Five Cool Facts About One of Life’s Greatest Inventions: The Air Conditioner

The Sacramento heat is here, which means cranking up the air conditioner to keep cool. What better way to beat the heat than kicking back in the recliner of your air-conditioned home and
reading a good book? Air conditioning has come a long way. It’s a modern miracle of convenience and cooling. There’s even a book all about air conditioning called “Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything” by Salvatore Basile. If you’re an A/C nerd this is the perfect book for you! It traces the origins of one of life’s greatest inventions, the air conditioner.

Here are five interesting facts about A/C from the book:

1. Have you ever gone to the movies to beat the heat? There’s nothing better than an ice cold drink, popcorn, and an air-conditioned movie theater. Since there were no home air conditioning systems back in 1917, theater owners would fill seats by marketing their “state-of-the-art” ice cold A/C with icicle-covered letters on their advertisements. Folks flocked to the movie theaters to cool down and catch a flick.
2. In 1736, the English House of Commons was cooled by a seven-foot, hand-cranked “blowing wheel”, which acted as a giant fan. The man doing the cranking was called, The Ventilator. Sounds a lot like a movie villain, doesn’t it?
3. Two of the earliest ventilation systems were installed in 1899, in Cornell University’s dissecting rooms, and 1903 at the New York Stock Exchange.
4. An anonymous California millionaire was the first person to try using A/C to cool a room in his home in 1892. The cooling room was just 6 by 9 feet and required a false wall to hide machinery, more of which was placed on the roof.
5. Herbert Hoover was the first President to enjoy air conditioning in the Oval Office. He spent $30,000 on the system, just months after the Stock Market crash of 1929.

Guess who else who knows a lot about air conditioning? Our experienced Bonney  A/C technicians. Call Bonney at 800-444-0551 to keep cool this summer.

Our knowledgeable technicians will show you how to keep your HVAC system in tip top shape so you can enjoy cool air all summer long.