Before air conditioning, people had no choice but to sweat through the hot days of summer.

But that s not even why it was invented. In 1902 Willis Haviland Carrie r developed the first system to control temperature and humidity to solve a Broo klyn printing plant owner s problem. Fluctuations in heat and humidity had caused d imensions of the printing paper to keep altering, causing a misalignment of the colored inks. In addition to making the plant a more comfortable workplace, air conditioning made aligned four-color printing possible. Cooling for human comf ort, rather than industrial need, didn t begin until 1924. It started in department stores (which people flocked to) followed by movie theaters and eventually smal ler units were created for homes. At the time of his invention, Carrier was only out of college for one year and w as earning a salary of ten dollars a week. Air conditioning was patented in 190 6 and in 1911, he disclosed his basic Rational Psychrometric Formulae to the Ame rican Society of Mechanical Engineers. Carrier s formula still remains today, over a century later, as the basis in all fundamental calculations for the air condit ioning industry. The Carrier Engineer Corporation was formed in 1915 by Carrier and six other eng ineers with a starting capital of $35,000. In 1995, sales topped $5 billion. M ost people today cannot imagine life without air conditioning. They run them in their houses constantly and panic when they break. Carrier s invention changed the world not only by making people more comfortable on warm days, but by improving the industrial world. Industries that produce products including film, tobacco , processed meats, medical capsules and textiles thrived with the ability to con trol the temperature and humidity levels during production and still rely on it today. Without air conditioning, there are many technological advances that may not have occurred, and of course people would be sweatier and smell worse than ever.