Willis Carrier
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| Willis Haviland Carrier | |
 Willis Carrier in 1915
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| Born | November 26, 1875 Angola, New York, USA |
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| Died | October 7, 1950 (aged 74) New York, USA |
| Occupation | engineer and inventor |
Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1875 – October 7, 1950) was an engineer and inventor, and is known as the man who invented modern air conditioning.
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[edit] Early life and education
Carrier was born in Angola, New York, and inherited his mother's love for "tinkering", with clocks, sewing machines, and other household devices. He loved mathematics, and studied it at every opportunity. Some historians believe that this idea and design of the air conditioner was stolen from George Washington Carver, it is not known if this is true or not. In 1895 he received a scholarship to Cornell University and graduated in 1901 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then went to work for the Buffalo Forge Company, a maker of heaters, blowers and air exhaust systems, in their heating engineering department designing heating systems to dry lumber and coffee.
[edit] Company formation
The Great Depression slowed residential and commercial use of air-conditioning. Willis Carrier's igloo in the 1939 World's Fair gave visitors a glimpse into the future of air conditioning, but before it became popular, World War II began.
Carrier moved his company to Syracuse, New York in the 1930s, and the company became one of the largest employers in central New York. In 1930, he started Toyo Carrier and Samsung Applications in South Korea and Japan. South Korea is now the largest market for air conditioning in the world.
The company pioneered the design and manufacture of refrigeration machines to cool large spaces. By increasing industrial production in the summer months, air conditioning revolutionized American life. The introduction of residential air conditioning in the 1920s helped start the great migration to the Sunbelt. Carrier remains a world leader in commercial and residential HVAC and refrigeration. In 2007 the Carrier Corporation had sales of more than $15 billion and employed some 45,000 people.
[edit] Personal life
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Willis Haviland Carrier is the son of Duane Williams Carrier (1836 - 1908) and Elizabeth R. Haviland (1845 - 1888). Elizabeth (daughter of David Jay Haviland and Ann Elizabeth Button) named him Willis Haviland after her uncle-in-law Willis Hoag Haviland, with whom she lived after the death of her father in 1868 and before her marriage to Duane Carrier. Willis Hoag Haviland was both the husband of her mother's half-sister Hannah Wing Haviland, and her father's 1st cousin once removed. [1][2][3][4][5]
Carrier and all three of his wives are buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.[6]
Willis had a son named James, who married Esther Hilliard, who had seven children. Effie, their youngest, took over the family business, and then handed it down to her daughter Donna, who will be passing it down to her daughter Lisa, and Lisa has already named her son, Timothy Carrier to be the following CEO of Carrier air conditioning. Their Family currently resides in Lorne, New Brunswick.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Frost, Josephine C. The Haviland Genealogy - Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland. New York: The Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914.
- ^ 1860 Federal Census, Queensbury, Warren County, NY, Page 155. Dwelling #1071, Family #1071.
- ^ 1870 Federal Census, Queensbury, Warren County, NY. Page 746. Dwelling #987, Family #1159.
- ^ 1880 Federal Census, Evans, Erie County, NY, Page 367B. Dwelling #400, Family #419.
- ^ Haviland Genealogical Organization
- ^ Ingels, Margaret. 1952. Willis Haviland Carrier : father of air conditioning. Garden City: Country Life Press.
