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Willis Haviland Carrier

​November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950 

Willis Haviland Carrier was an American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning.  

Carrier invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902, in response to an air quality problem experienced at a Brooklyn publishing company. Carrier submitted drawings for what became recognised as the world's first modern air conditioning system.  

In January 1906, Carrier was granted US patent 808897 for an apparatus for treating air – the world's first spray-type air conditioning equipment.  

In 1911, he was credited with presenting “perhaps the most significant document ever prepared on air conditioning”, or the “Magna Carta of Psychrometrics”, at ASHRAE’s annual meeting. The paper, Rational Psychrometric Formulae, brought together concepts of relative humidity, absolute humidity and dew-point temperature – allowing air conditioning systems to be designed to fit on-hand requirements. 

In 1915, at the age of 39, Carrier co-founded the Carrier Engineering Corporation, a New Jersey-based company specialising in the manufacturing and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.  

While the development and commercial growth of air conditioning systems grew throughout the 1920s, the company, like many others, faced financial troubles when the October 1929 Wall Street Crash hit. It resulted in the Carrier Engineering Corporation’s merge with Brunswick-Kroeschell Company and York Heating & Ventilation Corporation, under the Carrier Corporation name.

In 1930 Carrier also started Toyo Carrier and Samsung Applications in Japan and Korea – introducing air conditioning to these countries.  
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As the US recovered from the Great Depression, by 1937 the Carrier Corporation’s Syracuse-based office was one of the largest employers in central New York. Carrier would go on to present an igloo at the 1939 World’s Fair. 

For the most part, Carrier did not get to see the fruits of his labour due to the onset ofthe Second World War. It was not until the post-war economic boom in the 1950s that American households would hugely embrace domestic air conditioning. It is now a staple of many homes in the US and around the world. 
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Today, the Carrier Corporation has its commercial headquarters in North Carolina and its residential headquarters in Indiana. As of 2018, it was valued at US$18.5 billion, with more than 43,000 employees in 170 countries. 

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