When Grandpa and I started talking about HVAC, I was interested in hearing more about his father being an HVAC technician.
Grandpa was almost eighty, so his father had to have been an HVAC technician almost 100 years ago. I didn’t even know they had air conditioning back then. Grandpa laughed and told me they had air conditioning in the 1890s, but no one could afford it. It was originally created to help out in factories. It was to kept the factories cool so there were fewer fires. Many people died because of the heat in the factories, and women were locked in the basement to do their work. Hundreds of women and children were trapped in those basements and died. Air conditioning helped to cool the machinery and made it safer to work in factories. Air conditioning was soon installed in houses of the very rich and influential, but it wasn’t until the early 1900s that it was part of every day life for many. You could go into movie theatres and enjoy an hour or so watching movies, cartoons, or the news and get some air conditioning. Many grocery stores installed air conditioning to keep their products fresh longer. He said HVAC wasn’t the same then as it is now, but it was just as important. He was proud that I had chosen to be an HVAC technician. The more I talked to grandpa, the more I wished I had gotten to know him better. Not being around him for ten years, could have cost me never knowing one of the coolest people I have ever met.