One hundred years ago on July 17th, Willis Carrier, a 25-year-old apprentice engineer employed by the Buffalo Forge Company, handed in his plan to solve a new client's problem--and air-conditioning was born, according to Carrier Corp.
The client, Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing Co. of Brooklyn, experienced problems when its sheets of paper used for production were expanding and contracting in the heat and humidity, causing ink not to dry properly. The publishers of one of Sackett-Wilhelms' biggest clients, Judge magazine, were not pleased with the production problems and threatened to take their business elsewhere.