Still appreciating the invention of Willis Carrier

                Musing near the end of summer, I see some gratifying changes within this 87-year-old house, that one person thinks may have been a Sears home. You know, from the Sears catalog, like the Jim Walter homes Dad helped build during part of his career. I’ve actually seen an old catalog, and yes, Sears DID sell homes. I’ll never know whether this house was indeed a Sears home, and I don’t care. What difference would it make if it were?

                With the brick and rock façade it would be difficult to install central heat and air. Six window ACs “live” on the main floor—three in the bedrooms, one in the small back room we originally called the breakfast room, but which now holds a table of African violets, a small round table with matching chairs, a vanity-turned-storage and a west-window AC. The former hallway across from the room itself houses the cat’s necessaries, the shredder and the hamper.

                Before new windows were installed, which meant removing the ACs from the spaces, then replacing them, the sunroom-cum-office AC was moved by the window crew from a south window to an east one, visible from the yard. No problem.

                The living room unit also faces east and protrudes onto the concrete porch about halfway down its length. It’ll soon be time to decorate the protrusion with a large basket of cones, colored corn, dried gourds and silk flowers. But that’ll be AFTER it cools down enough NOT to need the AC. Last night's thunderstorm and rain cooled things down enough that it was pleasant to sit in the swing this morning and continue reading Ciardi's "How Does a Poem Mean."

                With the installation of new windows all around and even upstairs, and with five window ACs running from noon till bedtime, I was surprised at the lower electric bills. Of course, that was one of the reasons for replacing the 87-year-old ones that rattled and rolled in the least bit of wind.

                A smattering of AC history reveals that during 1948, “crude air conditioning systems showed up with . . . hoopla in top-of-the-line Detroit cars.” (Paul Dickson, “From Elvis to E-Mail.”) Reader’s Digest’s “The Origins of Everyday Things” says, “The first true air conditioner, featuring humidity control, powered ventilation, as well as mechanical refrigeration, was patented in 1902 by the American inventor Willis Carrier.” And, “The addition of a dust filter in 1906 to improve the air in textile mills led to the term ‘air conditioning’.”

                Online, I discovered that while most in the U. S. have air conditioning, almost no one in Germany has. At least, not yet. “By letting people in overheated climates concentrate on their work and get a good night’s sleep, air conditioning has played a big part in driving global prosperity and happiness over the past few decades – and that revolution has still barely begun. About half of Chinese households have this modern tool, but of the 1.6 billion people living in India and Indonesia, only 88 million have access to air conditioning at home, Bloomberg New Energy Finance noted in a recent report.” (from Bloomberg News, June, ’19)

                Will climate change affect our need for comfort and our method for achieving it ? We shall see. In the meantime--or at the same time--let's enjoy the changing of the "guard" from summer to autumn.

c 2019, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA

               

               

Thank goodness for Willis Carrier

 by Pat Laster

                One other thing I’ve learned by listening to my highway-department employee son: The reason the plug of the old 12,500 BTU window AC is getting hot was at least three-fold. First, the appliance was old; second, it was trying to cool an area (three rooms) too large for its capacity; and third, “You are using a 3-way bulb lamp on the same outlet!” which pulled juice needed by the AC. Duh!

Solutions: First, move the lamp to its own outlet! Done. Second, buy a new AC to replace the old one. Third, add a 6,000 BTU window unit in the office to help with the cooling. Done and done, thanks to Jodie and Robert from McClendon’s Appliances in Benton.

Eighty years ago when the house was new, each room could be shut off with French doors. At some point, said doors were removed, which opened the living room, sunroom (my office) and dining room into one larger space. With 8 children in the house, the fewer doors to open and the less space needed for them when opened, the better.

As if that weren’t enough, the original swinging door from dining room to kitchen had also been removed. Beyond the narrow kitchen was the breakfast room (now used to temporarily store things bound for the back porch or the shed or for recycling). In later years, it was Mom’s sitting room. A window unit on the west would cool the room, but usually, she left it off. Even when her “help” was smothering, she was comfortable, so it stayed off.

The kitchen, with the refrigerator motor exuding heat, was never as cool as desired, even with a small ceiling fan. But who stayed in the kitchen for any length of time? Not me!

The back AC finally bit the dust. Of course, it would happen during this season’s extraordinary heat wave. But Son and Wife and Home Depot saved the day. And the unit even has a remote!

I shouldn’t complain about not having air conditioning. At least all of us have access to electricity.

 I read lately that some 300 million people in India have NO access to electrical power at all, and another 300 million have only sporadic access.

The recent blackout in India affected about 670 million people, according to G. Harris and J. Yardley, of the New York Times.

                Of all the books of trivia I own, I decided to investigate “air conditioning,” that modern appliance we think—at least grandson Billy thinks—we could not live without.

In Paul Dickson’s From Elvis to E-Mail: Trends, Events, and Trivia from the Postwar Era to the End of the Century, there’s one piddling entry:

During 1948, “crude air conditioning systems show[ed] up with … hoopla—in top-of-the-line Detroit cars.”

                Fred Worth’s Trivia Encyclopedia had nothing.

                But Reader’s Digest’s The Origins of Everyday Things gave me two sentences. “The first true air conditioner, featuring humidity control, powered ventilation as well as mechanical refrigeration, was patented in 1902 by the American inventor Willis Carrier. AND

“The addition of a dust filter in 1906 to improve the air in textile mills led to the term ‘air conditioning’.”

                At least on this subject, President Obama is correct: we couldn’t have our quality of air conditioning without the astuteness of others before us.

c 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press