Air Conditioning in the Golden Era

[HudsonHawk]

A car with a combination of a cowl vent and vent windows will make you wonder why they ever bothered to invent automotive AC. The only disadvantage is that it doesn't keep you very cool when you're waiting to pass a road crew.

They don't really keep you cool when it's 105 degrees with 99% humidity either. It's kind of like a giant heated blow dryer on you.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have several brochures from hotels in the 1940s that advertise air conditioning. And I know trains had it fairly early and preceding air conditioning trains used air forced over blocks of ice stored under the train.

The first air conditioned room in Houston (maybe in Texas?) was the cafeteria of the Rice Hotel, in 1922.

On a side note...the Rice Hotel is at the location of what was the Capitol of the Republic of Texas, prior to it being moved to Austin in 1839.

 

[HudsonHawk]

In the sixties I lived in Florida and several of the old "cracker's" home still existed. They were marvels of engineering, with high roofs to move heat away from the living areas, and verandas all around. To take advantage of the local prevailing winds caused by ocean winds reversing from day to night the windows were adjustable in size so that the leeward windows could be larger than the windward causing a Venturi effect. There was always a breeze. I dated a young lady who lived in one and was amazed at how comfortable it was even in the sticky heat that Florida is famous for

Many of my relatives lived in old cracker houses, some even with a dog-trot.