Synopses & Reviews
It's July and it's 94 degrees Fahrenheit. What do you do? Blast the air conditioning. It's a modern miracle of convenience and cooling. How did it happen? Sal Basile's narrative history traces the origins one of the machines we take for granted.It's a contraption that makes the lists of "Greatest Inventions Ever"; at the same time, it's accused of causing global disaster. It has changed everything from architecture to people's food habits to their voting patterns, to even the way big business washes its windows. It has saved countless lives . . . while causing countless deaths. Most of us are glad it's there. But we don't know how, or when, it got there.
It's air conditioning.
For thousands of years, humankind attempted to do something about the slow torture of hot weather. Everything was tried: water power, slave power, electric power, ice made from steam engines and cold air made from deadly chemicals, "zephyrifers," refrigerated beds, ventilation amateurs and professional air-sniffers. It wasn't until 1902 when an engineer barely out of college developed the "Apparatus for Treating Air" a machine that could actually cool the indoors and everyone assumed it would instantly change the world.
That wasn't the case. There was a time when people "ignored" hot weather while reading each day's list of heat-related deaths, women wore furs in the summertime, heatstroke victims were treated with bloodletting . . . and the notion of a machine to cool the air was considered preposterous, even sinful.
The story of air conditioning is actually two stories: the struggle to perfect a cooling device, and the effort to convince people that they actually needed such a thing. With a cast of characters ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Nixon to Felix the Cat, Cool showcases the myriad reactions to air conditioning some of them dramatic, many others comical and wonderfully inconsistent as it was developed and presented to the world. Here is a unique perspective on air conditioning's fascinating history: how we rely so completely on it today, and how it might change radically tomorrow.
Review
"Sal Basile's conversational style and knack for turning a phrase make Cool a brisk and delightful read." -Christopher Dietrich, Fordham University
"Cool offers a fascinating glimpse into what life was like before the advent of air conditioning and how its acceptance changed society. Well researched and with fascinating stories on every page, Cool is a fast-paced chronicle of one of history's behind-the-scenes stories that many of us take for granted: how air conditioning changed the way we live."--Chuck Campbell, President/CEO, Friedrich Air Conditioning Co.
"A look at our love affair with air conditioning. . . In his breezily anecdotal book, Mr. Basile reminds readers that . . . air-conditioning was not just about comfort. It triggered a cultural and demographic revolution."--Sam Roberts, The New York Times
"The technically minded reader might feel a little short-changed by Basile's short, sharp micro-history, but the essentials are all here: the problem of humidity, the risks posed by different refrigerants, and so on." -New Scientist
"This will come as a relief to readers more inclined to lively, well-researched nonfiction narratives than scientific manuals. Nevertheless, Basile offers enough information about mechanics to be able to explain cogently, and in layman's terms, why predecessors to the modern air conditioner were ineffective, and why the invention as we know it today succeeded where its forebears had failed." -The Weekly Standard
Synopsis
It's a contraption that makes the lists of "Greatest Inventions Ever"; at the same time, it's accused of causing global disaster. It has changed everything from architecture to people's food habits to their voting patterns, to even the way big business washes its windows. It has saved countless lives . . . while causing countless deaths. Most of us are glad it's there. But we don't know how, or when, it got there. It's air conditioning. For thousands of years, humankind attempted to do something about the slow torture of hot weather. Everything was tried: water power, slave power, electric power, ice made from steam engines and cold air made from deadly chemicals, "zephyrifers," refrigerated beds, ventilation amateurs and professional air-sniffers. It wasn't until 1902 when an engineer barely out of college developed the "Apparatus for Treating Air"--a machine that could actually cool the indoors--and everyone assumed it would instantly change the world. That wasn't the case. There was a time when people "ignored" hot weather while reading each day's list of heat-related deaths, women wore furs in the summertime, heatstroke victims were treated with bloodletting . . . and the notion of a machine to cool the air was considered preposterous, even sinful. The story of air conditioning is actually two stories: the struggle to perfect a cooling device, and the effort to convince people that they actually needed such a thing. With a cast of characters ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Nixon to Felix the Cat, Cool showcases the myriad reactions to air conditioning-- some of them dramatic, many others comical and wonderfully inconsistent--as it was developed and presented to the world. Here is a unique perspective on air conditioning's fascinating history: how we rely so completely on it today, and how it might change radically tomorrow.
About the Author
Salvatore Basile was educated at the Boston Conservatory and The Juilliard School and began his career as a professional musician. After penning various music-related articles, he entered the field of social commentary with his history
Fifth Avenue Famous: The Extraordinary Story of Music at St. Patrick's Cathedral (Fordham).
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Ice, Air, and Crowd Poison
2. The Wondrous Comfort of Ammonia
3. For Paper, Not People
4. Coolth: Everybody's Doing It
5. Big Ideas. Bold Concepts. Bad Timing.
6. From Home Front to Each Home
7. The Unnecessary, Unhealthy Luxury (that No One would Give Up)