Air conditioning made its debut 100 years ago this summer

MELVILLE, N.Y. -- The Newsday headline screamed, in block capital letters, "No Heat Relief in Sight for 48 Hrs." A front-page photo showed shirtless men sleeping on the beach.

The story said thousands of people slept in cars and in dunes on the beach in search of cool in the 80 degree plus nighttime heat.

Last week's news? Not quite. More like August 1948. Heat waves were a much larger problem back then, but that doesn't mean we're any less obsessed with them. In 1948, the quest for cool led Long Islanders to the beach.

Today, it could be the mall. Or the appliance store to buy an air conditioner.

People can thank Willis Carrier of Buffalo, who installed the first air conditioner at a Brooklyn publishing plant 100 years ago this summer.

Some would call it the birth of cool.

Changed buildings

Air conditioning "had a fundamental demographic and economic impact on the country, contributing along with the civil rights movement. It is a big deal," said Richard Nathan, director of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. "Air conditioning and the civil rights revolution, if I had to make an estimate, it's about 50-50 in terms of importance of the two of them."

There were, of course, no marches on Washington in support of air conditioning. Yet many share Nathan's opinion on air conditioning's importance.

Before air conditioning, architects relied on windows for cross-ventilation and natural light, said David Scheatzle, professor emeritus in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Central air conditioning, along with fluorescent lighting, led to bigger skyscrapers, allowing architects to use windows for style rather than substance, creating sealed buildings where temperatures were a constant 72 degrees.

Allowed summer movies

And Hollywood would be counting the days until Thanksgiving if it weren't for Carrier. Movie theaters used to close in the summer because they were too hot, making the holiday season the prime release time. Imagine a world without the summer blockbuster. Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger can't.

In 1999, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., held an exhibit called "Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America" that examined Carrier's invention through the decades.

It certainly had a profound effect, for example, on the suburban home, said Chrysanthe Broikos, co-curator of the "Stay Cool!" exhibit.

Homes no longer needed to rely upon cross-ventilation, so windows got rearranged, ceilings got lower and single-story houses became more common.