USA: Carrier is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the centrifugal chiller, an invention which  Carrier says opened the door to large-scale air conditioning while improving the effectiveness of process cooling.

On the evening of May 22, 1922, 300 people were invited by Willis Haviland Carrier to a sheet metal shop in Newark, New Jersey, for a free meal and a boxing match followed by the unveiling of the first centrifugal chiller technology. 

Carrier’s idea to combine a centrifugal refrigeration compressor with a shell, a new type of condenser and a chiller on one frame enhanced process cooling in factories around the world. 

Following the first installation of three centrifugal chillers at a Philadelphia chocolate factory in 1923, Carrier’s innovation soon provided process cooling to rayon manufacturers in India and cracker factories in Mexico.

In 1924, Carrier realised his dream of comfort cooling when the owners of a Detroit department store added centrifugal chillers. A decade later centrifugal refrigeration had driven process air into more than 200 industries.