WEBVTT - Invention Playlist 3: Air Conditioning, Part 3 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.680 Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.639 welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.520 Joe McCormick, and we're back with part three of our 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.840 exploration of air conditioning. And what do we talk about 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.840 in the last couple of parts. Uh, Well, we we 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.240 took a journey. We first of all, we we started 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.080 in uh, in the ancient world, and we talked about 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:32.720 just how people have approached living in hot environments, in 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.800 in hot cities, especially uh, you know, since the dawn 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.720 of human civilization. Yeah, And some of these solutions for 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.199 dealing with the heat before the invention of air conditioning 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.720 were cultural. They were like about you know where life 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.839 takes place, and you know where you do certain things 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.720 and under what conditions. And other solutions would be more architectural, 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.440 Like we talked about that ingenious solution from ancient Persia 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.600 involving the wind catchers and the underground channels of water 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.360 called the connots that would cool the air that flowed 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.640 through buildings that way. And of course, millions of people 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.039 in hot climates around the world still don't have air 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.480 conditioning today, and they use older techniques and strategies to 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:12.920 deal with the heat. So a lot of these things 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.320 we're talking about are not things of the past. They're just, uh, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.800 they're less a part of culture in places where air 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.880 conditioning is now prevalent. But then, of course we got 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:27.600 into the invention of the true air conditioning system, right. 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.440 We talked about John Gory, the doctor from Appalachical of 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.360 Florida who developed a chemical process for manufacturing ice for 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.880 the purpose of cooling hospital rooms. Also we talked about 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.520 the ice King, Frederick Tutor in the ice trade, which 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.040 was a fun diversion. And we also talked about Willis Carrier, 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:48.840 the American inventor who created a dehumidification process for industrial 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.280 printing spaces. But then of course quickly realized that this 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.920 technology could be used to cool and dry the air 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.760 for human comfort in homes and businesses. And that's sort 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.080 of that that's the money in site, right that, you know, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.360 the rubbing the fingers together moment. And so of course 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.600 this luxury had massive appeal when it was new. Having 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.440 a cool building during the sweltering days of August. Imagine 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.040 when that was a near total novelty. Yeah, And so 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.240 this episode is going to to look at how this 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.600 novelty unfolded, particularly in the United States, but also looking 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.239 at some examples from elsewhere in the world, UH, to 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.640 show how it ends up transforming UH society to a 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:32.520 certain extent, certainly, and also transforming a number of other 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.480 aspects of our modern life. I think you could argue 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.440 that the legacy of air conditioning is one of the 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:45.960 most underappreciated technological influences shaping the last hundred years of 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.880 especially American culture, but culture probably all over the world. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.840 I mean, certainly for those of us who grew up 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.280 with it. You know, if you if you grew up 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.680 in a time during which air conditioning was readily available, 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.880 if you grew up uh, you know, but privileged enough 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.600 to to have access to air conditioning all the time, 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.240 and of course if you lived in an environment where 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.280 it was a practical necessity. Because certainly, as was well discussed, 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:12.760 there are plenty of places in the world where you 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.120 don't need an air conditioning system even a window unit, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.200 or if you do, you rarely need to employ it, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.080 So maybe you have less of an appreciation for it 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.280 in those places. Yeah, I was actually to talk. I 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.440 was just out of town for a little while. I 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.560 went on a vacation to England and France, and they're 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.120 pretty much all the places we stayed in did not 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.920 have air conditioning. And it was you know, this was 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.040 during September, still pretty warm outside while we were there, 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.440 but we just opened the windows up and nice cool 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.880 air flows in all all the time. And like, it's 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.560 amazing the difference between the difference of opening a window 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.880 in Paris versus opening a window in Atlanta on a 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.560 summer evening, which is just like, you know, it just 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.920 lets the swamp air right in. It doesn't seem to 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.640 cool enough. Yeah. Yeah, um places also come to mind, Hawaii, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.000 or at least parts of why you'll you'll find in 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.200 a lot of people living happily without an air conditioning 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.760 system just because you have a regular, you know, dependable 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.240 temperature more you know, year round. But also you get 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.120 a nice specific breeze, which is less the case in 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.000 a lot of places around the world where you know, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.120 you open a window and it just doesn't seem to 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.120 relieve very much, especially if you live in one of 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.520 these houses that has not been designed to create cross 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.560 breezes and all that, right, houses that have been designed 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.120 to depend upon air conditioning. Yeah, so Uh, yeah, we're 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.040 gonna pick up more or less where we left out 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.839 off then. And so this new invention was impressing people. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.040 People were thinking a lot about how to roll it out. 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.240 Industrial buildings and hospitals were some of the first to 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.480 jump in their hospitals, not surprising since the hospital plays 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:55.000 into the origin story itself. And then, of course, uh, 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.440 you're you're probably wondering, well, who is the first person 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.720 to put one of these puppies in their home, because 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.760 obviously that's the reality most of us, or a lot 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.880 of us anyway, live in Well, Charles Gates, son of 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.880 industrialists and uh and gambler John Gates, was the first 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.560 to set one up in their home in nineteen fourteen. 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:20.719 And get this, Minneapolis, Minapolis, what not in Florida, not 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.240 in Texas or that's strange? Well, hey, I mean because 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.240 basically we're looking at a time during which to have 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.400 a home air conditioning system was a manner matter of 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:35.360 just pure privilege and in luxury and uh, and that's 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:39.240 not going to be confined by you know, geographic constraints. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.920 But man, in Minneapolis, I mean, how many years, how 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.800 many months of the year would that even be useful? Well, 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:46.520 it also makes me wonder how many months the year 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.440 could you depend on this thing to work, because because 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.159 one of the point, one of the things we're going 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.000 to touch on here is how some of these systems 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:57.080 were were a little problematic, so innovations in the nineteen 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.720 twenties would make them smaller and more more affordable and 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.560 allowed the tech to spread. But as Marcia E. Ackerman 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.160 points out in her book Cool Comfort, which is an 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:10.560 excellent book about the UH the History of of air 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.520 conditioning UH in the United States, she points out that 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.360 in the early twentieth century especially, there were not many 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.680 places where an investment in a costly a C system 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:25.120 would give you a return on your investment, except for quote, 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.839 huge halls in which multitudes assembled for entertainment. Okay, yeah, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.600 because I mean otherwise it is just a matter you've 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.760 got to be this this super rich individual who can 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:36.640 just blow a whole bunch of money on an air 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.360 conditioning system. You need something where you're actually going to 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.400 be able to make the money back on it. And 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.080 of course this leads us inevitably to theaters, and she 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.400 points out that there were some early success stories even 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.040 before this point, with just traditional theaters such as uh 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.479 an eight eight performance by Edwin Booth and yes, uh 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:59.600 related to the other Booth actor really yeah, yeah, they 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:04.760 were brothers, I believe, um, but rather different individuals. And 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:09.760 Edwin Booth, you know, and a famous individual within uh 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.160 you know, the acting scenes, certainly of New York City. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.520 So but anyway, there was an eighteen eighty performance by 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:16.920 Edwin Booth on a hundred degree day in New York 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.240 City's Madison Square Theater and it was described at the 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.920 time by English novelist Mary Duff's hardy um and it's 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:25.840 you know, because she was really impressed with it, and 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:27.680 it's like here you go into this theater and it's 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.760 it's sweltering outside and it's cool inside. Because generally, if 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:33.720 you within a time before air conditioning, what happens when 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.200 a whole bunch of people gathering in inclosed space to 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.880 watch performance. Okay, so that's a teen eighty and that's 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.240 before Willis carriers, So they must have been using some 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.960 more primitive method to cool the theater there. Yeah, but 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:45.800 there were there were also a lot of failures during 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.800 this time and and certainly in the decades to follow. 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.760 Getting the early twentieth century, you know, despite the realization 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.600 that a C could really turn things around for sweaty 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.960 spectator events. Also in the early twentieth century, they were 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:03.080 public health and initiatives to legislate ventilation in places like 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.600 this in order to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:10.400 like tuberculosis. So this brings us, of course to the 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.680 movie theaters, because it's the movie theater of where we're 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.400 going to see the real rollout of air conditioning. You know, 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.400 a lot of this was during the Great Depression as well, 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.120 you know, a time of of of great economic hardship. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.640 So there would there would have been new a C technology, 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:27.920 but people wouldn't have had a lot of excess income 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.640 to spend on installing them in their houses exactly like, 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.640 so that the technology is really coming on board, but 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:37.480 there's a very little market for for home use. But 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.920 theaters saw a return on their investment by deploying them. 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.400 And some think that the air conditioning helped usher in 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.560 the golden age of Hollywood. That's really interesting. Now not 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.240 to discount all those B movies of the nineteen thirties, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.760 or the newsreels or the shorts, because you know, what 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:53.880 better time than the Great depression to escape into the 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.600 realm of cinema while also staying abreast of current events. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.360 But on top of that, it was actually cool inside. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.840 It was dry inside even better right. Uh And this 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.600 has also been presented as part of the origin of 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:11.040 the summer movie blockbuster. Okay also makes sense. Yeah. And 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.200 if you go on to YouTube or you know related side, 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.000 and you look around, you can find some wonderful promos 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.040 from this era that heavily advertised the air conditioning. I 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.559 found one from nineteen forty nineties advertising the theater as 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.079 the coolest place in town. Yeah. I checked out these 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.280 links you sent. Oh one of them. It starts with 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.840 the line if nature is wonderful, then our air conditioning 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.400 system is out of this world hyphenated. Somebody hyphens in 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.680 English texts at the time, especially in ads, but also 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:43.920 I in a different article I was reading, I found 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280 a reference to a nineteen twenty six ad for a 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:50.600 movie theater in St. Petersburg, Florida, which said the proud 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.600 management had the temperature down so low that ladies in 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:58.439 evening dresses almost froze. Another thing that I noticed about 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:03.800 these ads is uh, some implicating that cool air conditioned 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.480 air is somehow clean as opposed to what I guess 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.360 like dirty warm air. We talked to the previous part 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.880 of the series about why cold water psychologically seems cleaner 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:18.120 than tepid water. Is something similar going on here, like 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.640 does it feel like cold air coming out of the 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.280 air conditioner? Is is sterile? Is clean somehow? I mean 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.200 you can still catch you know, TV being circulated through it. 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.880 I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I think. I mean, I guess 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.199 it comes down to just the feeling that it is refreshing, 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.120 and refreshment is good refreshment, and then we equate that 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.240 with health, and you know, we probably buy into some 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.439 of these old concepts like the asthma theory to some extent, 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.080 even if we're not familiar with the term, Like, there's 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.880 a legacy of the kind of of that kind of belief, 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:49.840 and I'm a guilty of it as anyone like I 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.520 remember as a kid, like like I would I would 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.040 love to just stick my face against the air conditioning though, 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:56.839 and just take in the cold air. I wouldn't do 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.280 that with the with the heat, but with the cold air, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.000 it was just this feeling that this was pure, you know, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.760 even though obviously wasn't This is a funny memory. I 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.880 remember when I was much younger, during times when I 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.160 was having anxiety, Like you know, I was freaking out 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.959 about whatever my little mind was freaking out about back then. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.880 But I remember leaning over an air conditioner and breathing 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.840 the cold air coming out of the vent somehow was 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.439 anxiety relieving to me with a little mask. I did 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.560 not have a mask, but yeah, I don't know why 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:33.880 that was, but at any right, this became just part 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.880 of the theater offering. And, as Ackerman points out in 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.760 her book quote, by promising to do more for comfort 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:44.599 and health than simply move air around, air conditioning reinforce 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:49.439 the novelty, modernity, and luxury of the movie going experience. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.120 This is so interesting because it could be another one 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.480 of the many ways that we don't often consider brute 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.320 force technological realities influencing media throughout history. You know, we 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.400 like to think of movies and books and recorded music 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.480 and all that solely as products of the creative process 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.439 by the artist. You know, they're just they're creative output. 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.560 But these works of art and forms of entertainment are 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.200 they're highly influenced by brute facts about the physical conditions 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:19.600 under which they were produced or under which they are 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.679 experienced by the audience. And we talked about this in 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.880 our Motion Picture episode, Yeah You Want You want to. 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.679 You probably prefer the idea that people were just enraptured 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.840 by these these cinematic marvels taking place, and not so 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.280 much that well, they they're they're groin was just super 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.400 sweaty and they're just tired of walking around and swamp pants. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.360 But that's sort of coming at it from the opposite perspective. 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.319 I mean, we talked a lot about physical realities influencing 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.800 the early days of film from the production side, right, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.880 you know, like about the the standard lengths and you know, 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.240 whether they had sound with them and all that, and 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.880 that influenced conventions of the genres early on, or the 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.960 fact that there was no film editing early on. But 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.600 then this is coming at it from the other side, 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.920 just like the conditions under which films are shown had 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.840 something to do with the business of film in those days, 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.720 which ultimately dictated something about what kinds of films were 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.760 successful and what kinds of films were made. I mean, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.160 I'm thinking about how if I was just going into 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.000 a theater to get out of the heat, and that's 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.240 all it was. What would I what? What kind of 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:22.679 movie would I want to see? I might just want 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.720 to see whatever movies longest or or indeed, like just 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.440 give me a block of stuff. It can be films 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.080 that can be sure, it's it gonna be the newsreel. 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.440 I'll just set for whatever. Uh just just just show 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.320 it to me and let me cool down a little. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.559 So according to the U. S Department of Energy, uh 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.600 A C units started making their way into theaters in 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:45.200 the nineteen twenties, and the earliest systems, though, were simply 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.760 heating systems that were modified with refrigeration equipment, which managed 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.280 to cool the lower seats but left the balcony muggy 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.959 and sweltering, and there are even accounts of people on 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.520 the lower levels having to wrap their feet in newspaper 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.480 paper to stay warm again while people in the balcony 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.800 sweated it out. And it wasn't until nineteen two that 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.080 Carrier installed the first true theater A C system in 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.800 the Metropolitan Theater in Los Angeles, and then the Rivoli 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.160 Theater in New York got an updated version in nine 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.840 and UH they revol he proudly advertised at the time 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.920 that they kept their theater cooled to a constant sixty 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:27.200 nine degrees fahrenheit or twenty six degrees celsius. That is, 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:31.400 I mean, to each their own, But that is too cold. Yeah, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:33.840 I think once you get lower if you're talking about fahrenheit, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.560 once you get lower than the low seventies, what the 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.480 heck are you doing? Yeah, Like, I'm not one to 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.480 turn the thermostat in my own house down anywhere near 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.360 that low. And and if I go into a place 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:46.840 that is that. I mean. The other thing is like, 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:48.360 you're not going to be dressed for it. I mean, 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.800 I'm I think we all have experienced a cold theater before, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.400 so imagined A lot of us know that if you're 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.640 going to a movie theater, you bring a hoodie, you 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.640 bring a jacket, etcetera. But but I'm imagining these like 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.520 people hot on the street looking to get out of 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.880 the heat and set down for a couple of hours 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.640 and watch the cinema and then uh, and then they 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.480 get in there and they're just gonna be like chilled 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.360 to the bone right because they're not dressed for it. 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:16.240 They didn't bring blankets with them. It's a it's a 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:21.160 three dog theater experience. Yeah, other theaters would boast that 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.800 it was quote twenty degrees cooler inside, which in some 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.280 cases was apparently arguable. Though that there were theaters where 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.440 people complained about the cold or said they actually became 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.760 ill because of the cold. There were even charges of 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.480 a c abuse. What does that mean that they were 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.720 just just chilling people out too much? Okay, yeah, this 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.480 apparently didn't I've been assaulted with an air conditioning unit. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.240 I mean. And also the whole time they're using icicles 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.760 and egg luede decorations and the promotion of it. I 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.560 saw some wonderful pictures where it is they're just really 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.520 driving at home, like come into the winter wonderland off 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.840 this theater. And there was apparently a lot of back 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.920 and forth, and this Acraman goes into more detail about 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.800 it with you know, certain crusaders for warmer theaters, uh, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.480 you know, really getting some pressed. But then but but 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.560 the thing is it didn't apparently hurt ticket sales in 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.920 any like real meaningful way, and Ackerman points out that 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.360 the first drive in movie theater opened in June three 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.360 in Camden, New Jersey, and became a major force. Of course, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.160 you know, in the nineteen fifties a major cultural force, 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:26.160 very popular. But their popularity challenges the notion that people 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:31.520 only wanted a chilly movie going experience, uh, which most 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.680 cars of the time, or maybe all cars at the time, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.800 we're not air conditioned, right, Yeah, and the generally you're 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.080 turning your car off, turning the engine off. You're not 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.320 running the a C the whole time, right, It's it's 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.720 about watching a film more or less outdoors. And then 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:51.840 it wasn't just movie theaters during the Great Depression. Apparently restaurants, bakeries, libraries, 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.280 and museums eventually began uh experimenting with you know, enhanced 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.320 air conditioned environments and saw enhanced traffic because of it. 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.480 Department stores came into their own as well, and Ackerman 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:10.439 she hilariously describes uh department stores as basically being quote 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.119 theaters of things like that. But of course you can't 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.040 really charge admission to a department store, so you get 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.639 less of a return on an investment that way, and 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.119 she mentions like accounts of people who went to the 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.639 department store to stay cool and just like went around 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.159 trying on dresses they couldn't afford in order to just 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.719 to get out of the heat, but not really you know, 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.159 you know, spending that much money there. Oh, I don't know. 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.160 I mean I can see you get more people into 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.000 the store exposed to the merchandise. Would I would find 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:42.840 it hard to believe you don't end up selling more 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.359 somehow that way. Yeah, And then I think most I 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.960 imagine that, you know, stores are going to to realize that, 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:49.480 you know, maybe they're not going to sell a big, 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.800 expensive dress to somebody on their first visit, but then 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:55.199 they're smaller things they can sell. There's uh, you know, 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.239 food and drink, et cetera. Maybe what you gotta do 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.000 is you gotta pair air can to and interior with 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.800 really pushy salespeople. Now, It's also important to note that 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.200 while ticket prices and locations made a c movie theaters 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.400 especially a great distraction for a lot of people during 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.119 these these decades that were discussing here, this was certainly 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.480 a part of American life. It was affected by segregation definitely. 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.800 Ackerman points out that until the nineteen sixties, overt policies 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.399 and local customs made movie theaters far less accessible to 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.840 black audiences, especially in the South. We're talking poor seats 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:36.000 alternative viewing times and also just alternative theaters altogether, and 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.399 quote movie theaters and ethnically or racially segregated neighborhoods generally 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:45.119 lacked the palatial appertinences, including air conditioning of the big 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.840 downtown movie houses. This is another one of those areas 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.199 that people might not even think about the legacy of 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.800 segregation and racial disparity and access to to you know, 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:59.600 technology is basic access to climate control comfort. Yeah yeah, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:01.200 all right, Well, on that note, we're gonna take a 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:02.960 quick break, but when we come back, we're going to 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:11.960 continue to look at the impact of air conditioning technology. Alright, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.760 we're back. So the impact of air conditioning technology is huge, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.439 and we can see it in various ways. So on 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.440 the individual level, certainly it made it easier and or 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.040 more comfortable to live in hotter regions of the earth, 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:26.560 and you know, and on the other hand, it also 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:31.000 meant that the climates that once forced us out socializing 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.920 amongst each other, be it at a pond step well 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.440 or just from porch to porch in the neighborhood, now 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:41.200 forced us inside either into communal a c environments such 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.320 as some of the ones we've discussed uh, you know, 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.000 hopefully like a museum or something, or or perhaps a library. 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.320 But but it also might just put us in there 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.200 in our own individual a c caves cut off from 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.480 everyone else, perhaps with that television or that radio. Not 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.600 to keep this company, this media socialization, which you know, 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:04.119 remains I think a detrimental aspect of our society to 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.880 this day. That's a depressing thought. Yeah, but of course 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.479 now our stuff are our technologies mobile, so it's not 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.040 even confined via by air conditioning. I do want to 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.639 make a quick health note. We mentioned U tuberculosis earlier. Uh, 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.320 there are a few different health problems that are associated 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.280 with air conditioning, most notably Legionaire's disease caused by the 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.720 Legionella bacteria or a few by you know, all varieties 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.560 of Legionella bacteria. Uh. And uh, you know it also 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.160 can contaminate hot water tanks, hot tubs, and cooling towers. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.119 But contaminating the water in an air conditioning system is 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.840 certainly one of the factors. So not to not to 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.320 scare everyone about air conditioning, but again it is not 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:49.760 properly maintained. Yes, it is susceptible to this sort of thing. Now, 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:52.040 one of the ways that we already sort of hinted 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.919 that there was a legacy to air conditionings in the 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.880 way that it made many former adaptive techniques of our cultures, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.720 in our architecture obsolete in some cases, right, Yeah, it 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.760 enabled architectural designs that wouldn't have worked as well or 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.240 at all in a pre air conditioning world, and this 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.480 includes a suburban tract housing. One of the greatest examples, though, 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.920 is the advent of steel and glass skyscrapers a C 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.800 cool towers of the modern age that without that a 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:24.159 C would not make as much sense. Yeah. There have 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.439 even been opinions from architects about the the impact of 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.800 air conditioning on sort of the the aesthetic design of 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.920 large buildings. I was reading a Chronicle of Higher Education 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.479 article that decided a quote from the architect Eli Jacque 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.560 Khan in nineteen sixty where con said quote, the period 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:47.080