April 2009 

NSPE TODAY: NSPE's 75th
Beating the Heat

75 years ago this September, NSPE was founded. Here's a look at some other engineering news from 1934.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers gave its highest award, the ASME Medal, to Willis Carrier of Newark, New Jersey, for air conditioning research.

Carrier is known as the father of modern air conditioning, having developed the first modern electrical air conditioning unit in 1902 to improve manufacturing conditions in a printing plant. At the time, his engineering degree from Cornell University was only a year old.

Carrier received a patent on his device several years later. In 1915, he formed the Carrier Engineering Corp. with other young engineers, the first independent company devoted to air conditioning. That company was a precursor to the modern day Carrier Corp.