1920 was the first time any of the top 10 largest U.S. cities were west of St. Louis--or south of St. Louis. That one city was Los Angeles.

In 1960 Houston enters the top 10 for the first time, soon followed by Dallas. As air conditioning spreads, around 1980 Phoenix moves into the top 10 and eventually California adds two more, San Jose and San Diego. Now there's only 3 left in the east/north (New York, Chicago and Philadelphia).

(I'm watching "How the States Got Their Shapes" on History.)

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Air conditioning made your favorite mall possible.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Speedy
Air conditioning made your favorite mall possible.

Only if it's an indoor mall.

we made a box, used an old electric fan, excelsior and a hose dripping. All our furniture came unglued because it made the house so humid.

Swamp coolers work well in a dry climate!

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samintx
we made a box, used an old electric fan, excelsior and a hose dripping. All our furniture came unglued because it made the house so humid.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

I hate indoor malls...they give me the creeps. I suppose people have become used to it, but it would drive me crazy to have to live in a place where I needed to hide inside out of the heat for half the year.

The widespread use of air conditioning has allowed the growth of areas where land was cheap because it was previously considered somewhat uninhabitable. That would be OK, except that the environmental impacts of all that power generation keep those societies cool is a massive problem.

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"So be proud to be a decent American instead of just a w'anker whipping up fear!" - Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland

that and the whole "Were can we steal water for 2 million people from?"

My house had air in '36 (probably a swamp cooler), but it was a pretty high-end build at the time. We now have a huge laundry room because about half of it was originally taken up by the unit.

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BernDog
My house had air in '36 (probably a swamp cooler), but it was a pretty high-end build at the time. We now have a huge laundry room because about half of it was originally taken up by the unit.

You live in the same house as you lived in 1936?

When I first went to Rice University (actually Rice Institute at that time) in Houston in 1958 we did not have A/C in the dorms or the classrooms. Kind of tough in a climate that damp.

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davester
I hate indoor malls...they give me the creeps. I suppose people have become used to it, but it would drive me crazy to have to live in a place where I needed to hide inside out of the heat for half the year.

The widespread use of air conditioning has allowed the growth of areas where land was cheap because it was previously considered somewhat uninhabitable. That would be OK, except that the environmental impacts of all that power generation keep those societies cool is a massive problem.

I agree almost entirely, except that if not for A/C my neck of the woods would be full of all those peeps who now live in the deserts and swamps! Not suggesting this outweighs the negatives, but ...

p.s. In OR we have a mini-heatwave and no A/C - fans on high and wet washcloths all around!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2012 04:23PM by Manlove.

We didn't have any air conditioning until 1977.

Prior to that, it was strictly box fans and the hope that temps would drop enough after dark that it would cool off enough to fall asleep. Many summer nights in South Dakota didn't.

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davester
The widespread use of air conditioning has allowed the growth of areas where land was cheap because it was previously considered somewhat uninhabitable. That would be OK, except that the environmental impacts of all that power generation keep those societies cool is a massive problem.

That calculation doesn't always come out the way you think it will. Las Vegas, for instance, has 5646 heating-degree days and 843 cooling-degree days. The comparable figures for Kansas City, to pick a mid-latitudes city at random, are 5111 and 1193. A place like Cleveland or Philadelphia takes a lot of energy to heat all winter, and is not that much cooler in the summer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2012 08:25PM by Mr Downtown.

In the mid to late 60's AC really took off here in NC. My late Father owned and operated an HVAC ompany for over
30 years and did quite well during the late 60's thru the 70's. He used to tell me that once a product hit a certain
percentage of owners virtually everyone thinks that they need or want it. I know one year he did well enough to be
flown to Ohio, I think it was where the Williamson factory was, for big seminar, a bash and tour of the factory.
I practically cut my baby teeth in his sheet metal shop. He was like an artist when working with sheetmetal.

I think he put AC in the home I grew up in in like '66 or '67.

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Grateful11

My high school had A/C when it was built in 1920.

Ducts molded into the walls + large fans on the roof to pull air over the huge blocks of ice loaded into the basement.

And the current owners of the house where I grew up gained a good amount of space after they had someone take a torch to the boiler in the basement (forced-air now).