Air Conditioning in the Golden Era

klind65 · Aug 24, 2009

I am a little hazy about when exactly Air conditioning was available in the Golden Age. I realize I could easily look this up, but thought it would be more fun to share historical factoids or photos anyone might have. I have heard from folks who lived then that IT WAS HOT !

but then some of the old films feature signs on the buildings advertising " Air conditioned" with icicles... you know the type...... especially the very chi-chi department stores early on. So, what's the real story?

LizzieMaine · Aug 24, 2009

Theatre air conditioning started in the early 20s, and by the middle of the decade the Carrier Corporation was wiring entire theatre chains with AC equipment. Home AC units were being sold by the late thirties -- I have a whole book of service data put out by the Philco Corporation in 1940 for its full line of window-sized ACs. They weren't as popular as they became after the war, but they did exist.

The signs I remember most are the ones put out by Kool cigarettes, on the front doors of air-conditioned lunchrooms and stores, with Willie the Penguin saying "IT'S KOOL INSIDE!"

Barchetta52 · Aug 24, 2009

I don't know when it opened, but there was a poolhall in one of the older sections of Fort Worth, TX with a big sign: 68 degrees Inside! Sounded pretty good during a Texas summer. The place was gone by the late 1960's, but had been there at least 20 years before.

Paisley · Aug 24, 2009

As of 2009, my house built in 1910 does not have central AC, just a window unit I rarely use. I'm happier with that than I am with the high-rise office building where I work. The office can be cold as a meat locker year round.

Mr Zablosky · Aug 25, 2009

I think swamp coolers, evaporator coolers, have been around for quite a time. They seem to work best in arid areas. I had one briefly in Denton, TX that was a step up from nothing but it roared like a plane and the humidity it put in the house put a coat of rust on anything metal and curled both paper and wood.

Our current house was built in '54 and had the original AC unit in it until recently. There was plate on it with instructions on how to install it in airplane hangars.

The older folks acknowledge AC was rare and they would just sweat. What else could you do?

Shangas · Aug 25, 2009

To my knowledge, air-conditioning as we know it today, was invented in the mid 1920s, and was first used to cool down hot and stuffy motion-picture theaters during movie-screenings in the summer months.

miss_elise · Aug 25, 2009

America's housekeeping book recommends a tray of ice in front of your fan to blow cool air if you do not have air conditioning

MisterGrey · Aug 25, 2009

The entire sequence leading up to the climax of "The Great Gatsby" revolves around the main characters' attempts to keep cool during an unbearably hot late summer/early fall. Considering that of the four characters involved in this sequence, three are filthy rich, if air conditioning were readily available, regardless of the cost, they'd be arranging to be somewhere that had it.

Considering that the book was written during and takes place in that era, I'd say that it serves as a reasonable historical document for a question such as this.

Geesie · Aug 25, 2009

Small fact: First-gen systems used ammonia as the refrigerant.

Flivver · Aug 25, 2009

The first car to offer optional air conditioning was the 1940 Packard.

Cadillac added the option in 1941. One of my friends has a 1941 Cadillac Coupe with both air conditioning and Hydra-Matic automatic drive. He loves nothing more than to drive this car on hot summer days with the A/C on full blast and the windows rolled up. Often, people will see water dripping from the A/C condenser when he is stopped at a light and will suggest to him that his old car has a leak. He replies "Naw, it's just the air conditioning!" He then rolls up the window and drives away without shifting. He delights in telling this story!

Around here, air conditioned cars really didn't become popular until the 1970s. My Dad didn't like air conditioning (or any other expensive option) on his cars. He didn't own a car with A/C until 1987...and got it then only because he was forced to...it came as standard equipment!

klind65 · Aug 25, 2009

Flivver said:
The first car to offer optional air conditioning was the 1940 Packard.

Cadillac added the option in 1941. One of my friends has a 1941 Cadillac Coupe with both air conditioning and Hydra-Matic automatic drive. He loves nothing more than to drive this car on hot summer days with the A/C on full blast and the windows rolled up. Often, people will see water dripping from the A/C condenser when he is stopped at a light and will suggest to him that his old car has a leak. He replies "Naw, it's just the air conditioning!" He then rolls up the window and drives away without shifting. He delights in telling this story!

Around here, air conditioned cars really didn't become popular until the 1970s. My Dad didn't like air conditioning (or any other expensive option) on his cars. He didn't own a car with A/C until 1987...and got it then only because he was forced to...it came as standard equipment!

Interesting...then I guess those gorgeous Duesenbergs and Rolls from the '20's must've been HOT in all senses of the word!?

Fletch · Aug 25, 2009

Some 1937 Popular Mechanics article details ways to keep your home cooler in summer.
About all they could recommend were aluminum paint for your roof (black rooves suck up heat) and a fan to suck hot air out of the attic.
By such means, your home could be kept at a comfortable 85°!

Paisley · Aug 25, 2009

Further suggestions for those without AC:

Plant shade trees. Close the windows and curtains during the day and open the doors and windows at night and run the fans. Sleep on the fire escape or back porch. (Thomas Sowell says he slept on the fire escape when he was a boy in Harlem in the 30s and 40s. I leave my doors open at night, but I have barred screen doors.)

For cars, you could put a cylinder-shaped device outside the window and fill it with ice.

Barchetta52 · Aug 25, 2009

Mr Zablosky said:
I think swamp coolers, evaporator coolers, have been around for quite a time. They seem to work best in arid areas. I had one briefly in Denton, TX that was a step up from nothing but it roared like a plane and the humidity it put in the house put a coat of rust on anything metal and curled both paper and wood.

Our current house was built in '54 and had the original AC unit in it until recently. There was plate on it with instructions on how to install it in airplane hangars.

The older folks acknowledge AC was rare and they would just sweat. What else could you do?

In the mid '50s we had a couple of swamp coolers. In short order the glue in the furtniture started to give up. That was a lot of fun. Roaches and waterbugs seemed to like them ,too.

klind65 · Aug 25, 2009

Paisley said:
As of 2009, my house built in 1910 does not have central AC, just a window unit I rarely use. I'm happier with that than I am with the high-rise office building where I work. The office can be cold as a meat locker year round.

Boy, can I relate to this! In our office building (which is very tall - a skyscraper, I guess you'd say) the temperature in the summer is always a misery for many of the tenants except for those who "never get cold." All of the secretaries in our office go about draped in shawls to ward off the coolness.

I have had this experience at other companies and wonder if it is something that is purely a function of the exigencies of having to maintain an even temperature throughout a large structure - or ? ....I don't know enough mechanics to know if this is the case. Also, I'd like to know if this excessive A/C is a preference/problem in other countries . Maybe its just a further example of the American tendency to overdo things.

Viggen · Aug 25, 2009

Evaporative coolers or Swamp Coolers as they may be more commonly called in some areas was the A/C of the day as far as I know.
Living in the desert, Arizona, the Swamp Cooler works quite well for most of the year. When the relative humidity is below about 30% they work quite nicley dropping the temperature 15 or 20 degrees. When it's 100-115 in the shade that helps quite a bit. While dropping the temperature it does increase the humidity in the house.
A relative humidity in the range of 50% or more really reduces the effectiveness of the evap cooler.
When freon came along that is when the desert cities became liveable and really started expanding.
In the more swarmy parts of the country such as the midwest or areas east of the Mississipi I think about the best thing they had going was the overhead fan.
Going to the theater, like last scenes of Public Enemies, had to be a great relief from a hard summer night.

Cricket · Aug 25, 2009

fftopic: Speaking of air conditioning, I find it kind of of funny how in most current movies, if it is set in the South, the characters are automatically dripping with sweat half the time.
I can understand in a movie set in the appropriate time. But most of these movies are modern plot lines.

I am here in Mississippi, and I keep my house like a cooler in the summer.

For example, if you watch Time to Kill, which was filmed near me here, everyone in that movie is sweating constantly, especially inside.

Even talking in this thread has me wanting to turn the unit a little more cooler.

Diamondback · Aug 25, 2009

And AC didn't really hit transportation until the mid-1930s--about 1935, Pullman started a wholesale refitting of the entire sleeper inventory, and a lot of railroads started to order A/C'ed equipment for themselves. (Second-class accommodations like Tourist Sleepers, though, your AC was a big open window at 80mph... if even that.)

Fletch · Aug 25, 2009

Viggen said:
In the more swarmy parts of the country such as the midwest or areas east of the Mississipi I think about the best thing they had going was the overhead fan.

Table fans weren't uncommon, but you didn't have one in every room, and you didn't use them while sleeping - falling asleep in front of an electric fan was thought to rival smoking in bed as a fire hazard.

People slept in basements, where the cool air sank and the ground kept you insulated, but it was always uncomfortably dank. My gm spent most of August, 1935, down the cellar, great with child (my dad), and pretty damn miserable.

In the east, where summers were not quite so punishing, some homes gave basement space to a "summer kitchen," which at least kept stove heat out of the living quarters.

In hotels, where there was no cross-ventilation and not all rooms had ceiling fans, a bucket of ice (several per day, really) was a needed item.

Geesie · Aug 25, 2009

klind65 said:
Interesting...then I guess those gorgeous Duesenbergs and Rolls from the '20's must've been HOT in all senses of the word!?

That's why you put down the windows and drive 'em FAST!

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