Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, July 17, 1902, it is, it's very hot, no surprise, dead of summer, and Willis

Pavilion Carrier is going to do something

about it.

The week before, seven people in New York City had died because of excessive heat, this was

a real problem, especially in expanding urban areas like New York City.

The heat was a major public health and infrastructure issue, but Carrier was a little

less concerned with the people and their comfort,

and more with machines, which also didn't perform very well in the sweltering summer weather.

So we'll get into it, but you probably listeners recognize that name. Carrier, it is still around

today as one of the major air conditioning manufacturers, and that is what we're talking about here.

That is what Willis Carrier did in the summer of 1902.

He came up with the basic mechanisms for air conditioning, which, of course, had such an

enormous impact on all of us.

So here to discuss, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of

Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello from my well air-conditionedley. Hello there. Hello from my well air conditioned house.

Hey there. We are recording this, of course, dead of summer. It is starting to get to get

to you steamy down here in my basement as well. Before we get to this story and the larger,

really fascinating sort of history of air condition, I do want to take a moment to say thank you to all

the folks who have joined the This Day newsletter on Substack.

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