Every Time It's Hot, "Thank You" Praise... Without This Person, There Would Be No Singapore [Curiosity Lab]

Dr. Willis Carrier, Inventor of the Air Conditioner
Known as the King of Cool

King of Cool, Dr. Willis Carrier, known as the father of the air conditioner
[Photo by Carrier official website]

Singapore is a hot and humid city-state. According to a recent survey conducted by the Singapore Management University and a policy research institute involving 4,000 people, essential items for Singaporeans included smartphones, air conditioners, dining out, travel, and owning a home. 64% of respondents said air conditioners were essential, and 62% said they needed to visit a restaurant at least once a month. More than half said they must travel to Southeast Asian countries annually, and 96% said owning their own home was a basic necessity.

Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, credited air conditioners for enabling Singapore, a tropical region, to grow into a major city. He described air conditioning as "the greatest invention in human history." In fact, the spread of air conditioning made the emergence of tropical climate city-states like Singapore, Dubai, and Las Vegas possible, reduced heat-related mortality by 40%, and extended human activity hours during hot weather. Before air conditioning became widespread, people in tropical climates could not work during the day due to the heat and only worked in the mornings and evenings.

Hundreds of air conditioner outdoor units are installed on a building in Singapore. Air conditioning is an absolute necessity in Singapore.
[Photo by Asia Economy]

July 17, 1902, is a historic day. It is the day Dr. Willis Carrier, who is revered by netizens with "Thank you" every time they turn on the air conditioner during hot weather, invented the air conditioner. Carrier is known as the King of Cool and the father of air conditioning.

According to Carrier’s explanation, the air conditioner was not originally created with the goal of "making the world cool." After graduating from Cornell University and earning a master's degree in engineering, Carrier was working at a company called Buffalo Forge when he was tasked with solving a humidity problem faced by a printing company in Brooklyn. The dimensions of the paper varied due to changes in heat and humidity in the factory, affecting the four-color printing process. Carrier made a discovery on a foggy night at a train platform that the U.S. Patent Office later called a "flash of genius." He realized the relationship between dry-bulb temperature, wet-bulb temperature, relative humidity, and dew point. If heating was possible by circulating hot steam through pipes to warm the air, he thought, could cooling be achieved by using cold water? He applied the principle of fog, where liquid evaporates into gas and absorbs surrounding heat, to create a system that could stabilize heat and humidity in the air, laying the foundation for air conditioning.

Visitors are looking at air conditioners and other cooling appliances at an electronics store in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Within a year, Carrier completed his invention, which became the basis of modern air conditioners. In 1905, at age 29, Carrier became the head of engineering at Buffalo Forge, leading research and overseeing all design applications. Two years later, Carrier’s invention was installed in a pharmaceutical factory in Detroit and a silk factory in Wayland, New York, maintaining a relative humidity of 65% year-round. The biggest achievement that year was the first sale to a silk company in Yokohama, Japan. Carrier’s company expanded into Japan and installed the country’s first air conditioner in 1933. Four years later, they installed the world’s first air conditioner on a ship. In 1907, Buffalo Forge’s management recognized the opportunity air conditioning brought to the company and created a subsidiary called Carrier Air Conditioning. However, when World War I broke out in 1914, Carrier Air Conditioning closed, and in 1915, Carrier and other engineers founded a company with $32,600 in capital.

On the 12th, badminton, shooting, and boxing athletes participating in the Olympics are preparing air conditioners and going through departure procedures at Incheon International Airport Terminal 2. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

Carrier’s air cooling system was initially used in industries such as confectionery, footwear, soap, pharmaceuticals, and military supplies. Demand grew and spread in 1924 with the Hudson’s department store in Detroit and in 1925 with the Tivoli Theater in New York, focusing on department stores and theaters. In 1929, air conditioning was introduced to the White House. Carrier received honorary doctorates from Lehigh University and Alfred University for his invention of air conditioning and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was also selected by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. Dr. Carrier passed away in 1950 at the age of 73. After his death, during the economic boom of the 1950s, air conditioning became increasingly popular among the general public.