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Modern air conditioning began in 1902 at a printing works in Brooklyn, New York. Damp air made the paper swell and shrink, so colours printed one after another no longer lined up. Willis Carrier, a 25-year-old engineer at the Buffalo Forge Company, designed machinery to control the moisture in the air.

Willis Carrier, 1902, Sackett & Wilhelms printing plant, Brooklyn

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The story behind the card

Carrier's machine blew air over coils filled with cold water, so that moisture condensed out of it, much as drops form on a cold glass. In 1906 he patented an 'Apparatus for Treating Air' that could add or remove moisture as needed, and in 1915 he and six colleagues founded the Carrier Engineering Corporation. For years the customers were factories such as textile mills, where damp or dry air spoiled the work. The public first met cooled air in department stores and cinemas in the 1920s: in 1925 Carrier's system opened at the Rivoli Theatre in New York, and packed summer audiences followed. Home air conditioners became common only after the Second World War. Carrier is often called the father of modern air conditioning.

Türkçe oku
Modern klima 1902'de New York'un Brooklyn ilçesindeki bir matbaada doğdu. Havadaki nem kâğıdı bir şişiriyor bir büzüyordu; art arda basılan renkler de bu yüzden üst üste tam oturmuyordu. Buffalo Forge şirketinde çalışan 25 yaşındaki mühendis Willis Carrier, havadaki nemi ayarlayan bir düzenek tasarladı.

Carrier'ın makinesi havayı soğuk su dolu boruların üzerinden geçiriyordu; soğuk bardağın dışında damlalar biriktiği gibi, havadaki nem de borularda yoğunlaşıp ayrılıyordu. Carrier 1906'da, havaya gerektiğinde nem katan ya da havadan nem çeken bir “hava işleme aygıtı”nın patentini aldı. 1915'te altı arkadaşıyla birlikte Carrier Engineering Corporation'ı kurdu. İlk müşteriler uzun yıllar fabrikalardı; örneğin nemli ya da kuru havanın işi bozduğu dokuma fabrikaları. Halk serin havayla 1920'lerde mağazalarda ve sinemalarda tanıştı: 1925'te New York'taki Rivoli Sineması Carrier'ın sistemiyle açıldı ve yazın salonlar dolmaya başladı. Ev tipi klimalar ancak İkinci Dünya Savaşı'ndan sonra yaygınlaştı. Carrier bugün “modern klimanın babası” diye anılır.

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