Air Conditioning, Part 3

of human civilization. Yeah, And some of these solutions for dealing with the heat before the invention of air conditioning were cultural. They were like about you know where life takes place, and you know where you do certain things and under what conditions. And other solutions would be more architectural, Like we talked about that ingenious solution from ancient Persia involving the wind catchers and the underground channels of water called the connots that would cool the air that flowed

through buildings that way. And of course, millions of people in hot climates around the world still don't have air conditioning today, and they use older techniques and strategies to deal with the heat. So a lot of these things we're talking about are not things of the past. They're just, uh, they're less a part of culture in places where air conditioning is now prevalent. But then, of course we got into the invention of the true air conditioning system, right.

We talked about John Gory, the doctor from Appalachical of Florida who developed a chemical process for manufacturing ice for the purpose of cooling hospital rooms. Also we talked about the ice King, Frederick Tutor in the ice trade, which was a fun diversion. And we also talked about Willis Carrier, the American inventor who created a dehumidification process for industrial printing spaces. But then of course quickly realized that this technology could be used to cool and dry the air

for human comfort in homes and businesses. And that's sort of that that's the money in site, right that, you know, the rubbing the fingers together moment. And so of course this luxury had massive appeal when it was new. Having a cool building during the sweltering days of August. Imagine

when that was a near total novelty. Yeah, And so this episode is going to to look at how this novelty unfolded, particularly in the United States, but also looking at some examples from elsewhere in the world, UH, to show how it ends up transforming UH society to a certain extent, certainly, and also transforming a number of other

aspects of our modern life. I think you could argue that the legacy of air conditioning is one of the most underappreciated technological influences shaping the last hundred years of especially American culture, but culture probably all over the world. I mean, certainly for those of us who grew up

with it. You know, if you if you grew up in a time during which air conditioning was readily available, if you grew up uh, you know, but privileged enough to to have access to air conditioning all the time, and of course if you lived in an environment where

it was a practical necessity. Because certainly, as was well discussed, there are plenty of places in the world where you don't need an air conditioning system even a window unit, or if you do, you rarely need to employ it, So maybe you have less of an appreciation for it in those places. Yeah, I was actually to talk. I was just out of town for a little while. I went on a vacation to England and France, and they're pretty much all the places we stayed in did not

have air conditioning. And it was you know, this was during September, still pretty warm outside while we were there, but we just opened the windows up and nice cool air flows in all all the time. And like, it's amazing the difference between the difference of opening a window in Paris versus opening a window in Atlanta on a summer evening, which is just like, you know, it just lets the swamp air right in. It doesn't seem to

cool enough. Yeah. Yeah, um places also come to mind, Hawaii, or at least parts of why you'll you'll find in a lot of people living happily without an air conditioning system just because you have a regular, you know, dependable

temperature more you know, year round. But also you get a nice specific breeze, which is less the case in a lot of places around the world where you know, you open a window and it just doesn't seem to relieve very much, especially if you live in one of these houses that has not been designed to create cross breezes and all that, right, houses that have been designed to depend upon air conditioning. Yeah, so Uh, yeah, we're gonna pick up more or less where we left out

off then. And so this new invention was impressing people. People were thinking a lot about how to roll it out. Industrial buildings and hospitals were some of the first to jump in their hospitals, not surprising since the hospital plays

into the origin story itself. And then, of course, uh, you're you're probably wondering, well, who is the first person to put one of these puppies in their home, because obviously that's the reality most of us, or a lot of us anyway, live in Well, Charles Gates, son of industrialists and uh and gambler John Gates, was the first to set one up in their home in nineteen fourteen. And get this, Minneapolis, Minapolis, what not in Florida, not

in Texas or that's strange? Well, hey, I mean because basically we're looking at a time during which to have a home air conditioning system was a manner matter of just pure privilege and in luxury and uh, and that's not going to be confined by you know, geographic constraints. But man, in Minneapolis, I mean, how many years, how

many months of the year would that even be useful? Well, it also makes me wonder how many months the year could you depend on this thing to work, because because one of the point, one of the things we're going to touch on here is how some of these systems were were a little problematic, so innovations in the nineteen twenties would make them smaller and more more affordable and

allowed the tech to spread. But as Marcia E. Ackerman points out in her book Cool Comfort, which is an excellent book about the UH the History of of air conditioning UH in the United States, she points out that in the early twentieth century especially, there were not many places where an investment in a costly a C system would give you a return on your investment, except for quote,

huge halls in which multitudes assembled for entertainment. Okay, yeah, because I mean otherwise it is just a matter you've got to be this this super rich individual who can just blow a whole bunch of money on an air conditioning system. You need something where you're actually going to

be able to make the money back on it. And of course this leads us inevitably to theaters, and she points out that there were some early success stories even before this point, with just traditional theaters such as uh an eight eight performance by Edwin Booth and yes, uh related to the other Booth actor really yeah, yeah, they

were brothers, I believe, um, but rather different individuals. And Edwin Booth, you know, and a famous individual within uh you know, the acting scenes, certainly of New York City.

So but anyway, there was an eighteen eighty performance by Edwin Booth on a hundred degree day in New York City's Madison Square Theater and it was described at the time by English novelist Mary Duff's hardy um and it's you know, because she was really impressed with it, and it's like here you go into this theater and it's

it's sweltering outside and it's cool inside. Because generally, if you within a time before air conditioning, what happens when a whole bunch of people gathering in inclosed space to watch performance. Okay, so that's a teen eighty and that's before Willis carriers, So they must have been using some more primitive method to cool the theater there. Yeah, but there were there were also a lot of failures during this time and and certainly in the decades to follow.

Getting the early twentieth century, you know, despite the realization that a C could really turn things around for sweaty spectator events. Also in the early twentieth century, they were public health and initiatives to legislate ventilation in places like this in order to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses like tuberculosis. So this brings us, of course to the movie theaters, because it's the movie theater of where we're

going to see the real rollout of air conditioning. You know, a lot of this was during the Great Depression as well, you know, a time of of of great economic hardship. So there would there would have been new a C technology, but people wouldn't have had a lot of excess income to spend on installing them in their houses exactly like, so that the technology is really coming on board, but there's a very little market for for home use. But theaters saw a return on their investment by deploying them.

And some think that the air conditioning helped usher in the golden age of Hollywood. That's really interesting. Now not to discount all those B movies of the nineteen thirties, or the newsreels or the shorts, because you know, what better time than the Great depression to escape into the realm of cinema while also staying abreast of current events. But on top of that, it was actually cool inside. It was dry inside even better right. Uh And this has also been presented as part of the origin of

the summer movie blockbuster. Okay also makes sense. Yeah. And if you go on to YouTube or you know related side, and you look around, you can find some wonderful promos from this era that heavily advertised the air conditioning. I found one from nineteen forty nineties advertising the theater as the coolest place in town. Yeah. I checked out these links you sent. Oh one of them. It starts with the line if nature is wonderful, then our air conditioning

system is out of this world hyphenated. Somebody hyphens in English texts at the time, especially in ads, but also I in a different article I was reading, I found a reference to a nineteen twenty six ad for a movie theater in St. Petersburg, Florida, which said the proud management had the temperature down so low that ladies in

evening dresses almost froze. Another thing that I noticed about these ads is uh, some implicating that cool air conditioned air is somehow clean as opposed to what I guess like dirty warm air. We talked to the previous part of the series about why cold water psychologically seems cleaner than tepid water. Is something similar going on here, like does it feel like cold air coming out of the

air conditioner? Is is sterile? Is clean somehow? I mean you can still catch you know, TV being circulated through it.

I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I think. I mean, I guess it comes down to just the feeling that it is refreshing, and refreshment is good refreshment, and then we equate that with health, and you know, we probably buy into some of these old concepts like the asthma theory to some extent, even if we're not familiar with the term, Like, there's a legacy of the kind of of that kind of belief, and I'm a guilty of it as anyone like I remember as a kid, like like I would I would

love to just stick my face against the air conditioning though, and just take in the cold air. I wouldn't do that with the with the heat, but with the cold air, it was just this feeling that this was pure, you know, even though obviously wasn't This is a funny memory. I remember when I was much younger, during times when I was having anxiety, Like you know, I was freaking out about whatever my little mind was freaking out about back then.

But I remember leaning over an air conditioner and breathing the cold air coming out of the vent somehow was anxiety relieving to me with a little mask. I did not have a mask, but yeah, I don't know why that was, but at any right, this became just part of the theater offering. And, as Ackerman points out in her book quote, by promising to do more for comfort and health than simply move air around, air conditioning reinforce the novelty, modernity, and luxury of the movie going experience.

This is so interesting because it could be another one of the many ways that we don't often consider brute force technological realities influencing media throughout history. You know, we like to think of movies and books and recorded music and all that solely as products of the creative process by the artist. You know, they're just they're creative output.

But these works of art and forms of entertainment are they're highly influenced by brute facts about the physical conditions under which they were produced or under which they are experienced by the audience. And we talked about this in our Motion Picture episode, Yeah You Want You want to.

You probably prefer the idea that people were just enraptured by these these cinematic marvels taking place, and not so much that well, they they're they're groin was just super sweaty and they're just tired of walking around and swamp pants. But that's sort of coming at it from the opposite perspective.

I mean, we talked a lot about physical realities influencing the early days of film from the production side, right, you know, like about the the standard lengths and you know, whether they had sound with them and all that, and that influenced conventions of the genres early on, or the

fact that there was no film editing early on. But then this is coming at it from the other side, just like the conditions under which films are shown had something to do with the business of film in those days, which ultimately dictated something about what kinds of films were successful and what kinds of films were made. I mean, I'm thinking about how if I was just going into a theater to get out of the heat, and that's all it was. What would I what? What kind of

movie would I want to see? I might just want to see whatever movies longest or or indeed, like just give me a block of stuff. It can be films that can be sure, it's it gonna be the newsreel. I'll just set for whatever. Uh just just just show it to me and let me cool down a little.

So according to the U. S Department of Energy, uh A C units started making their way into theaters in the nineteen twenties, and the earliest systems, though, were simply heating systems that were modified with refrigeration equipment, which managed to cool the lower seats but left the balcony muggy and sweltering, and there are even accounts of people on the lower levels having to wrap their feet in newspaper paper to stay warm again while people in the balcony

sweated it out. And it wasn't until nineteen two that Carrier installed the first true theater A C system in the Metropolitan Theater in Los Angeles, and then the Rivoli Theater in New York got an updated version in nine and UH they revol he proudly advertised at the time that they kept their theater cooled to a constant sixty nine degrees fahrenheit or twenty six degrees celsius. That is,

I mean, to each their own, But that is too cold. Yeah, I think once you get lower if you're talking about fahrenheit, once you get lower than the low seventies, what the heck are you doing? Yeah, Like, I'm not one to turn the thermostat in my own house down anywhere near that low. And and if I go into a place that is that. I mean. The other thing is like,

you're not going to be dressed for it. I mean, I'm I think we all have experienced a cold theater before, so imagined A lot of us know that if you're going to a movie theater, you bring a hoodie, you

bring a jacket, etcetera. But but I'm imagining these like people hot on the street looking to get out of the heat and set down for a couple of hours and watch the cinema and then uh, and then they get in there and they're just gonna be like chilled to the bone right because they're not dressed for it. They didn't bring blankets with them. It's a it's a three dog theater experience. Yeah, other theaters would boast that it was quote twenty degrees cooler inside, which in some

cases was apparently arguable. Though that there were theaters where people complained about the cold or said they actually became ill because of the cold. There were even charges of a c abuse. What does that mean that they were just just chilling people out too much? Okay, yeah, this apparently didn't I've been assaulted with an air conditioning unit. Yeah, yeah, I mean. And also the whole time they're using icicles

and egg luede decorations and the promotion of it. I saw some wonderful pictures where it is they're just really driving at home, like come into the winter wonderland off this theater. And there was apparently a lot of back and forth, and this Acraman goes into more detail about it with you know, certain crusaders for warmer theaters, uh,

you know, really getting some pressed. But then but but the thing is it didn't apparently hurt ticket sales in any like real meaningful way, and Ackerman points out that the first drive in movie theater opened in June three in Camden, New Jersey, and became a major force. Of course, you know, in the nineteen fifties a major cultural force,

very popular. But their popularity challenges the notion that people only wanted a chilly movie going experience, uh, which most cars of the time, or maybe all cars at the time, we're not air conditioned, right, Yeah, and the generally you're turning your car off, turning the engine off. You're not running the a C the whole time, right, It's it's about watching a film more or less outdoors. And then

it wasn't just movie theaters during the Great Depression. Apparently restaurants, bakeries, libraries, and museums eventually began uh experimenting with you know, enhanced air conditioned environments and saw enhanced traffic because of it. Department stores came into their own as well, and Ackerman she hilariously describes uh department stores as basically being quote

theaters of things like that. But of course you can't really charge admission to a department store, so you get less of a return on an investment that way, and she mentions like accounts of people who went to the department store to stay cool and just like went around trying on dresses they couldn't afford in order to just to get out of the heat, but not really you know, you know, spending that much money there. Oh, I don't know. I mean I can see you get more people into

the store exposed to the merchandise. Would I would find it hard to believe you don't end up selling more somehow that way. Yeah, And then I think most I imagine that, you know, stores are going to to realize that, you know, maybe they're not going to sell a big, expensive dress to somebody on their first visit, but then they're smaller things they can sell. There's uh, you know, food and drink, et cetera. Maybe what you gotta do is you gotta pair air can to and interior with

really pushy salespeople. Now, It's also important to note that while ticket prices and locations made a c movie theaters especially a great distraction for a lot of people during these these decades that were discussing here, this was certainly a part of American life. It was affected by segregation definitely. Ackerman points out that until the nineteen sixties, overt policies and local customs made movie theaters far less accessible to

black audiences, especially in the South. We're talking poor seats alternative viewing times and also just alternative theaters altogether, and quote movie theaters and ethnically or racially segregated neighborhoods generally lacked the palatial appertinences, including air conditioning of the big downtown movie houses. This is another one of those areas that people might not even think about the legacy of segregation and racial disparity and access to to you know,

technology is basic access to climate control comfort. Yeah yeah, all right, Well, on that note, we're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to continue to look at the impact of air conditioning technology. Alright, we're back. So the impact of air conditioning technology is huge,

and we can see it in various ways. So on the individual level, certainly it made it easier and or more comfortable to live in hotter regions of the earth, and you know, and on the other hand, it also meant that the climates that once forced us out socializing amongst each other, be it at a pond step well or just from porch to porch in the neighborhood, now forced us inside either into communal a c environments such as some of the ones we've discussed uh, you know,

hopefully like a museum or something, or or perhaps a library. But but it also might just put us in there in our own individual a c caves cut off from everyone else, perhaps with that television or that radio. Not to keep this company, this media socialization, which you know, remains I think a detrimental aspect of our society to this day. That's a depressing thought. Yeah, but of course now our stuff are our technologies mobile, so it's not even confined via by air conditioning. I do want to

make a quick health note. We mentioned U tuberculosis earlier. Uh, there are a few different health problems that are associated with air conditioning, most notably Legionaire's disease caused by the Legionella bacteria or a few by you know, all varieties of Legionella bacteria. Uh. And uh, you know it also can contaminate hot water tanks, hot tubs, and cooling towers. But contaminating the water in an air conditioning system is

certainly one of the factors. So not to not to scare everyone about air conditioning, but again it is not

properly maintained. Yes, it is susceptible to this sort of thing. Now, one of the ways that we already sort of hinted that there was a legacy to air conditionings in the way that it made many former adaptive techniques of our cultures, in our architecture obsolete in some cases, right, Yeah, it enabled architectural designs that wouldn't have worked as well or at all in a pre air conditioning world, and this

includes a suburban tract housing. One of the greatest examples, though, is the advent of steel and glass skyscrapers a C cool towers of the modern age that without that a C would not make as much sense. Yeah. There have even been opinions from architects about the the impact of air conditioning on sort of the the aesthetic design of

large buildings. I was reading a Chronicle of Higher Education article that decided a quote from the architect Eli Jacque Khan in nineteen sixty where con said quote, the period of individualistic, imaginatively decorated skyscraper towers has ended. All of this Modern equipment, including the cooling towers for air conditioning systems, takes space and the logistical area was at the top of the structure, resulting in a bulky and not too

handsome mass. So he's totally grossed out by the architecture that results from having to put large air conditioning units on the roofs of large buildings, which just results in sort of boxy buildings instead of the beautiful skyscrapers that he liked and designed. Yeah, you wanted to be like the sky temple, uh to gozer at the time, you know, otherwise you're I mean really it really. I think that does come back to the to the point like what is the legacy of of of human uh constructed monoliths.

The top of it needs to be the peak of a mountain. It needs to be a holy place for the world of of humans meets the world of the gods, and it doesn't. It just ruins it if you put an air conditioning system on top of a zigaratte, right right. But even if you're not a priest of the urban zigaratte, if you're not obsessed with the design of sky, you know, skyscrapers like khan Is, I mean, you can definitely see

the way that it affected architecture at a smaller scale. Yeah. Yeah, when you come down to materials, certainly, even you don't even have to talk about the giant skyscrapers. There's a point brought up in a really cool Mental Floss article Life Before air Conditioning by one miss Selania. I. Somehow I think that's a moniker. I have to ask to ask Will about that one. Uh. But this article points out the caves and underground housings are a natural means

of controlling temperature. But that means that thick brick and stone construction is a good way to duplicate the same principle in our constructions. But air conditioning meant that you didn't have to depend on thick materials like this as much. Housing could be far cheaper. High ceilings were no longer as essential to keep things cool. Upper floors were not just for the evening. You could live in the attic

if you wanted to, because you could. You could just plug in a superpowered a C and you're good to go. You could sleep inside during the summer, you know, with your television burning right next to you right well. I mean, another way to think about it is that air conditioning also affected the planning of cities because air conditioning makes it more feasible for hot climate areas to have high

density housing. You know, so like you can you can have tall rise apartment buildings in Florida or something, whereas previously, I mean, trying to imagine that without air conditioning sounds pretty hot. Yeah. So you're changing the house, you're changing neighborhoods, you're changing cities, and and just on the level of an individual house, it's important to note that houses are

not just physical structures. They are social structures. And you cannot alter the physical domicile without also altering the shape of life within it. Change the shape of the house, and you might, you know, think everything's gonna be just like it was before, but it's it's gonna be a little different. I think that's a really good point. I mean, our architecture shapes our lives. Yeah, the rooms were in

determine what kind of things we do in them. Uh. There's this classic thing like why does everybody end up in the kitchen at a party. There is some reason for that, and there's something about kitchens that you know, people filter in that way. Yeah, they all. Yeah, hopefully you have some sort of like an island situation in

the kitchen for people to gather around. Uh. Yeah, otherwise they're just gonna be sitting on the stove or something that does make me wonder though, And I didn't see this reflected in any of the sources we're looking at. But obviously one of the strategies to keep your home cooler was that you would have the kitchen in another building, so where would people gather there? Is that that was more of the age of the sitting room. I guess, yeah, I guess so. Or I mean, again, we've talked about

outdoor cooking is one way of dealing with the heat. Um, you know, like the idea of the barbecue tradition or grilling out that seems to be a thing that people like to do in the summer. I mean, on one hand, it's like it's a nice, you know, warm weather outside, so people hang out outside. But then on the other hand, it's like you're not having to do your heating up

of the food inside the house, which is great. And furthermore, you can think about, you know, the the association of outdoor cooking techniques specifically with hotter climates, like you know, the barbecue and the grill out. These are common in the US South, and I think they come from those hot weather traditions. I wonder how air conditioning has affected

the prevalence or the prominence of the cook out. Well, it certainly means you can you can duck in and out right now, speaking of city planning, another aspect of of all of this is you have all this air conditioning running in the buildings, It suddenly gives you a little more license to neglect the maintenance of green spaces and trees, which, of course they're providing shade finding more than shade though, I mean, they're they're they're part of

your natural environment. That's why you've seen in many cities, including our own city there there have been initiatives over the years to like to make sure that the areas that have been that have lost their green spaces. Uh there, you know, you can plant some trees there again and actually bring these places back to life once more. But from like a purely air conditioning standpoint, you don't really

need those trees out front. Really they're there, the trees that are, you know, lining the sidewalk around the skyscraper, what what purpose are they They're playing here? Just something you have to clean up after, right. I love that

mentality that sees anything alive as a nuisance. Yeah, Like and people say, well, you know, it's it's help, it's creating, helping to create the air you breathe, and like no, no, no, the air I breathe comes out of event in the wall, right, those could be parking spaces, parking spaces for God's sake. So so you know, we haven't gotten into you know, and we're not going to get into all the details

of air conditionings impact. But hopefully, like so far, we're able to drive home sort of the ripple effects here that that really touched on just about every aspect of society. Now, another one of these ripple effects we've already alluded to, and that is going to become more and more salient as time goes on, I believe, is the energy consumption. And so the energy consumption and the concurrent carbon outputs created by air conditioning demands. Yeah, absolutely, air conditioning depends

on electricity. And as Lucas Davis of UC Berkeley pointed out in in the Global Impact of air Conditioning Big and Getting Bigger, we've seen hot regions of the world grow hotter, uh and hot regions of the world grow richer. And as these trends continue, it just adds to the

energy demands of keeping cool. For instance, Uh, they wrote that more than sixty million air conditioners are sold each year in China, and again this was when this was written as as as in a typical window unit uses ten to twenty times as much electricity as a ceiling fan. On top of that, they depend on refrigerants that are

potent greenhouse gases. Uh. Davis argues that carbon legislation and carbon taxing are probably the best way to avoid falling off the carbon cliff here, even as the technology grows more energy efficient and you know, better energy sources come online to aid. But yeah, this is but we often don't think about just the I mean you probably about your own energy, uh, you know, costs road concerning air conditioning.

I mean it's it's hard not to when you look at the power bill for a particularly hot summer month. But you know, you have to realize that that's happening in every house, you know, in the in you know, throughout this city and his other parts of the world get more of the air conditioning bug themselves, You're just going to see more of that. Yeah, and uh, and it's also not just in the houses, but these large industrial or commercial spaces which I think are a huge

part of the footprint. But yeah, I mean it's it's one of these binds you're in. I mean, like it's hard not to to love and appreciate the comfort provided by air conditioning if you live in a hot climate, especially in the summer. But another thing that should be pointed out here when you said a typical window a C unit, which is probably gonna be using less energy than like your big central A C unit um uses ten to twenty times as much electricity as a ceiling fan.

The other side of that is that ceiling fans are incredibly energy efficient. I mean, you get a really good bang for your buck in terms of how much cooler they make you feel compared to how much energy they use. So another way to think about this is, you know, if you've got your A C unit, you're trying to be energy conscious, but also you're like, I don't know if I can beat the heat in the hottest days

without it. I mean, you know, think about at what point you can deal with just having the ceiling fan on, and then at whatever point where you can't hack it anymore, well, then you know, you go to your A C god. But if you're a c is like mine. Like sometimes you reach that point and you're like, I don't think you can catch up. It's too late. Yeah, I should have been fighting this battle all day, despite you know, the problems involved with that. Uh yeah. So, and then

of course you just grow accustomed to air conditioning. I guess that's the other side of it as well. Well. I just meant to emphasize ceiling fans. Very good, big thumbs up to ceiling fans in my opinion. Oh yeah. And then of course you can flip the switch during the during the winter and use them to know more to you know, quite a push warm air back down. Alright, we're gonna take one more break, but when we come back, we're going to continue to look at the way air

conditioning changed the world. Alright, we're back. So I guess we were just going to talk about a couple more things here about the legacy of air conditioning. We know that the legacy of air conditioning has been huge, But I was reading a paper by the American historian Raymond Arsenal about the impact of air conditioning on the culture of the American South. Uh. And this paper was originally published in the Journal of Southern history in nineteen four

it's called the End of the Long Hot Summer. The air Conditioner and Southern Culture, and Arsenal talks in this paper about how the air conditioner should be thought of as one of the biggest factors shaping the evolution of the American South in the twentieth century. So, on one hand, he says, well, it created a lot of Uh. It basically created a lot of economic opportunity where it wasn't before.

Like it drew in immigrants from other places in the United States to come to the South and work there, a lot of different kinds of buildings and businesses to take up route there because buildings could now be air conditioned. But over this time, the way people viewed air conditioning transition from quote from a luxury to an amenity to a necessity where you know, people more and more all the time think of it as something that's not like

nice to have, but something you've got to have. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean if today, especially in the United States, you travel somewhere perhaps abroad, uh and you you find out that it's it's something that a room is not air conditioned, or a vehicle it's not air conditioned. Uh. Yeah, and it feels a bit like like like hearing that there's gonna be no running water or no, you know, no

toilets or something along along those lines. Yeah, totally. That's kind of a self fulfilling prophecy, as we've been alluding to before, because the more are the more we come to take air conditioning for granted, the more we build our lives around it and make it harder and harder to live without it. Yeah, and indeed build out into places where it would not make sense to live without it. I mean, for instance, you think like some of these really hot days we had this summer, uh, and how

they impacted say, say, people living in Phoenix, Arizona. You know. And it's certainly especially if you're dealing with older individuals. I mean, there were and are people that are having to live out on the streets. You know, there becomes a real concern, a health concern of the high temperatures. Oh yeah, they like hot days can kill people, they

do all the time. And so air conditioning one of the things says that you know, air conditioning did in many ways measurably improved life, Like it cut down on deaths related to hot weather um. But on the other hand, he's talking about how a lot of the cultural differences and traditions that are associated with communities that live in hot climates, including the American South, are a result of the hot climate. You know, they're not it's not just incidental.

It's like, you know, like the cookout tradition. You know, it's a result of the fact that there's hot weather. And with the introduction of air conditioning, many of the distinct cultural features that define cultures in hot climates diminish over time. And so he sort of argues that climate control has to some extent homogenized the United States as a culture and reduced to sort of reduced some regional

variations that were derived from differences in temperatures throughout the year. UM. And if Arsenal is correct in his thesis about the American South, obviously this effect would not just be an American phenomenon. Is similar thing could be happening anywhere that air conditioning pervades hot climates, changing cultural practices and ways of life along with it. Yeah, it just it basically

changes the equation for from modern living. Yeah. Now we've talked a little bit about the commercial growth that results due to air condition technology, especially in hotter regions, say at the United States in the post war period. But another thing to think about is that a c ends up, you know, proving essential in the computer age is a way to keep these machines from overheating. Oh yeah, I mean we're filling our living spaces also with these machines

that are dumping a lot of heat constantly. I mean, I wonder how much how much a computer heats up a non air conditioned room or a bunch of computers. Yeah, I'm sure there's some stats on that left of to look and certainly how how into what extent has changed over the years. Yeah. Now, there are other strange ways the legacy of air conditioning could be even more powerful

than it first seems. For example, there are a bunch of uh, there are a bunch of little threads of social science research about heat and climate control and various social outcomes at the broad level that are correlated with heat and access to air conditioning. For example, I was reading a September article by Jeff Asher in The New or Times that examines a bunch of existing data on

the possible or supposed links between weather and crime. Now when looking at stuff like this, I do want to avoid something that that that actually Raymond arson Oh talks about in his article, which is he calls it mono causal climate, a logical determinism, you know, basically like looking at the climate or the weather as like the one

cause it causal factor in you know, broad social trends. So, yeah, you see this from time to time where it's like hot cultures are like this, old cultures are like this, U and sometimes there is you know, in specific areas, there's I think there's more of a case to be made, like I don't know, when you start talking about spices and food and some of that comes into you know, availability of spices as well. Oh. Absolutely, it's it's certainly got to be the case that there are influences of

climate and temperature on culture. I think that's undeniable. It's just that you want to avoid what he calls the mono causal you know, climate alogical determinism where the temperature or is the cause of social outcomes. Uh So we would be careful not to do that, but look at like possible links where where the temperature could be a factor on broad social outcomes. And one example is the long running documented link between hot weather and crime, hot

weather and murder rates, for example. Uh So, it seems to be the case that if you just chart an American city across a year, you're very likely to see a pattern where the hotter it is, the more people get murdered. Asher writes. Quote in Philadelphia, for example, there were two point six shooting victims per day on average when it was cold, three point four on pleasant days,

and four point four on hot days. And that's for a period I think of the mid teens um And so this really does seem to be related to temperature, because while the rates of indoor shootings stay mostly the same throughout the year, the rates of outdoor shootings increase noticeably the hotter it is interesting. Well, one of the things that you know about crime, that is, people have a negativity bias about trends and crime. People always think

things are worse than they've ever been. There's more crime, there's more violent today in the United States. That that is not true at all. Violent crime has been dropping for decades in the United States. Murder rates are at a you know, multi decade low. Uh So. Uh but

also there's something interesting going on there. You don't want you certainly don't want to overstate potential causality, But I wonder if could increased access to air conditioned homes in the summer partially contribute to decreases in crime over time, to decreases in violent crime over time, because you know, if if you're seeing that there is some impact of like people being outside in hot weather on hot days with rates of violence, could access to air conditioned interior

interior spaces actually play some role there for some inside with the television, so then they're they're safer, but then they feel less safe because they're watching, uh, the murders

that are occurring exaggerated and just chewed upon on the television. Well, I do think TV TV coverage definitely contributes to that negativity bias and people's beliefs about crime and things like that, whatever the actual reasons, you know, whether air conditioning or climate control or anything has anything to do with it at all. Uh, it is certainly the case that you know, violent crime is is at uh, you know, an exceedingly low point compared to historical trends in the United States.

So don't buy into that it's always worse, you know, it's worse than it's ever been idea, right of course, And the other day they're into the spectrums the air conditioning is is not going to solve all the world's problems. Um, though there were I did. I did read a few little snippets here about some granted, I think they were into all individuals that were part of like the carrier corporation or other refrigerator companies, refrigerator or air conditioning companies.

They were making like a case that like that we can do it, this can this about world peace. And I think the particular argument was not like social but it was more like, hey, we're arguing we're getting in all these scuffles over resources, but if we have enough air conditioning, then we can get all the resources from all the places and then we won't fight anymore, which you know has not turned out to be the case. Yeah, yeah,

don't buy into that. Another interesting bit of social science data that I was looking at about air conditioning is the same article by Jeff Asher points it out. By the way, an interesting piece of research by Harvard Kennedy School Associate professor Joshua Goodman, who found a correlation between cooler temperatures and increased academic performance. Quote, students scored lower when they just experienced a hot school year than when

they just experienced a cool school year. But that air conditioning in schools mostly eliminated the influence of heat on academic performance. So you have an unusually hot school year that tends to hurt academic performance if your school is not air conditioned. Uh. And this sort of just intuitively makes sense to me. It's like, you know, it's hot weather, it seems like it's harder to focus on mental tasks and things like that. Um, but that air conditioning inside

the schools mitigated this effect. Interesting. Yeah, I mean I every time I pick up my son from school from his elementary school, Uh, he'll come out and you know often like hold his hand when walking away from school doors and his hand will be so cold from the air conditioning inside. But but yeah, I'm all for it being there if it you know, it gives them in

the environment they need to learn. And with all these social science findings, I think we should always be careful not to read too much into single findings until there's been a lot of replication and analysis or findings by others in the field. So I think it's best to sort of treat these as interesting preliminary findings. I will I will say this, like, if you're in a cool environment and you're prepared, you have a greater ability to

regulate your own temperature. You know, you can always put on a jacket or a hoodie right in a in an overly air conditioned space, no matter what the you know, the realities of the energy consumption are there. Likewise, in a hot space, there's generally only so much you can take off, and there is an absolute limit to what you can take off. Uh, you know, the social decorum aside. Right.

But but if either of these findings are on the right track about like academic performance or crime, I mean, you wonder in what other ways could temperature and climate control be changing our society and our culture that you know, we're not appreciating or haven't been studied numerically in these ways. Yeah.

Another thing to keep in mind is just a different cultures are also going to have a different relationship with being cool and being hot, things that have evolved due to their you know, just their cultural exposure to different temperatures or sometimes even ideas. I didn't get too far into this because there's I wasn't encountering a lot of

scholarship about it. But for instance, and we've talked a little bit about, you know, the rollout of air conditioning in uh in in in China, and you know, there are some interesting ideas about like what cold and hot mean within traditional Chinese medicine, etcetera, and uh, and so you know that that's one possibility to look at, like how does how does that play out in the culture that has certain values historically attached to say warm and cold air. Oh, I want to know more about what

what are the values? I mean some of it gets into two to yin and yang and you know and so forth. UM. But some of the papers I was finding where I was hesitant really include them because they were like from the mostly from the seventies and eighties, and they were dealing with like very rare cases of people with UM they were experiencing frigi phobia, like a fear of cold air and an aversion to air conditioned

spaces and uh. And so these papers were tying like these rare cases in with potentially looking at potentially how some of these ideas within Chinese culture affected these individuals and I believe. I believe it was like in China and Taiwan, and perhaps there was a case in Singapore they were looking at um. But in in any way, it's one of those things that I wouldn't want to certainly wouldn't want to blow it out of proportion because I think we're talking about very rare cases of people

with with with a with a with a mental illness. Yeah, but but to what extent that is exasperated by ideas that are present in a given culture. I mean, I guess it's open for debate, but I would want to I would want to read more about that before I said anything more definitive. But it does serve as it like an interesting just side example of like, well, here's an idea of what cold and heat mean. Here's the

way it could, uh, in extreme cases present itself. But then how does it end up presenting itself in more in milder cases, you know, and and and more just sort of uh, you know, ambiently throughout a culture. Another thing I would think would probably be hugely significant that we haven't really examined at all is how air conditioning affects fashion. Yeah, like what what people wear in what

kinds of spaces, what's acceptable to wear? Yeah, I mean I certainly wouldn't think think of it as much as fashion, but like I generally prefer to wear a hoodie. Uh and air conditioning allows me to do that year round, you know. Climate control allows me to do it year round.

But then artificial climate tends to demand that you do it, you know, so you generally, you know, if you especially if you have an office job, you're having to dress for an artificial environment and then also perhaps for the environment that exists between the artificial environments that you spend

your time. Our office environment is very strange because you get um so it's like artificially cold of course in the summer because it's air condition but then at certain times of day, if you're by the window, you become an ant under the magnifying glass and that totally throws everything off too. Yeah, yeah, this is I don't think there's any like passive solar design employed here. And then of course the studios themselves get really hot. Sometimes the

studios here are that sweaty growing you mentioned earlier. Well, there you have an air conditioning A three partner here. Again, we weren't able to cover everything in the history of air conditioning, or certainly with refrigeration, which is at times

intertwined with with the history of air conditioning. But hopefully we touched on some of the key ideas and perhaps we've we've presented enough information that will that will, you know, make you stop and think about the air conditioning that you use in your life, maybe value it a little bit more and realize that in many cases you know it is it is more of a luxury. Um. But we would love to hear from everyone out there, like what is your relationship with air conditioning? Have you ever

lived without it? Uh? Particularly have you ever lived without it in a hot climate? And how you know, what did you do to manage it. We have already heard back from some listeners on this, and I'm hopefully we'll get to roll these out on a listener mail in the future. Uh yeah. We heard from at least one listener who grew up in India and who talked about their experience not even thinking of sweat as a bad

thing the way most Americans do. Yeah, yeah, there's this kind of American thing to think of, like any any sweat that is occurring without your consent, is is a travesty, you know, like like sweat is the thing that that happens on my terms. Yeah, I admit I I fall totally into that gid. Like I am cool with being sweaty if I'm like hanging out outside, you know, or I'm working outside or something like that. Can't stand being

sweaty if it's like what's the word. It's like if you're sweaty on your way to work or something, that's just the worst. Yeah. Well, we've also had lots of media to really drive this home, right, lots of deodorant commercials that really just drive home how gross it is to be sweaty. There's something wrong with your body. Yeah, I think I used to buy into that more. Now I'm more of the mind that like like like feeling

sweaty like feels good. Like I think part of that was from like sweating on my own terms, But then I did enough of that where I'm like, oh, I'm not even like really exerting myself, but it's hot out, I'm sweating. It feels good to sweat. Um So, and then of course it's you know, you're not going to you're generally not going to smell bad until later anyway, like that fresh sweat is not the problem. But I would also love to hear from anyone about movie theaters.

How cold do you like your movie theater? Um? Are you one of these people that would prefer to have to wear a winter coat? Uh? And then Uh, I know we've heard from some folk. When we talked about the Tingler on our other show, stuff to Bow Your Mind, we heard from some people who went to the theater back in the day. So I would love to hear from any you know, older members of the listening audience out there that might be able to chime in about

theaters of old. What was it like going back then and in the war between the Chili movie theater and the the outdoor Um? Uh, drive in cinema? Which do you prefer? Oh, it's got to depend on what you're seeing, right, that's there. Yeah, there's some films that are more suitable for the drive in, right. Yeah, let's be movie territory. Yeah, I saw I think I saw the mcgruber movie at the drive in. Oh, I guess that. I guess that's

a good one. I've I've only seen I think I've only seen like classic horror films at the drive in. Um No. I also saw the Grindhouse Movies at the drive in. That was fun, the double feature. We are fortunate enough in Atlanta that we do have we still have a drive in theater that that folks can go to all right. In the meantime, if you want to check out other episodes of Invention, head on over to invention pot dot com. That is where you'll find it.

If you want to check out our other show, Stuff to Blow your Mind, that's Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. And you can find both of these shows wherever you get your podcasts and wherever you do get your podcast I just make sure you rate and review us. Bring all the stars, Bring all the love please uh huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth

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