East Coast Mechanical history

This early compressor worked so well that ice formed on the pipes, turning into the world’s first ice maker. It should come as no surprise, then, that a Floridian developed one of the first mechanical cooling machines (and ice makers). In 1842, a doctor in Florida named John Gorrie used compressed air to create ice.

The first modern air conditioner was designed and built by Willis Carrier, and began operating in Buffalo, New York in 1902.

Before that, though, the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis introduced the American public to comfort cooling.

Charles Gates’ home in Minneapolis was the first private home to have air conditioning, in 1914.

Thomas Midgley Jr. invented Freon, a trademark of DuPont, in 1928.

In 1929, Frigidaire made a home split system cooling unit that, while small enough for home use, was still very heavy and more expensive than most could afford.

General Electric managed to improve on that design and built a self-contained room cooler, but only produced 32 prototypes by 1931, without a production model in the marketplace.

Meanwhile, Robert Sherman invented the portable window-unit air conditioner in 1945 in Massachusetts.

By 1947, Henry Galson had developed a more compact version that had sold over 43,000 units.