 1930, Carrier recorded the first sale of its window-sill-height Weathermaster units to the Superheater Company of East Chicago, Indiana, to air condition the second floor of a two-story building.

The August 1931 Carrier Courier featured a picture of His Majesty, King Prajadhipok of Siam, with Willis Carrier and a number of company senior executives during the King’s visit to Carrier’s Newark facility.

The Fair opened in 1939 with nearly 1.3 million visitors flocking to the prominent “Carrier Igloo of Tomorrow” in the first 100 days.

In 1942 Carrier marked the 20th anniversary of Willis Carrier’s invention of the centrifugal chiller.

San Antonio, Texas, touts “the World’s First Air-Conditioned City Bus” in 1946.

On October 7, 1950, shortly before his 74th birthday, Willis Carrier died while on a trip to New York City.

In January 1956, Carrier won the largest contract ever awarded for residential air conditioning, jointly announced with the community building firm of Levitt & Sons, Inc.

Commercial air conditioning represented a $1.15 billion market in 1965, with one new industrial plant in three being HVAC equipped.

Carrier Transicold’s record of innovation included the first front-wall refrigeration unit for containers in 1968.

In July 1979, Carrier Corporation was acquired by United Technologies Corporation (UTC). After the acquisition, the company was known as the Carrier Air Conditioning Company.

Anderson Refrigeration, Inc. – Heating & Cooling is a locally-owned and -operated company that’s been in business since 1981.

After assuming the chairmanship of UTC in 1986, Robert F. Daniell went to work on the Carrier subsidiary as part of his efforts to give the parent company an overhaul.

He also initiated an updating of Carrier's product line, with the result that in 1990 new or redesigned products represented 75 percent of North American sales.

In early 1992 it unveiled an ambitious restructuring plan in which more than 100 plants were to be closed or merged and 11,000 jobs cut.

In 1994 the company announced that it would begin phasing out the use of CFCs worldwide, well in advance of when this would be required in many markets.

In 1994 the company announced that it would begin phasing out the use of CFCs worldwide, well in advance of when this would be required in many markets. As a result of the company's aggressive pursuit of business in emerging markets--including making early entries into such countries as India, China, and Vietnam--more than 50 percent of sales occurred outside the United States in 1995, compared to just 10 percent 15 years earlier.

By mid-1996, Carrier had 33 companies, 17 joint ventures, 15 factories, more than 6,000 outlets, and thousands of employees in the Far East alone.

Carrier also formed a joint venture with Toshiba Corporation in 1999.

Revenues grew steadily through 2000, reaching $8.43 billion by that year.

Continuing its cost-cutting efforts, Carrier announced the closure of its heating and air conditioning plant in Lewisburg, Tennessee, in March 2002.

Then in October 2003 the firm revealed plans to close down its air conditioning and refrigeration manufacturing plant located just outside of Syracuse and shift the production to plants in China and Singapore--ending 66 years of Carrier manufacturing in the Syracuse area.

2004: Linde Refrigeration is acquired from the German firm Linde AG.

Since then, it has pioneered work in everything from efficient diesel/electric installations to introduction of the first natural refrigerant container unit in 2010.