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kathyjane_gw

Speaking of the Heat........

kathyjane
12 years ago

According to the news, the first air-conditioning used to cool a home was in 1901.

A 5 hp fan was used to pump cool air from Luray Caverns into a small home nearby.

Imagine the the visitors they must've had as word got out!

Luray Caverns is located near Luray between I81 and the Skyline Parkway, which is the northern connector to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

---wonder how much radon is in those caverns? With the heat gridlock we've been in, I don't think anyone paying to get in would really care!

Comments (7)

  • mwoods
    12 years ago

    I remember the first time I was exposed to air conditioning. We had just moved to Arizona and I remember walking into the house we were renting and the air conditioner was on. Wow...what an experience.After a year of that,I never looked back.I still prefer sleeping with the windows open and the breezes blowing,but when the temps are in the 80s and it's humid..forget it.

  • meldy_nva
    12 years ago

    I remember no AC all too well. Bed in front of the window so that any errant breeze would help cool: not much and no solid sleep anyhow. Elementary school didn't even have fans; one teacher brought in a big electric fan that was on a tall stand. Every one else really envied that classroom as our arms stuck to paper and desk, and you learned to hold your head back so sweat didn't drop onto whatever you were trying to write. Girls not only wore full-gathered skirts, but there were also at least one petticoat underneath, it's amazing there weren't more cases of heatstroke especially after playing tag, jumprope, or ball games.

    Cooking and canning were miseries in their own category. We used to do a lot of canning at night when the temperature in the kitchen only got up to about 105*. Canning during the day meant steamy kitchen temps of 115* or more.

    By the time I was living on my own, AC still wasn't *common*, but it was available. I paid rent that was 1/3 more than usual just to live in an apartment with AC. Worth every dollar!

    And the wonder of having AC in the car is still a wonder to me. Sometimes when the sun is high and I'm sitting at a stoplight, I realize just how very much I appreciate living in this age of AC.

  • mawheel
    12 years ago

    Air conditioning was not in my childhood, teenage years, or even as a newly wed. When DH and I got married in 1951, even window fans were in short supply. My Dad managed to buy one off the back of a truck for us. It seems crazy to me, now, that the prevailing wisdom of the time said if you closed all windows except for about two inches, the box window fan would suck out the hot air and pull cooler--supposedly--outside air into the room or rooms, if it was centrally located. All I remember is lying in bed in a puddle of perspiration--with hot air blowing over me!

    I consider A/C as one of our blessings!

  • gabriell_gw
    12 years ago

    I also consider air conditioning a blessing. My high school did not have air conditioning and I can well remember sitting in several petticoats and long gathered skirt.It's hard to believe we wore all that clothing in the hot Texas weather.

  • don_socal
    12 years ago

    Basement

  • posieh
    12 years ago

    We kids in our family had Chicken Pox one hot, humid week in July with out air or even a fan !!! Wow, did we suffer and cry. I don't believe we even had refrigeration at that time, so no ice cubes. Mom could make lemonade that was cold as the well water was cold and she'd sponge us off with a cool wash cloth.

  • west_gardener
    12 years ago

    When I was sixteen yo,(with a work permit) I worked in a paper cup factory in Alexandria, VA. It was hot,humid and noisy and it had no air conditioning. Some of the time I worked on the "waxing machine", that's were I dipped the cups in hot wax.
    It was miserable, but everyone had to work to support the family, so I was glad to have a job.
    I wanted a job in an air conditioned office, so in addition to my high school classes, I enrolled in every English class I could find, office courses, shorthand, steno, dictation and typing. I finally landed an office job in an air conditioned building in DC.
    I've never looked back.