My 7-year-old child Rylan had to do a school report about inventors.
When he first told me about his report, I got gleeful because I thought for sure he would have someone who invented airplanes or trains.
He’s obsessed with both of those and collects toy trains and planes all the time. In fact, he has a wall full of collectables that he has been gifted by our friends and family over the years. Anyway, Rylan explained that he didn’t get to choose the inventor, it was a random selection made by each student. So unluckily, a couple of his classmates chose the inventor of the train and airplane, and Rylan ended up choosing the inventor of the cooling system. Of course, this topic doesn’t sound as interesting as the invention of a plane or train, but if you think about it, the cooling system is one of the most important pieces of current high tech equipment. There are over 400 million people who use some form of air conditioning inside their homes. So, though often overlooked, it is a very important asset to all of us. Anyway, while helping Rylan with his research, I discovered so much about the evolution of cooling systems. The first person that was credited for the cooling systems was a healthcare worker named John Gorrie with his invention dating back to the mid-1730s. Then I discovered that some 53 years later, Carrier was the first corporation to revolutionize the technology to make it available for residential homes. One thing in particular, cooling systems may not be as exciting as airplanes or trains but they are far more important than we tend to believe.