The merits of a machine that could control the amount of moisture in indoor air began to win favor slowly but steadily during the industrial expansion of the twenties. While manufacturers of the era were hard-nosed competitors, they agreed on one thing. They hated humidity. More and more frustrated manufacturers turned to seven struggling engineers led by Willis Carrier to design solutions for their factories. And they did, building a reputation by nursing along each installation, putting their personal guarantee of success on the line every day.

Their new-fangled apparatus, with its centrifugal compressor, removed troublesome humidity in paper and textile factories, chemical companies, and in tobacco-processing, munitions, pottery, rubber, shoe and macaroni plants. Confectioners of chiclets and chocolates were able to keep their sweets from melting. Because of their refrigeration systems, the Carrier Engineering Company's seven founders (below) became harbingers of many popular product breakthroughs, such as oleo margarine, silk stockings and frozen TV dinners.

From left: L. Logan Lewis, Edmund Heckel, Willis Carrier, Ernest Lyle, Irvine Lyle, Alfred Stacey, Jr. and Edward Murphy

In a few short years, the centrifugal chiller that emerged from the mind of Willis Carrier had become a key driver of economic growth in the twentieth century. With newfound control over their indoor climates, industries could master moisture-sensitive materials and processes that improved quality, raised productivity, and led to expanded product lines. With Carrier's machine, they could operate anywhere, and industrial prosperity soon spread across the farmlands of the undeveloped U.S. Sun Belt. Manufacturers would never again be victims of the weather.

Rio de Janeiro's Opera House has been refurbished up to its ornate ceiling, but Carrier's 1934 centrifugal chiller still purrs contentedly in the basement.

Early centrifugal machines (below) were tested rigorously and installed painstakingly under the skeptical eye of tough-minded manucfaturers.

Humidity in textile mills (above) gave thread the fatal fuzzies before Carrier arrived.

The modern architecture of world commerce owes much to Carrier's invention of the "refrigeration machine." The Siam banking complex in Bangkok (below) are typical of commercial centers still relying on Carrier's basic principles of air conditioning to this day.

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