Air-Conditioning of South Profound
Thank God for Willis Carrier. Amid this summers record-breaking heat and
humidity, we owe the inventor of air conditioning a special tribute. Not
only has his remarkable innovation enhanced the quality of our lives,
it has also been the primary factor in transforming the South since the
end of World War II.
The sultry climate has been one of the most
powerful forces influencing southern history. A long growing season made
the region ideal for intensive agricultural development, and this in
turn led colonists to rationalize the use of human slavery. Likewise,
the stifling heat has shaped many of the regions folkways, from the
rhythms of daily life and the design of homes to the distinctive drawl
of southern speech patterns and the supposed indolence and violence of
the residents.
All thisand morebegan to change with the
development of air conditioning. In 1902 a young New York engineer named
Willis Haviland Carrier designed an "apparatus for treating air" for a
Brooklyn printing company. His invention used chilled coils to cool the
air and lower the humidity. Four years later, two southern engineers,
Stuart Cramer and I. H. Hardeman, coined the term "air conditioning"
when they installed a Carrier cooling system at the Chronicle Cotton
Mills in Belmont, North Carolina. Thereafter, air conditioning
systemsbulky and expensivewere incorporated in many other industrial
locations: mills, factories, breweries, and bakeries.
Not until
the 1920s, however, did air conditioning begin to be adapted for more
public uses. In 1922 Carrier invented a centrifugal compressor that
facilitated much smaller cooling units and thereby initiated what came
to be known as "comfort cooling." By the 1930s, movie theaters,
department stores, office buildings, banks, restaurants, railroad cars,
and hotels in the South began to be air conditioned. But it was not
until the 1950s that cooled air became widespread in the South. In 1951
inexpensive window units were invented, and soon thousands of homes
featured dripping, humming metal boxes hanging out bedroom windows. My
siblings and I in Atlanta were so dazzled by our first window unit that
we showed it to our friends as if it were an exotic attraction at a
carnival.
Today, more than 90 percent of southern homes and
businesses have air conditioning, and the effects have been profound.
Mortality rates have dropped, and economic activity has soared. Working
conditions have improved along with productivity. The lure of southern
living began to attract millions of folks from other regions. During the
1960s, for the first time since the Civil War, more people moved into
the South than out. In the next decade, twice as many arrived as left.
What were once stagnant communities have blossomed into thriving
metropolises and cosmopolitan cities, all made possible by cooled air.
As a resident of Houston declared in July during the record Texas heat
wave, "Without Freon, wed be dead."
Of course, there have been
trade-offs. Air conditioning has made summers more bearable, but the
texture of southern life has also changed, not always for the better.
Air conditioning transformed residential architecture in the South.
Suburban split-level ranch homes replaced two-storied Victorian homes
with wraparound porches. Ceilings were lowered, windows reduced in size,
and long central halls eliminated. Sleeping porches were converted into
sunrooms, and front porches disappeared in favor of rear patios.
Even
more significant has been the social impact of air conditioning. Along
with the nearly universal ownership of televisions, the spreading
availability of air conditioning has reduced social interaction and made
us a more private society. The tradition of families gathering on front
porches or lawns on hot summer nights, sitting in rockers or swings,
sipping lemonade or tea, listening to cicadas and tree frogs, telling
stories and greeting neighbors, has faded from view. "When I was growing
up," one of my neighbors remembers, "all of the families on the street
would sit on their front porches, just like Aunt Bee and Sheriff Taylor
in Mayberry. But now people stay inside and often folks dont even know
their neighbors, much less speak to them."
Raymond Arsenault, a
history professor at the University of South Florida, laments the impact
of air conditioning on the Souths traditional ways of life. "General
Electric," he writes, "has proved a more devastating invader than
General Sherman."
Perhaps southern neighborliness has been a
victim of air conditioning. But front porches are making a comeback. And
the regions warm hospitality may simply have found newand cooler
outlets. You still see it displayed in shopping malls and grocery
stores, coliseums and office towers. Family reunions and church
homecomings have moved inside, but their social importance has not
diminished. A few revivalists still rely on tents, but many more have
moved to air-conditioned quarters. Friendliness does not require
perspiration to make it sincere.
So before the change of seasons
leads us to shut down our air conditioning, we owe Willis Carrier a debt
of thanks. Many of us would not be here without him.