The iconic physicist Albert Einstein is credited with discovering the Theory of Relativity and the famous equation E=mc2.
The basics of the theory, however, had already been developed by Hendrik Lorentz, a Dutch physicist, and Henri Poincaré, a French mathematician who remained in obscurity.
Likewise, Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone was credited to him only because Italian inventor Antonio Meucci failed to pay the full amount needed to complete the patent on a voice-communication gadget. At least Willis Carrier had the decency to use the discoveries of a man who had died nearly 50 years before he discovered the world’s first air conditioning system. So, I think it is time to show John B. Gorrie (1803 – 1855), an American physician, scientist, and inventor, some love for his work that made Willis Carrier a household name. Dr. Gorrie lived in Florida and he was focused on tropical diseases like malaria, thought at that time to be caused by “bad air”. He used a basin of ice hung from the ceiling that cooled the air around it allowing gravity to make the heavier cool air sink onto the grateful patients in a Florida sickroom. The trouble was that ice was hard to get in Florida. Gorrie began work on a machine to make ice and was even issued a patent. Unfortunately, his partner and financial backer died, and Gorrie was unable to manufacture his machine. He died alone, secluded, and broke in 1855 leaving his work to the benefit of Carrier 47 years later, whose work led to HVAC. So, the next time you are sitting in the comfort of your home cooled by an HVAC unit that might have Carrier’s name on it, raise your glass (or can) to Dr. Gorrie.