The Invention of Air Conditioning

How an Apalachicola Doctor Laid the Groundwork for Modern Comforts

The first air conditioning in human history occurred here in Northwest Florida over150 years ago. Back in the 1840s, an Apalachicola physician, Dr. John Gorrie, found that patients suffering from fevers improved when their rooms were cooled by air that moved over ice. There was a major problem with this therapy. Ice was expensive. Harvested in the freshwater lakes north of Boston, the ice was packed in sawdust and shipped to Apalachicola aboard the ships of the Tudor Ice Company. Not only did the ice melt but there were times during the summer when it was unavailable. The solution to this problem consumed Dr. Gorrie and by 1846 his practical creative genius applied known scientific principles and produced a mechanism that made artificial ice. On July 14, 1847, the French consul at Apalachicola was able to celebrate Bastille Day with a toast of champagne chilled with Dr. Gorrie’s ice.

 

Dr. John Gorrie

History was changed forever in 1851 when Dr. Gorrie patented his ice maker. With this appliance came the promise of fresh food year round as well as comfortable summertime surroundings for work or play. Even though he had invented one of mankind’s greatest technological achievements, Gorrie soon found that, in his own words, his ice maker “had been found in advance of the wants of the country.” Not only did his investors fail him but he may have been the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by the New England ice cartel. Gorrie was called a “crank” in newspaper articles and accused of “playing God” with his artificial ice. Gorrie’s ice was a byproduct of his attempt to create air conditioning but in the 1850s his attempt to assist his patient’s healing with cooling comfort might as well have been the work of the Devil. No one appreciated the potential of Dr. Gorrie’s invention. After suffering from nervous exhaustion, Gorrie died destitute in Apalachicola in 1855. Today Dr. Gorrie’s achievement is recognized in the U.S. Capitol where his statue is one of two that honor representatives of Florida history. In his hometown of Apalachicola the John Gorrie Museum State Park displays a model of the device that produced the first artificial ice from mechanical refrigeration. Each August Apalachicola honors their favorite son with the Water Street Festival of Ice.
Dr. Gorrie’s museum and the grave across the street where he is buried are enough reason to take a short road trip to Apalachicola down U.S. Highway 98 East in your air conditioned automobile on any given evening. Each one of us can show appreciation for Dr. Gorrie’s achievements every time we end a busy day in the air conditioned comfort of our living rooms, clink a few ice cubes together and raise a toast to Apalachicola’s own Dr. John Gorrie, the father of mechanical refrigeration and air conditioning.

The small, glass tile windows show that the Hotel patio was designed to be air conditioned.

Back in 1956, most advertisements for motels in the Panama City area included the words “100% Air Conditioned.” Today we generally assume all hotel rooms are air conditioned but many aging Baby Boomers remember when a good night’s rest at the beach included open windows and the hum of an electric fan. Not until July 20, 1952 were any rooms air conditioned on Panama City Beach. That was the day Carrier Corporation, along with some other local businesses, purchased ads in the Panama City News- Herald congratulating the Hotel Patio on being the first motel on the beach to offer air conditioned rooms to the public.

Back in 1950, more people lived in Alabama than lived in the entire state of Florida. That’s kind of hard to believe today as Florida’s population pushes toward the 20 million mark. There’s no doubt that residential air conditioning had a major role in creating this mass migration to the Sunshine State and has transformed Florida into one of the most populous states in the nation.

 

So many of what were once luxuries or conveniences of modern life have, in the present day, become necessities. When the term “air conditioning” was coined over 100 years ago, indoor air quality in the summer was at the mercy of the weather. You might have been able to take the broiling heat of summer but you could hardly take it. As the old saying goes, ”You can’t miss what you’ve never had,” so it took a few decades of marketing for the comfort of air conditioning to move from inside the early 20th century movie theater to the family bedroom of the 21st century. And even in the 1970s, air conditioning had not caught on. Robert Wilkos with Roussos Air Conditioning recalls: “I am a Florida native, born and raised in the Miami area. I began my air conditioning career in 1972. When I informed my father that I was going to pursue a job in air conditioning, he replied that there was no future in air conditioning as our family home (and 99% of the others) plus the schools and businesses had no air conditioning. Needless to say, it was a good time to enter into this industry. I was on the state board of directors (ACCA-Florida) for over 10 years.” Now, more than ever, all of us can agree that our indoor comfort is as important to our health and happiness as any other factor of our lives.