108 Degrees in Billings with No AC

When we arrived at work this morning it was 91 degrees in the control room  No AC. It's a problem many people are having right now. Can you imagine a life without AC or refrigeration? Well, it wasn't that long ago. The Chinese actually started to experiment with it in 1000 BC. People then used ice for the longest time to keep things cool and preserved along with cool ground temperatures from root cellars. In the 1700s Ben Franklin actually started experimenting with ether but couldn't quite get there. He did say though that someday we will see the possibility of freezing a man to death in the summertime.

In 1915 they had some antiquated type of refrigeration but it used ammonia and leaked so bad it made people sick. It wasn't until 1930 that freon or R-12 was used and refrigerators became widely accepted. Freezers quickly followed knowing that if you keep food at 0 degrees or lower it would keep indefinitely. The air-conditioner actually came before the refrigerator in 1901 thanks to William Carrier who was able to use the benefit of electricity to help cool. Can you imagine your vehicle now without AC? It was first tried in the automobile in 1933 but it was finally the Packard in 1939 that offered it in a vehicle.

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I didn't have central AC in my house until 2000 and it's one of the things I'll never forgive myself for making my family suffer from the oppressive heat in a brick house. Oh well, we all survived. Builds toughness. Sometimes we all take these great inventions for granted. Stay cool.