At the turn of the 20th century, humidity threatened the reputation of Brooklyn’s Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing Company’s high-quality color printing. After two summers of extreme heat disrupted business and caused swelling pages and blurry prints, the printing company found that a nascent cooling industry could offer help.

Willis Carrier, a 25-year-old experimental engineer, created a primitive cooling system to reduce humidity around the printer. He used an industrial fan to blow air over steam coils filled with cold water; the excess humidity would then condense on the coils and produce cooled air.

  • musictechgeek@lemdit.com
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    1 year ago

    Very cool article! (Har) Tx for posting.

    Little bit of a goofy mistake in it about a supposed 1939 St. Louis World Fair. NYC was 1939. St. Louis was 1904.