WILLIS HAVILAND CARRIER: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) was an American engineer and researcher known for inventing air conditioning in 1902. In 1915 he founded the Carrier Corporation, specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heaters, fans, and air conditioning systems.

By the time of his death he had obtained more than 80 patents. Besides his main invention he also played an important role in the development of the centrifugal pump.

100th Anniversary Press Kit - Carrier Corp, via Wikimedia Commons

Biography

the beginning

Carrier was born on November 26, 1876, on a farm near the Lake Erie shore of Angola, New York. He was an only child. His parents were Duane Williams Carrier and Elizabeth R. Haviland, who always piqued his curiosity.

He was known as a diligent and calm boy. He studied high school in the local system and at Buffalo General High School. Later, he won a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at Cornel University in Ithaca, New York, from which he graduated in 1901.

He then accepted a position as an engineer at the Buffalo Forge Company, a firm that designed steam engines and pumps. His first task at the company was to design a heating system to heat wood and coffee.

He then developed a better way to measure the capacity of heating systems, for which he was promoted to director of the department of experimental engineering.

There he founded the world's first industrial laboratory. He did it because from the beginning he had decided to take the practice of mechanical engineering to a more rational terrain, so that engineers would better understand why machinery stopped working or had problems.

This enabled Buffalo Forge engineers to design safer and more efficient products.

First experiments

In 1902, consulting engineer Walter Timmis visited the Manhattan office of J. Irvine Lyle, the director of sales activities for Buffalo Forge in New York.

Sackett-Wilhems Printing Company turned to Buffalo Forge Company, as temperature changes in the plant were affecting the dimensions of the printing paper causing the inks to misalign.

So, Carrier invented the first air conditioning system. Thanks to the invention the lithographic company was able to fix the colors and solve their problem.

Discoveries

In 1906 he received a patent for an air treatment apparatus and continued to work on other research on refrigeration and humidity control.

His invention was the first aerosol-type air conditioner with the ability to wash and humidify or dehumidify the air.

For this he was appointed head of a part of the company called the Carrier Air Conditioning Company. However, at the beginning of World War I they eliminated the air conditioning division due to a budget cut. So Carrier, along with his colleagues, created his own company, the Carrier Engineering Corporation.

Personal life and death

He was married three times, to Claire Seymour, Jennie Martin and Elizabeth Marsh. Cardiac arrest forced Carrier to retire in 1948, and shortly before his 74th birthday he died on a trip to New York on October 9, 1950.

Recognitions

Alfred University awarded Carrier an honorary doctorate of letters in 1942 in recognition of his contributions to science and industry.

He was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and into the Buffalo Science Museum Hall of Fame. On December 7, 1998, he was named one of the "100 most influential people of the century" according to Time magazine.

Contributions

Formulas

The idea for the basic theory of modern air conditioning technology emerged one night in 1902 while Carrier was traveling at the Pittsburgh train station.

In 1911, Carrier presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers one of the most important scientific papers: rational psychometric formulas that established relationships between relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew-point temperature.

The table was regularly updated and reprinted as it was an essential tool for generations of engineers.

In 1913, he developed the humidifier for rooms, such as offices or laboratories. It was the first self-contained unit with a fan, motor, eliminator and sprayer in one product.

The first air conditioner

Carrier was the father of air conditioning. However, the term "air conditioning" had already been used by Stuart W. Cramer, a plant operator in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, Carrier's term referred to control of humidity, temperature, purity and air circulation.

He developed the centrifugal compressor, which used safe and non-toxic refrigerants, as well as being inexpensive even for large installations. During the 1920s Carrier continued to install air conditioners, including those in the JLHudson department store and Congress, as well as 300 theaters.

On July 1, 1915, the first offices of the Carrier Engineering Corporation opened in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Buffalo. In 1916, a facility at the Barber Creamery Supply Company in Chicago was Carrier's first air-conditioned establishment.

On May 13, 1926 Carrier introduced the first domestic air conditioner. In 1928 she sold the first small air conditioner, designed for retail stores requiring up to 2,500 cfm of air, to the Merchants Ref<tok2>rating Company.

The depression of 1930 paralyzed sales, however after the war there was a new boom in air conditioning as it was necessary in most offices.

Carrier's invention transformed the quality of life around the world by increasing industrial productivity in the summer months, making it more bearable, and protecting moisture-sensitive environments.

It even influenced migration changes and the evolution of new technologies such as computers or pharmaceutical products that could not be maintained otherwise. His company, the Carrier Corporation, continues to be the world's largest manufacturer of air conditioning equipment today.

References

1. Willis Carrier. Excerpted from Biography. biography.com.
2. M. Ingels, WH Carrier: Father of Air Conditioning. 1927.
3. Willis Haviland Carrier: The Man Who Cooled America. Excerpted from American History Magazine. historynet.com.
4. Willis Carrier. Extracted from Encyclopedia Britannica. britannica.com.
5. The Invention That Changed The World. Excerpted from Carrier. williscarrier.com.