Q 01/05

In 1902 Willis Carrier designed the first modern air-conditioning system for a Brooklyn firm. What did that firm do?

A) Print lithographs

B) Brew lager beer and ale

C) Pack and cure meat

D) Spin cotton thread

Answer · why

A) Print lithographs

Summer humidity was making the paper swell and the colour inks misalign, so the system was built to control moisture rather than to make anyone comfor...

Q 02/05

Willis Carrier was a research engineer at which firm when he designed that first system?

A) Westinghouse Electric

B) Buffalo Forge

C) York Manufacturing

D) General Electric

Answer · why

B) Buffalo Forge

Carrier had just finished a master's in engineering at Cornell in 1901; the firm's founders later backed him when he struck out on his own.

Q 03/05

Who coined 'air conditioning' in a 1906 patent claim while trying to humidify his North Carolina textile mill?

A) Alfred R. Wolff

B) John B. Gorrie

C) Stuart W. Cramer

D) Frederick M. Jones

Answer · why

C) Stuart W. Cramer

Textile mills were early adopters because the right humidity keeps yarn from snapping, and Carrier happily borrowed the phrase for his own company.

Q 04/05

Willis Carrier was granted U.S. patent 808,897 on January 2, 1906. What was the invention titled?

A) Humidity Regulating Engine

B) Method of Cooling Rooms

C) Air Washing Machine

D) Apparatus for Treating Air

Answer · why

D) Apparatus for Treating Air

The 'treatment' was spraying air with water to add or remove humidity, which is why early systems were essentially very fancy air washers.

Q 05/05

How many young engineers pooled $32,600 in 1915 to found the Carrier Engineering Corporation?

A) Seven

B) Nine

C) Eleven

D) Fifteen

Answer · why

A) Seven

The company later merged with two rivals in 1930 to become the Carrier Corporation and moved to Syracuse, New York, in 1937.