Willis Carrier
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{{Infobox Person
| name = Willis Haviland Carrier
| image = Willis Carrier 1915.jpg
| caption = Willis Carrier in 1915
| birth_date = {{birth date|1876|11|26}}
| birth_place = [[Angola, New York]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1950|10|7|1876|11|26}}
| death_place = [[New York]], [[United States|USA]]
| occupation = [[engineer]] and [[inventor]]
| networth =
| spouse =
| children =
| website =
|signature =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Willis Haviland Carrier''' ([[November 26]], [[1876]] – [[October 7]], [[1950]]) was an [[engineer]] and [[inventor]], and is known as the man who invented modern [[air conditioning]].
== Early life and education ==
Carrier was born in [[Angola, New York|Angola]], [[New York]], on the shore of [[Lake Erie]], and inherited his mother's love for "tinkering", with clocks, sewing machines, and other household devices. He loved [[mathematics]], and studied it at every chance, when he wasn't inventing his own devices.
In 1895 he received a scholarship to [[Cornell University]] and graduated in 1901 with a degree in [[Mechanical Engineering]]. Following college, he went to work for the Buffalo Forge Company, a company which manufactured heaters, blowers and air exhaust systems, in their heating engineering department designing heating systems to dry lumber and coffee.
== Inventions ==
Carrier soon developed a better way to measure the capacity of heating systems and was named director of the company's experimental engineering department. At the age of 25, he devised his first important invention, a system to control heat and humidity for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn. The firm had been unable to print reliable colors at times because of the effects of heat and humidity on paper and ink. In 1906 Carrier received a patent for his method. He went on to work on other cooling.
== Company formation ==
The Great Depression slowed the residential and light 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 could catch on, 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 [[Sun Belt|Sunbelt]]. In 2000 [[Carrier Corporation|the Carrier Corporation]] had sales of more than $8 billion and employed some 45,000 people.
==Personal life==
{{Expand|date=June 2008}}
Carrier and all three of his wives are buried in [[Forest Lawn Cemetery (Buffalo)|Forest Lawn Cemetery]] in [[Buffalo, New York]].<REF>Ingels, Margaret. 1952. ''Willis Haviland Carrier : father of air conditioning.'' Garden City: Country Life Press.</REF>
==External links==
*[http://www.air-conditioners-and-heaters.com/willis_carrier.htm Willis Carrier "father" of Modern Air Conditioning]
==References==
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[[Category:1876 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:American inventors]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:Mechanical engineers]]
[[Category:People from Buffalo, New York]]
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