The Forgotten Father of Air Conditioning (Tales from Room 241, No. 4)
"Mechanical condensation… a means which will enable human skill to command the refrigerating powers of nature." - Dr. John Gorrie
Fall is upon us. The leaves are changing, football is back on the TV, Christmas decorations are already out for some reason, and in the South that means one thing—it’s still just as hot as it was in the Summer. Here in Tuscaloosa we’ve just recently had a brief few weeks of perfect fall weather with a crisp breeze and leaves beginning to change color. That means, of course, it’s time to settle into another month of high 80’s before things cool down for good. With as rough as this yearly tradition is, it helps put into perspective just how beautiful of a thing air conditioning is. How many times have you heard people praise AC as one of humanity’s best inventions? How many times have you felt that way yourself? Surely, the creator of such an important invention should be heralded as a great American hero like George Washington or Dolly Parton, but that’s not the case. Still, everyone deserves their due, and he especially deserves his. This is the story Dr. John Gorrie, the forgotten father of air conditioning and refrigeration.
In a statement that will surprise absolutely nobody, the 1800s were a rough time. Gorrie was born October 3rd, 1803 and grew up in South Carolina. However, his life really got interesting in 1833 when he moved to Apalachicola, Florida. Apalachicola would become his home for the majority of the rest of his life, and he was deeply ingrained into the town’s culture. He served as Postmaster, Notary, Mayor, Secretary of the Masonic Lodge, President of the bank, member of the City Council, physician, and founding vestryman of the Trinity Episcopal Church. This, of course, was all in addition to his research into yellow fever and ways of stopping it.
Gorrie believed that the way to stop the fever was with cold. In order to test his theory, he created a refrigeration machine in 1844. Now I am far from a scientist, so I can only repeat what Gorrie made rather than understanding it, but his technique was that of “compressing a gas, cooling it by sending it through radiating coils, and then expanding it to lower the temperature further.” This is in fact the technique still used by most refrigerators today. This technique was also used to cool hospital rooms of yellow fever patients and worked well, with this technique even being used when President Garfield was dying to help assist him.
While the science and inventions are all remarkable, this is where the story starts to get more interesting. See, up until the 1950’s ice was, ironically, a hot commodity. There was no way to automatically make ice, and so ice shipments from the north was the singular avenue to getting it. The most prolific of these ice sailors was Fredric Tudor, who was dubbed “The Ice King.” These northern ice manufacturers had a stranglehold over southern markets, especially whenever yellow fever outbreaks occurred and the need for ice rose drastically. So, when this random guy comes up on the scene with not only a way to cool down rooms separate from traditional ice, as well as a way to artificially create ice, there was going to be some trouble.
As any scientist who had just made two revolutionary technologies would do, Gorrie went up to Cincinnati (where one of his ice machines was built) to have them patented. From there Gorrie went to New Orleans (the biggest importer of ice at the time) to try and get investors. However, the ice lobby was there to stop him. Ice traders like Tudor saw the massive threat to their business that Gorrie had created, and made sure to use their vast amounts of social, economic, and political power to stop him. And the thing is, it worked. In fact, it worked so well that Gorrie never saw a single cent from his ice machine. This culminated in his death on June 29, 1855. The Civil War occurred soon after and for a very long time both Gorrie and his ice machine were forgotten about. Yet over in Europe, other scientists were looking into ways of making artificial ice, and back in the states the crucial nature of the South having their ice withheld showed a need for new ways of distributing ice. Once ice become more readily available, techniques to fully create artificially cooled rooms were well on their way too. And as you’re probably reading this in an air conditioned room right now, I’m sure you know how the rest of the story ended up.
But what happened to the legacy of Dr. John Gorrie? He was the man who ushered in ice machines and air conditioning, yet he has been seemingly lost to the annals of history. While that may seem true, all it takes is a trip to Apalachicola to realize the local legend that this man is. It’s only fair after all, seeing as the man basically ran the whole town for a few years. Sitting just a bit away from the main area of town is the John Gorrie Museum State Park. It’s located just across the road from Trinity Church (which he started) and features a history of his life, personal items, and a scaled down model of his original ice machine. It also has this incredible t-shirt that I bought.
Scientific genius aside, Gorrie was just a stand up guy. His friends, family, and peers all loved him, and the town of Apalachicola has everything to thank him for. But in my research for this I found probably the funniest thing he did in his life, and that was help his friend win a bet.
One of the ice shipments coming to Apalachicola had gotten stopped in New Orleans, and a patron at the Mansion House (an old timey hangout) was complaining about the lack of ice in his drink. A friend of Gorrie’s took up the man on a bet that there would be ice at the Mansion House the next day. So, the man goes to Gorrie and gets him to make some artificial ice so he can win the bet. Keep in mind, this is when artificial ice machines are barely even public knowledge, so nobody could expect this to be the case. The next day the ice ship is still in New Orleans, so when the patron comes to collect on his bet he is absolutely stunned to find the Mansion House handing out drinks full of ice. While he may have never made any money off his machine, Dr. John Gorrie using it to screw some random dude over in a bet is probably the next best thing.
The story of Dr. John Gorrie is unfortunately one unbeknownst to many. The inventor of technology that is used all over the world constantly is not known by many, but luckily he has not been totally forgotten. In addition to the museum in Apalachicola, his likeness has been immortalized in Washington, D.C. in National Statuary Hall Collection. So in the future, whenever you get a brief reprieve from the heat with some A/C and a drink with some ice in it, make sure to thank Dr. John Gorrie for that one.