Breaking History – "The Birth of Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything"

Podcast by The Free Press
Host: Breaking History team
Guest: Salvatore Basel, author of How Air Conditioning Changed Everything
Date: August 20, 2025

Brief Overview: The Hidden Impact of Air Conditioning

This episode takes a deep dive into air conditioning's journey from obscure industrial solution to a defining technology that changed architecture, urban planning, labor, and even geopolitics. Host and producer Poppy Damon guides a conversation with historian Salvatore Basel, exploring why this overlooked invention matters—and why it's still shaping lives and planet today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Inspiration and the Social Perception of AC

• Salvatore Basel shares how his fascination began in childhood:

  "When I was six years old, which was the early 1960s, my aunt Catherine shocked the entire family by buying two air conditioners. This was a seismic event because as far as everyone was concerned, air conditioners were only for rich people." (02:58)

• Family gatherings relocated to the only cooled living room; the technology instantly shifted social dynamics.

2. The Invention: Willis Carrier and the Birth of Modern Air Conditioning

• Early roots in mechanical refrigeration:
  • The first attempts date back to the mid-19th century. One Florida doctor even failed to patent his steam-powered cooling invention due to public disbelief. (03:58-05:11)
• Enter Willis Carrier:
  • At age 21, as the youngest engineer at Buffalo Forge, Carrier was tasked with fixing humidity problems at a Brooklyn printing plant, which caused ruined paper and jammed presses.
  • He combined refrigeration with moisture condensation technology.
  • Patented on July 17, 1902, as the "apparatus for treating air."
  • Originally, publicity and recognition were limited, yet the invention revolutionized factories by allowing year-round operation. (05:11-07:34)
• Quote:

  "Carrier immediately saw that there would be a Market for what he called comfort cooling. The problem was that most people... had been so used to summer heat, they couldn't imagine that there was a need..." (06:50)

3. Factories First: Productivity and Profit, Not Comfort

• AC's adoption was driven by the need for reliable production, not concern for worker wellbeing:

  "Comfort of the people and safety of the people has sort of nothing to do with it... many manufacturing processes were hampered by summer heat and humidity... Employee comfort had nothing to do with it." (07:53)

• Henry Ford was an early adopter, noticing reduced employee absences and better production quality once factories were cooled. (08:40-09:40)

4. Carrier’s Genius and Unusual Devotion

• Carrier was described as so single-minded that he’d forget to pack essentials for travel, thinking only of air conditioning. He was inspired by everyday phenomena—like condensation on a train window.

  "He stated at one point that he had come across his idea of lowering humidity on a train platform on a cold, damp night." (09:58-10:58)

• Ironically, Carrier did not have AC in his own home. (11:00)

5. Public Resistance and Cultural Shifts

• Early 20th-century America viewed comfort cooling as unnatural, even sacrilegious; suffering through heat was considered inevitable ("God made hot weather, so you must put up with it"). (11:25-12:30)
• The New York Stock Exchange’s 1903 AC system made national headlines, not for worker comfort, but for improved "productivity and visitor experience." (12:50-13:35)

6. The Cinematic Breakthrough

• The movie industry was crucial in popularizing AC for the general public. Early theaters (nickelodeons) were stifling in summer. With the first major cooling system at New York's Rivoli Theater in 1925, business boomed:

  "They made back the cost of the system in three months because people were so gratified." (15:15)

• This marked "the first time in human history that mankind... had a refuge from summertime heat that was dependably cool, available to anyone and for only the price of a movie ticket." (15:58)

7. Domino Effect: Retail, Restaurants, and Society

• The "cooling expectation" spread to department stores, restaurants, and other businesses. Magazines in the late 1920s and ‘30s urged investments in customer comfort—despite the Depression. (18:37-20:03)

8. AC in the Home: Slow, Status-Driven Adoption

• Home AC was clunky, expensive, and impractical in the beginning (Frigidaire’s 1929 split system weighed 600 pounds and cost as much as a car). Mass adoption took off after WWII, as window units became affordable.
  • In 1940, only 0.25% of American homes had AC.
  • By 1960, about 20%.
  • By 1990, over 90%. (20:06-22:35)
• Early window units were a major status symbol:

  "...a window air conditioner in the 1950s, which was very much a status symbol era, that was a great status symbol because it showed from the outside of a house you could defend a purchase as being for the family's comfort and the family was grateful. But it showed that you had cash and it was now affordable." (21:24)

9. Willis Carrier’s Later Life and Legacy

• After being let go by Buffalo Forge, Carrier founded his own company with a "single minded pursuit of literally putting air conditioning everywhere. His motto at one point was a good day every day..." (22:53-24:14)
• Innovations spread to trains, cars, airplanes, and buildings worldwide.
• Carrier died in 1950, by which point AC had fundamentally changed daily life and society. (24:14)

10. Environmental Reckoning & The Future

• New concerns about energy use and climate impacts are shaping the legacy of AC.

  "I'm pretty confident from the research that I've done that there are going to be newer and more climate friendly and more energy efficient systems which will be much less harmful to the environment... some of them have flopped, but some of them have been in process. And I would like to believe that something will break through pretty quickly." (25:27)

11. Remembering Carrier

• Basel hopes his work helps people appreciate Carrier’s legacy:

  "I would like to think that people would realize now that he was. He was somebody I'm happy to know." (26:42)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the seismic social shift caused by home AC:

  "All the parties of the family from then on took place in Anne Catherine's living room, and everyone loved it." (03:09, Salvatore Basel)

• On public skepticism of early cooling tech:

  "Society in general literally would not believe that such a machine existed and he died penniless." (04:30, Salvatore Basel)

• On the societal meaning of comfort:

  "That was the first time in human history that mankind... had a refuge from summertime heat that was dependably cool, available to anyone and for only the price of a movie ticket." (15:58, Salvatore Basel)

• On Carrier’s peculiar devotion:

  "This was a man who would pack a suitcase for a trip which turned out to contain exactly one handkerchief because he was too busy thinking about air conditioning..." (09:58, Salvatore Basel)

• On the luxury and status of AC:

  "A window air conditioner in the 1950s... showed that you had cash and it was now affordable." (21:24, Salvatore Basel)

• On environmental futures:

  "There have been attempts at air conditioning which have used much friendlier products than hydrocarbons... I would like to believe that something will break through pretty quickly." (25:27, Salvatore Basel)

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Topic / Segment | |-----------|-----------------| | 02:58 | Basel's childhood AC epiphany and book inspiration | | 03:58 | Origins of refrigeration and Carrier's invention | | 05:11 | The Brooklyn printing plant problem | | 06:50 | Carrier's challenge: selling "comfort cooling" to the public | | 07:53 | Industrial need, worker conditions, and productivity | | 09:58 | Carrier's personality, innovation, and personal quirks | | 11:25 | Public resistance, God and technology, early AC in public spaces | | 15:15 | Rivoli Theater breakthrough, mass exposure to AC | | 18:37 | Retail ripple effect: shopping, dining, and societal expectation | | 20:06 | Clumsy early home AC, 1950s status symbol, mass adoption | | 22:53 | Carrier's legacy, the spread to trains/planes/cars | | 24:14 | Carrier's death, endnote on societal transformation | | 25:27 | Energy/environmental impact, the search for greener technology | | 26:42 | Basel’s hope for Carrier’s memory and legacy |

Tone & Style

The tone is conversational yet deeply informative, mixing history, cultural commentary, and humor. Basel adds warmth and personal anecdotes, while Damon guides the discussion with incisive and sometimes playful questions. The episode balances nostalgia for technological progress with a sharp awareness of inequality and environmental costs.