Willis Carrier: The Father of Air Conditioning It's a hot, humid evening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and you find yourself dripping in sweat. The air is still and you hold on to your sheets as you turn and try to sleep in your house that has retained all the heat from the summer sun's rays. Uncomfortable and miserable, you wonder, “How did people live without air conditioning?” » yours is in ruins and you can't imagine what your life would be like if you didn't have the luxury of having an air conditioner in your house. If it weren't for Willis Carrier and his revolutionary invention of a mechanical air conditioning unit in 1902, our lives would be radically different. Willis Haviland Carrier was a mechanical engineer born in Angola, New York on November 26. 1876. Carrier was born into an interesting lifeline as the descendant of a family that had been plagued by the infamous Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. However, unlike many notable individuals during history, Carrier was not a prodigy. Although it was obvious that Carrier had always enjoyed “tinkering” with contraptions from a young age, Carrier was not always the brightest of his peers. In fact, it has been said that Carrier attributes much of his success to his inability to understand fractions at a young age. To get his mother to understand the concept, she cut an apple into several different “fractional sections” to allow him to visualize how the components made up a whole. According to his company's website, "this lesson was the most important he ever learned, because it taught him the value of intelligent problem solving." It was said not to be "particularly m...... middle of paper...... it was also a much cheaper alternative. The transition to residential air conditioning began with the move to department stores, then to apartment buildings and even the ice rink at Madison Square Garden! The evolution was slowed by the Great Depression, but it eventually took off and led to the widespread availability of air conditioning units in every home, as they do today. Needless to say, without Carrier and his spirit, we would lead a different way of life today. Whether it's how products are made, food is refrigerated, homes are refrigerated, or our medicines are kept at a safe temperature, Carrier's invention plays a gigantic role in our daily lives. I think he would be very pleased with how far his technology has come today and continues to grow, because it's so common we can just take it for granted on a hot, humid Pittsburgh night..