This is how Americans used to keep themselves cool before ACs were invented
With global warming increasing at an alarming rate, the necessity of a cooling mechanism is obvious. The man who we should all thank for helping us beat the heat is Willis Carrier, the American engineer who invented the modern air conditioning system. Okay, but what did people do to keep themselves cool in the days preceding the invention of air conditioners (ACs)? Well, different times have called for ingenious measures that could help Americans survive the extremities of weather. Here are some of them.
Canvas Awnings
Have you seen sheets of canvas or other materials stretched on a frame that’s used to keep the sun or rain off a shop window, doorway, or ship's deck? Well, that’s what an awning is. Now, if you start looking at images of famous buildings before the ACs came into being, you will notice that many of them had awnings over practically every window. Simply put, awnings have been used to provide the required shade to keep sunlight at bay during hot summer months.
Fan Chairs
In the 1780s, Philadelphia-based musical instrument maker John Cram is said to have created a smart but clumsy cooling system for American artist Charles Willson Peale. What he created was a fan chair in which there was a fan hanging above the chair, controlled by pedals beneath the sitter's feet. The mechanism was a bit an old sewing machine. Believe us if you would, this strange invention actually garnered him some notable clientele too. During the scorching summer of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (May 14 to September 17, 1787), the yet-to-be first US president, George Washington reportedly purchased one of these for 32 shillings and 6 pence!
In fact, Washington had it delivered to his home in Mount Vernon, USA where a copy of this cooling device is now on display. American polymath Benjamin Franklin is also said to have owned one such fan.. However, the device had a limited mass appeal at the time probably because of the additional labour involved.
Sleeping Porches
Another bizarre invention for tackling extremely hot weather, sleeping porches have come a long way. These porches had walls made of screens. These screened-in porches gave both a cool place to sleep as well as access to fresh air. Apparently, some of these discoveries happened between 17th and 20th century in USA. According to various reports, William Howard Taft, America's 27th President had a sleeping porch built on the roof of his official residence, the White House, in 1910.
In fact, the Popular Science journal reported in 1916 about a child-sized sleeping porch. Like today's window air conditioners, it could be installed in any urban high-rise, offering fresh air for the child and "allowing their busy young mothers plenty of time to do housework." Interestingly, the story of the sleeping porches led to the making of Solarium. This was a room on the third floor of Executive Mansion at White House, constructed during the tenure of 30th US President, Calvin Coolidge in 1927.