(first posted 6/1/2017) I’ve never really seen a good, comprehensive history of Automotive Air Conditioning, so I decided to take it upon myself to write one, being somewhat of a scholar on the subject. In this first installment, we will deal with the pre-World War II attempts at automotive A/C, or the pre-modern era as I call it.
The principles of mechanical cooling were understood for centuries, but it wasn’t until Willis Carrier installed his first commercial system in 1902 that air conditioning was born. While it was slow to start, by the 1930’s air conditioning started to become commonplace in stores, movie theaters, and office buildings. With the rise of steel-bodied closed cars in the 1920s, people naturally wanted to bring this experience to their vehicles.
First Automotive Air Conditioning System. Photo Courtesy ASHRAE
While people have been playing around with ice and evaporative cooling since cars first became enclosed, most historians recognize John Hamman, Jr. as the owner of the first air-conditioned car. The system was custom-built and installed by Kelvinator in Houston, Texas around 1930, as much for the treatment of Mr. Hamman’s severe allergies as for its cooling ability. It was mounted in the back of the car, where the external trunk would normally be, and was powered by its own internal combustion engine.
Other than the photo above, I can’t find much information on Mr. Hamman’s Kelvinator setup. However, the newspaper article below shows a similar system being tested in New York City in 1933. A large compressor running under your feet no doubt canceled out the noise isolation benefits of having the windows up.
While the systems above were one-offs, all the major auto manufacturers were working on their own air conditioning systems in the 1930s. However, several obstacles needed to be overcome before commercially viable automotive air conditioning could become a reality.
First, the systems needed to be reduced in size and complexity so that they would fit within the body of a car, and be powered off the car’s engine, instead of requiring a separate internal combustion engine. This would be accomplished by spreading the components throughout the car, as we shall see.
Second, many of the refrigerants used in early air conditioning system (such as ammonia, chloromethane, propane, and sulfur dioxide) were either toxic, flammable, or both. In either case, these are not desirable properties for a material in an automobile to have in the event of an accident or leak. While less dangerous refrigerants like air and water were experimented with, they are not practical because a phase change is typically not involved in their use, and as a result, they have a low thermodynamic efficiency.
In the 1930s, a joint team from GM and Dupont discovered that by combining carbon tetrachloride with hydrogen fluoride, one could produce Dichlorodifluoromethane, better known as Freon-12. Here was a refrigerant that met or exceeded the efficiency of its more dangerous alternatives, but was (at the time) considered completely harmless. Co-discoverer Thomas Midgley famously gave public demonstrations of this by filling his lungs with Freon, and then blowing out a candle. With the discovery of R-12, the last obstacle to practical automotive air conditioning had been overcome.
While GM clearly had an early lead in automotive AC by developing Freon with Dupont, for reasons I have not been able to ascertain they did not rush to capitalize on it (perhaps it was the Depression). Instead, it was Packard that has the honor of debuting the first “factory” automotive air conditioning system, in August of 1939, on its 1940 Senior models, the 160 and 180. I placed the word factory in quotes because in actuality, the system was not installed at the Packard plant in Detroit, nor was the system even developed by Packard. Instead, vehicles ordered with the $475 option (about $5,000 today) were shipped to Cleveland, Ohio, where Bishop & Babcock performed the installation of their system.
The B&B air conditioning system, unlike modern systems, had components scattered throughout the vehicle, as shown in the diagram above. Like modern systems, the compressor was engine driven and located under the hood, and the condenser was located in front of the radiator. However, the blower and evaporator were located behind the trunk, and the dryer/accumulator were located amidship, on the refrigerant return line from the rear of the car to the front.
1940 Packard with Bishop and Babcock “Factory” air conditioning
Compared to modern systems, the Bishop & Babcock system was primitive. The system discharged cooled air through a single duct in the rear parcel shelf, which meant that back seat passengers would have gotten cold necks, while almost no cool air would have made it to the front of the car. Condensation and dripping in the rear were common problems. There was no fresh air intake, which meant that 100% of the air was recirculated (being pulled in through a nifty looking register in the floor). This would have caused the inside air to get stale, especially if one or more of the occupants were smoking (very likely, given the time).
Packard had a small auxiliary heater core in front of evaporator for a modest amount temperature control, but without a blend door temperature changes would have been slow and modest at best. Otherwise, the only way to control the temperature was to adjust the blower speed or crack open a window. Still, it beat sweating.
The compressor was a two-cylinder inline design (as opposed to the axial arrangement of modern compressors), and looks very much like one you might see on a modern air compressor. Lacking an electromagnetic clutch, the compressor ran continuously whenever the engine was running. The only way to turn it off was to remove the drive belt from the compressor. All the refrigerant lines were copper, which were easily damaged by engine motions and chassis flex.
Owing to the high price (on top of an already expensive car) and limitations above, sales were predictably slow, especially outside of the south. This didn’t stop other auto manufacturers from getting in on the air conditioning business. Cadillac offered a system in 1941 (albeit without the auxiliary heater core), and Chrysler got on board in the abbreviated 1942 model year.
1941 Cadillac Air Conditioning System
As near as I can tell, all the prewar systems were built and installed by Bishop & Babcock in Cleveland, who apparently did not have an exclusive agreement with any single manufacturer for the technology. The compressor on the Cadillac system pictured below is clearly identical to the one in the 1940 Packard pictured above.
1941 Cadillac Air Conditioning System
Chrysler offered the system on the 1941 Crown Imperial and supposedly on the 1942 DeSoto, but due to the abbreviated 1942 model year, it is unclear whether any 1942 DeSotos were actually sold with air conditioning. My Google searches came up empty: All I could find the ad pictured below. However, it was clearly the same B&B system used by Packard and Cadillac.
World War II quickly stopped any further development on the B&B air conditioning system (or any other one, for that matter). So what happened after the war? The answer will likely surprise you. Stay tuned for the answer in Part 2.
Further Reading:
http://www.kitfoster.com/carport/2005/03/heres-looking-at-you/
http://forums.aaca.org/gallery/image/30012-1941-cadillac-air-conditioner/
http://www.studebaker-info.org/Tech/aircon/ashrae.pdf
https://56packardman.com/2016/11/01/gear-head-tuesday-a-packard-that-makes-ice-cubes/
Very interesting reading, thanks for pulling that together Tom. Looking forward to the installment about post-war automotive air conditioning.
Good job!
Sort of the CC Effect at work, once again: This past weekend, I read a few articles on the origins on air conditioning, after appreciating how A/C makes it bearable to work, live and drive during the hot, humid summer.
This piece is not only more complete than any of the other articles I read; the time and effort spent on finding the illustrations are appreciated. It makes for a far more interesting read.
Nice work, and I’m looking forward to the next installment. When A/C first became fully integrated into the front of the car (1954?) it was no small feat, as well as what went into making it more affordable.
As I recall the first car to have AC integrated with the heating system in front of the car was the 1954 Nash.
I’ve seen references to both the ’54 Nash and the ’54 Pontiac as the holder of this honor. Doesn’t matter much to me, either way…but it’s interesting that this feat was accomplished so soon after air conditioning reappeared as an option. It was quite a feat, especially considering how we take it for granted today.
My 1954 Pontiac Coupe had factory AC….
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-Nate
We had a 1954 Nash Ambassador with Hydramatic, power brakes and steering and factory air conditioning.
Great article Tom. I’m looking forward to the next instalment. Thank you!
Living my entire life in the Heat & Humidity sink hole of the USA (AKA New Orleans, LA); home and auto air conditioning has always been important to me.
Numerous allergies and terminal hotness (body temperature, not desirability, alas) make me revel in and appreciate A/C!
I have read of Packard’s pre-war A/C system; had no idea it was an “aftermarket” addition.
Tom, I am looking forward, with great anticipation, to your future articles on factory (and add on) auto air conditioning!
Now this is an article I never realized I would be so fascinated by! Thank you so much.
I’m (im)patiently waiting for part 2!
Growing up as I did in the hills of western Pennsylvania, A/C, home or car, was never a thing. Parents bought a car every three years or so, and never checked off the A/C option. Always had four door a/c. “Wind down the windows in all four doors, and quit bitching about how hot it is!” Now, can’t fathom living without it!
I grew up in the south-central region of Pennsylvania (near Chambersburg), where summers were a little hotter and more humid than they are in the western part of the state.
In the early 1970s, we would look for puddles of water under cars (generally new cars) in the summer to tell if the car had air conditioning.
By the mid-1970s, most people I knew had air conditioning on their “family” car (generally a full-size or intermediate domestic car), but it was unheard of on imports and domestic subcompacts and compacts, except for Chevy Novas with a V-8.
For some reason, it seemed as though people who bought GM cars were more likely to order air conditioning.
I recently came across some mid-1970s production statistics (from Ward’s Automotive) about the proportion of cars equipped with air conditioning. The vast majority of intermediates at that point (75-85%) were ordered with air conditioning — and that’s a nationwide figure.
It’s a higher proportion than I would have guessed for the time, but it reinforces what you said about most people having air conditioning in their family cars by that point. I suppose the 1970s was sort of a tipping point when car air conditioning transitioned from being a luxury to being an expectation.
I remember going with my mother to test-drive a 1974 Luxury LeMans. We were surprised when the salesman pointed out that it was a non-a/c car. By 1974, the lack of air in an upper end intermediate was very unexpected. She went to a different dealer and bought an air conditioned one, because she had reached the point where a/c had become a necessity.
I grew up in North Eastern PA, where the temperature is only a few degrees cooler than Chambersburg. However, my dad was always too cheap to get AC in a car, and he grew up without it on a farm. Even when he was in Seminary at Gettysburg, all he had was a VW Beetle, no ac.
My parents in El Paso bought a used VW Beetle with AC. The condenser was underneath behind the front bumper. I think it might have had an electric fan. I was only in the car once (I was gone by then) and oddly enough I don’t remember anything much about the AC. No doubt there was an evaporator under the dashboard like any aftermarket installation. But there had to be hoses running back and forth from the front to the rear of the car. Anyway, it worked.
I’ve read that the Super Beetle (with the Mcphereson strut front suspension) was the only read-engine Beetle desigend for AC, with a little grill in the panel behind the front bumper; the 411 and 412 had a similar arrangement. It must have been quite a challenge to add AC to a garden-variety Beetle.
I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that the refrigerant in John Hamman’s system was R-22A.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. You won’t have to wait long for the followup: Parts 2 and 3 of this series will drop tomorrow and Saturday.
Waiting…waiting…waiting….
I kind of know something about the evolution of auto AC from the late 50’s on but I’ve wondered about the early days, like what was up with those Weather Eye systems. I’ll be back to annoyingly pick apart any mistakes in parts 2 and 3. I mean make constructive additions.
Fascinating. I knew that air conditioning was in some pretty early post-war cars, but never guessed it was in vehicles as early as the 30’s. Somehow I’m not surprised that Car A/C originated in Houston. I’ve always claimed that nobody lived in Houston until air conditioning made it bearable.
Actually, you are fairly close to correct on no one living in the south or southwest prior to AC. If you look at demographics, the largest cities prior to 1920 were all in the Northeast (save for LA) or midwest. Now, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, and Phoenix are all in the top tier, and that is all due to AC.Without air conditioning, there would be far fewer folks leaving the former population centers for warm climates. It truly changed the demographics of the USA, that’s for sure.
JFrank: I am still amazed to find real estate listings here in Tucson that feature houses without AC.
Evaporative coolers are fine when the air is not humid, but the monsoon season takes that advantage away.
Thankfully averaging my costs over 12 months via my electrical bill presents no surprises during the summer months.
You can still find a few here in Florida, but most of those are specifically “Cracker Style” homes built before 1920. In those days, they built on piers rather than a foundation to have airspace under the house. They had porches surrounding the house to shade the windows, high ceilings, and tried to get maximum airflow and shading to offset the heat and humidity. Still, I would rather not try to live without AC, as I have had to endure August nights with a broken AC unit before, and I will go to a motel first before living like that again!
Modern homes can be unbearable without AC, even in moderate climates. There isn’t any thought given to natural air flow anymore. Same with cars.
My 1882 New Orleans home was built on brick piers, 3 feet off the ground, 8 inch ground to attic air gaps in the walls, 12 foot ceilings, huge attic, above doors transoms, deep front and back sun shading porches.
Properly insulated, with central A/C and heat, it was a citadel of coolness in the summer, even when the temps hit 98 and the humidity was in the 70% range. I cannot recall that house ever “feeling hot” in the extended summers in the city!
Now, in the winter, I could tell that the central heating system was struggling to keep the house warm.
As JFrank noted, those old houses were built to keep the coolness in and the heat out….year ’round.
Homes in Hawaii, well into the 1960’s were still single wall with generous open crawl spaces and many had openable windows floor to ceiling. Since there was never a need for heating, single uninsulated walls and leaky jalouse windows were not a problem.
I’ve always been fascinated by A/C, and there are several decent books on the subject. Interestingly, the first home to feature a modern A/C system was built in Minneapolis sometime back in the teens of the last century. Some other early home A/C systems were in the NE, around NYC. And the US Congress and White House had A/C in the thirties,..DC was a tropical swamp in the summer, and until A/C it was basically deserted in the summer.
Post – war, an automobile add – on A/C business proliferated around Dallas…there is a book on this subject, too. FrigiKing, Mark IV, and other brands if I recall correctly began around there.
Thanks for the nice article, despite my research I’ve never seen an ad the supposed 1942 DeSote A/C. When the war ramped up, Chrysler Airtemp focused all it’s energies on war production…
Gotta admit: Houston is the only city in the USA that I have visited that just might be swampier than New Orleans and has bigger mosquitoes.
IDK how anyone lived in either city before the advent of Air Conditioning!
They must have drank a LOT of mint julips and passed out early in #NOLA. I suspect Houston residents substituted bourbon and water?
I’ve been in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas during August. Even our summers pale in comparison to what it’s like in that region during the summer.
In 2007, my wife and I were walking in downtown Dallas during August. We stopped at a little store/café to get a drink. A British tourist then walked/staggered in, and asked for bottled water, after saying, “Now I see why Americans air condition everything.”
When we visited Great Britain in 2006 during early August, people in London were complaining about the really hot weather. The temperature was…80 degrees.
We’re always amused at what the British consider hot, too. But I couldn’t live with their weather.
Its strange to notice in NZ summer temps are almost to Aussie standards 35C isnt unusual and huge humidity I dont remember before I left, fortunately its quite hard to find cars without AC now though I have one from the mid 60s with none it gets very little use during summer and the quarter lights stay open when it is driven, the heater works great in winter though.
This! I had the misfortune of growing up in the TN river valley without AC. It was very unpleasant for several months of the year to say the least. The geography of the river valley ensured one was luxuriously enveloped in humidity and air pollution 24 hours a day. Amazingly the asthma the plagued me my whole life cleared up immediately when I moved away from home to coastal SC and into air conditioned housing. I completely understand retired folks who do the snow bird thing. I know a few who do it and it truly improves their lives.
Fascinating stuff, am eagerly awaiting parts 2 and 3.
Growing up in the upper midwest, automotive a/c was an exotic thing seen only in the most expensive of cars, and not becoming relatively common until the late 60s. I would say that the 5 year period between 1968-1973 saw the big flip to a/c becoming almost universal in everything but compacts.
Like others, I had no idea that those prewar systems were all outsourced. As for the system in Packards, I don’t think cooling the front seat was much of a concern as most of those senior cars were chauffeur-driven. I am amazed that there was no attempt to make the compressor easier to turn off or on, if only some sort of mechanical pulley clutch accessible under the hood. I can only imagine the horsepower those early compressors sapped.
The first air conditioned car I experienced (in Chicago NW burbs) was the ’71 Impala my father bought (new in ’71).
The first I ever experienced was my fiancee’s ’83 Corona. And her parents’ house was my first experience of home A/C too. Australia was a bit behind the US getting on the A/C bandwagon.
I never saw AC in a car until I moved to OZ, it wasnt even an option here.
The first A/C car I remember was my uncle’s ’64 Buick Sportwagon, the one with the glass roof over the backseat. A/C was necessary in that car.
Swamp coolers were all that I experienced in houses, but it was always dry when it was hot in California.
This article was a breath of fresh air! (c:
Look forward to the post-war developments.
Excellent, Tom, long overdue piece on a feature some of us remember as a rare luxury at one point in time (I find JPC’s timeline above in accord with my memory). Looking forward to the whole series.
I knew Packard was the first to have “factory” a/c because of references to it in Consumer Guide’s “Cars of the 1950’s” book, but I never knew the earlier history of its development. Thanks for writing this, it was fascinating! Really looking forward to pts 2 & 3.
Thanks for this, Tom. Fascinating.
Growing up only the wealthiest had AC in their cars.
My parent’s 72 Ambassador was their first to have it. One of the few models to include it as standard equipment [from 68 on in the Ambassador].
I may like spare, low-optioned cars, but AC is a must.
In the early `60s, my father had a `53 Buick hardtop coupe with factory air. The cooling unit was mounted in the trunk, and there were two small intake scoops mounted on the rear fender , not too far from the back window. On the package shelf there were two round vents about the size of a 45 rpm record.The cool air came out from the vents, and within a few minutes the car was cool. The downside was that on very hot and humid days, the refrigerated air would fog up the window, but who cared? We had an air conditioned car, and that was great. Beautiful car, medium blue with a white top. And the antenna was mounted on the top of the windshield, and it had those ‘portholes’ on the front fender!
1953 was the first year for Buick air con. Howard Hughes had a specially – built Buick with a revved – up air conditioning system, here is a link:
https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1953-BUICK-ROADMASTER-4-DOOR-SEDAN-22005
“Lot #378 – This historic Buick Roadmaster was personally customized for Howard Hughes to conform to his eccentric demands, idiosyncrasies, and the last car he drove. The car was stored on blocks for 20 years in Hollywood, California and has 5,339 actual miles since new. In 100% original condition with factory Pastel Blue with Seafoam Green top paint and Blue wool and broadcloth and nylon interior. All interior appointments are perfect including carpets and insturments. The following modifications were executed at Hughe’s direction — Full 24-volt aircraft electrical system in conjunction with regular12-volt system. Air-conditioning system runs 100% on electricity — Air-conditioningcompressor driven by an electric motor — Cooling fans built into both fenders to cool 24-volt generator and 24-volt motor for air-conditioning — Complete 24-volt electric panel on firewall — Air-conditioning ducts installed in roof are larger — Air defusers changed to aircraft type — Trunk mounted air-conditioning unit redesigned to flow air through DUST TRAP FILTER AND BACTERIA FILTER — Trunk contains 4-6-volt batteries= 24-volt to power auxiliary systems — Plug-in attachment under trunk to 24-volts to jump airplanes — All windows and vents except drivers are locked, sealed and inoperative — vents and heaters removed and firewall completely sealed — Continental kit built by Hughes Aircraft, due to lack of trunk space — Air-conditioning fully operable without engine running — and more…”
I wondered why they didn’t run the AC compressor from an electric motor (as they do now on a lot of cars) rather than as an accessory from the engine. Maybe I’m discounting the price of electric motors, as something that today is almost nothing, as they use them with impunity on anything that needs movement, but back then they probably cost something more, and even though air conditioning was an expensive option relative to the cost of the car, an electric motor would add to that cost (but would solve the problem with the clutchless compressor running off the Packard’s engine…things must have gotten pretty cold in there eventually).
Now of course most of us don’t think of air conditioning as decadent, other than the extra space it takes around the engine, but one thing I’d miss besides the obvious comfort factor is the dehumidification of air to keep them from fogging…a big safety plus. I remember my father telling us to “stop breathing” when he was trying to clear the windows…he meant it as a gag, but especially up North, it seems that fogging windows are a big problem before air conditioning was common even in cars in that area of the Country.
As for my family, we lived up North when air conditioning was scarce in cars, we lived without it until my Father bought our ’73 Country Sedan (wagon) which we took on camping trips down south (and lived in Virginia at the time, which is pretty humid)..none of our other relatives had AC in their car (nor their houses) yet at the time. It replaced a “fancier” Country Squire which was actually not as well optioned as the replacement Country Sedan, which had power locks, AM/FM Stereo radio, but lacked the woodgrain (I liked the lack of woodgrain). It was brown, pretty non-descript, but also had the trailer towning package. We had bought our camper just a month or so before my Father decided to buy the Country Sedan, and I remember the guy installing the hitch badmouthing my Father’s planning, since he had installed a hitch on the Country Squire only the month before…but my Father was an impulse buyer with cars, he would wake up and decided he needed to buy a car, and usually did it in a single day.
As anyone who’s ever run a window air conditioner or portable unit can attest, running an electrically driven compressor requires a LOT of juice. For instance, my portable air conditioner is rated at 1,560W, and even a slightly smaller window unit is still probably going to be around 1,100 to 1,200W, which is around the output of an automotive starter motor. A typical non-hybrid electrical system is not set up to handle that much current except for short bursts when starting, and even that could be marginal with a weak battery or an early ’50s 6V electrical system.
Looking at it another way, a 1,560W compressor requires about 2 horsepower. It’s easier and more efficient to take that off the crankshaft (via a belt and pulleys) than to have to convert that power to electricity and THEN using it to run the A/C compressor.
Lexus hybrids do just that the AC is electric and works with the engine off
Yeah, but I said “non-hybrid.” Cars of the ’50s or ’60s didn’t have electrical systems that could run pure electric A/C compressors.
That was the norm for luxury car AC through the mid 50’s, except they thought of putting clear plastic ducts from the parcel shelf upward, also solving the cold window problem. I think in some cars the ducts just directed air, and in some there may have been ceiling vents like in a modern minivan. I guess we’ll find out in Parts 2 & 3.
On 1956 Lincolns (awesome and overlooked car by the way) you can see the scoops on the back fender if they have AC.
The 1956 Continental Mark II was the only car to carve the air inlet into the convenient hump in the fender line. And that was about it for trunk AC. (Am I getting ahead?)
Thank you for the great article Tom – being a cold weather guy, I usually have the A/C going anytime it’s above 75 – and was the first thing to be repaired on my Crown Victoria when I bought it. And now my triple black Fleetwood is in the shop for a/c work…summers in NC are not easy without air con everywhere unfortunately.
Looking forward to parts two and three!
From the first article: “The makers foresee the car of the future provided with air conditioning as standard equipment.”
One of the few predictions from old magazines to be accurate!
Thomas Midgley was also the inventor of TEL- tetraethyl lead, leaded gasoline. Lead and Freon- what a combo.
One environmental historian said that Midgley “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history.”
I’ve always been interested in the “firsts” of a lot of luxury vehicle options, A/C included.
I believe the 1940 Packards were also the first cars with electric windows as an option.
Imagine it’s 1940, and you have the only car in town with “electric windows” and “air conditioning”!! You’re driving around with the windows CLOSED on a 90-degree day!
At some point, I plan on taking on the history of other automotive options. Power windows is certainly one that is on my short list.
Air conditioning of any sort for individual use (home, car…) was something really “futuristic” in that era (television was another “futuristic” thing), theaters, some stores and office buildings and some hotels, etc. were the only places where people experienced air conditioning. In the 1936 UK science fiction movie “Things to Come”, an elderly man in the future is explaining to a young boy how people lived in the old days. They are viewing a picture of the Manhattan skyline, and they are discussing, “…the days before air conditioning, when everybody lived above the ground…”, their modern life is totally air – conditioned and subterranean.
To have your own air – conditioned car was really something c. 1940, it bordered almost on the outlandish. If I recall correctly, the Packard A/C was not a big hit, and eventually the price of those air conditioned cars had to be cut in order to move them out of the dealerships…
Power windows on a 1953 Cadillac were hydraulic. (One random fact I randomly know.)
In 1986 I bought a new Ford Ranger. After looking at many different trucks, I picked a particular blue SuperCab 4wd with, I thought, just the right trim and options. The next day, after it had been sitting in the parking lot all day at work, in August, I climbed into my shiny new truck, powered up its fuel-injected Koln V6, and reached for the AC button. There wasn’t one! Every other Ranger I’d looked at had AC, but not this one. Lesson learned … don’t go car shopping at night. I considered having it added but never got around to it and drove the truck almost ten years. Interestingly, our next (new) car purchase was also sans AC, but we factored it into the deal and had AC added for a good price. Although I can’t imagine not having AC now, I still consciously turn it on or off and rarely use climate control.
Very much looking forward to the remainder of the series. Our first car with factory air was a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville Safari wagon; our last car without a/c was a ’65 Bonneville convertible that we had simultaneously, so I could see as well as feel the difference in the dashboards and ventilation controls. (In 1965 and ’66, a/c-equipped full-size Pontiacs had a different dash pad with a chrome-plated metal horizontal center air outlet, one of five outlets in all. As early as 1956-57, Pontiac made more of an effort than many other marques to properly integrate a/c into its dashboards.)
Pontiacs of that era had the *best* array of A/C outlets…!!!
At some point in the late 50s or early 60s, Mad magazine had a cartoon of a guy driving his non-AC-equipped car, windows closed, in sweltering heat, so people would think his car had AC. Mad always did skewer phony status seekers.
Excellent article —
Who can forget the 1970’s Firesign Theater episode —
Used car salesman, Ralph Spoilsport, was advertising a car with
“factory air-conditioning, from our fully air-conditioned factory.”
Nice piece Tom, looking forward to the next two.
Great article, thank you.
The subject of a/c is an interesting one. When I was a kid, only Cadillacs had it. No normal human being could afford it, especially in Famously Frugal Canada.
Our first air conditioned car was my dad’s 1979 Impala. As a teenager, I was over the moon! We’d finally made it! The cost of the a/c was easy 10% of the car back then.
Fast forward 36 years, and my Kia Rio has no a/c. Last Sunday was warm enough for me to drive the Acura, but Monday had cooled down again. In Vancouver, the number of days were I would actually use a/c could be counted on one hand.
I am starting to shop for my next lease commuter. As fun as the Rio is to romp in, I am looking for a city car with automatic transmission, a/c and back up camera.
Great submission, thanks for sharing! AC and automatic transmissions are two of the most interesting and appreciated aspects of automotive evolution.
A/C was seen as a luxury to the Depression raised generation. Chicago is humid and my folks would say “we cant afford the electric bill”. So, I would sleep in the basement in July/Aug.
As time went on, we got a car with A/C and then my folks stopped “feeling guilty” using it!
Here’s a rather newer model car, 1967 Cougar in Texas, also with a trunk-mounted A/C unit, with the cooling outlets coming through the rear shelf. I think FrigiKing or another manufacturer made these kits. In 1967, the factory-installed A/C vents were integrated into the instrument panel, and if you bought a Cougar without A/C, and wanted a dealer-installed Ford A/C, you got one that was very similar to the 1965-66 Mustang A/C that hung from beneath the center of the instrument panel.
RB: Was this unit much quieter than a “hang down”, below dash add on A/C unit?
Did it cool the car’s interior adequately there in Texas?
Ys the first modern trunk mounted unit I have seen.
Awesome!!
And now, you can’t buy a car in the USA that doesn’t have A/C. Not that it’s needed more than two months a year here in Vancouver, but it’s still nice to have to screen out traffic noise and fumes. Heck, my cheapie car even has a filter for the cabin to keep dust out.
I have never bought a new car that didn’t already have A/C, I never had to specify it as a dealer add-on
Keep dust out and clear humidity from the windows, even if it never gets too hot. It’s worth it for humidity control.
Surely the compressors shown in the Packard and Cadillac pics are twin-cylinder.
My father was an Air Force officer stationed in Wichita Falls, TX during the Korean war. We lived in a duplex with an evaporative cooler (called a Swamp Cooler) which helped the house. Some. No A/C in our ’51 Plymouth Cranbrook.
My first new car with factory air was a 1972 Mercury Montego. All my new cars from then on had factory air. I did, however, install aftermarket A/C kits in two cars, a Datsun 510 and a ’75 Nova. Both these installations suffered similar problems, lack of outside air to the evaporator and high fan noise.
Can’t imagine a car or residence without A/C, even in our moderate NY climate. Gotta wonder what fraction of our domestic energy output is devoted to cooling in this day and age.
In the early ’80s, using salvage yard parts, I cobbled together an underdash AC system for my ’61 Ponton Mercedes 180. It worked pretty well, except on the hottest days, when I’d need the vents blowing directly on me. It also put a big load on that 4-cylinder engine and made it run hot after about 30-40 minutes. But it was still much better than having no AC, and most of my trips in that car were less than 30 minutes anyway.
I wonder if people thought I was nuts, driving that old car around, with the windows up in the summertime!
Fast-forward to two months ago, when I finished adding ‘factory’ AC to my 1996 stripper Toyota Tacoma. Now, it’s sure not such a ‘penalty-box’ anymore.
Happy Motoring, Mark
My Oklahoma resident Uncle had a FrigiKing below dash A/C unit that he swapped from used car to used car for years and years.
With each “new” used car he would call or write the FrigiKing distributor (in Denton, Texas, I think?) for the mount & drive kit for whatever car he just bought.
The first car I can recall this f-f-freezing cold A/C in a 1956 Ford, a 1958 Ford, a 1961 Galaxie and finally in a 1964 Galaxie 500 (My Uncle was a die hard “Ford Man”.). His son would doubtlessly still have the unit, as a family memento, if his Father hadn’t totaled out the ’64 in a terrible head on accident that he walked away from with a scratch on his forehead. He replaced it with a ’67 LTD with in dash Factory A/C.
I always tried to sit in the middle, in the front seat, to get the full effect of this little ice cube maker!
I know that GM and DuPont worked on the development of a few refrigerants including R-12 but they also made other similar refrigerants during the 1930s.
One of them, Dichlorotetrafluoroethane (R-114), was used in my 1935 Frigidaire refrigerator. It operates at lower pressures than R-12.
Excellent stuff. Very much looking forward to parts 2 & 3.
Can’t ID the 1930 car that had “A/C #1” though. Looks like it could be a Lincoln or a Packard, but it’s not easy telling from a tiny profile pic.
Great article Mr Halter. Thank you.
In recent times (30 years?) I recall seeing several in-depth articles on automotive AC’s early development but off hand I can’t recall the sources, trade journals I’d guess.
My good friend worked with a man who was a pioneer manufacturer of “hang-on” air in the industry’s heyday of the ’50s and ’60s, he has some great stories about it, that’s for sure.
If you think about digging deeper you might research one Ralph F Peo with Houde Eng Corp who in ’36 applied for AC patent:
https://www.google.com/patents/US2115785
“This invention relates to air cooling apparatus for vehicles.
~According to this invention, a compact streamlined unit is mounted on the roof of a vehicle to be cooled and houses or carries the condenser, evaporator, expansion valve and one or more blowers of a refrigerating system of the compressor-condenser-evaporator type. The compressor of the system is preferably mounted in the motor compartment of the vehicle where it can be conveniently driven directly from the motor. ”
Also The New York Times reported Dr. John Gibbons demonstration of mobile AC in 1936.
“August 16, 1936 – – Print Headline: “AIR-COOLING DEVICE FOR AUTOS IS SHOWN; Inventor Says Apparatus Makes Car Interior 14 Cooler Than It Is Outside
AIR-COOLING DEVICE FOR AUTOS IS SHOWN; Inventor Says Apparatus Makes Car Interior 14 Cooler Than It Is Outside.
A device for cooling and air-conditioning automobiles was demonstrated yesterday by Dr. John M. Gibbons, a physician, of 430 East Eighty-sixth Street. Similar in size to an automobile heater, it~ ”
An interesting article of AC history by Jim Henry of Automotive News can be read here:
http://www.autonews.com/article/19960626000100/ana/606260705?template=print
(hope it’s okay to quote it here)
“PACKARD BROUGHT AIR CONDITIONING OUT OF THE REALM OF RUBE GOLDBERG
Jim Henry
Automotive News | June 26, 1996 – 12:01 am EST
Before air conditioning became universal, the only way for drivers to cool off was what some old-timers in Tennessee called ‘four and 60.’
That’s short for ‘all four windows down and 60 mph.’ In the early days, it seemed as though driving fast with the windows down was the best cooling system the car industry could come up with.
Suppliers started tinkering with auto air conditioning in earnest around 1930. The results were ‘pretty hokey, by our standards,’ said Warren Wiese, an engineer who retired in 1991 from air conditioning supplier Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems.
According to Harrison’s files, non-starters through the 1930s included liquid nitrogen, a ‘vapor jet’ system that used a water-alcohol mixture, an ‘air cycle’ system that used a turbine-powered compressor and a ‘gasoline vaporization’ system that required 26 gallons of gas an hour.
~It took almost 10 years from the first industry experiments before Packard Motor Car Co. introduced the first factory-installed air conditioner, on a 1940 model at the 1939 Chicago auto show. It ran on a compressor, but the refrigerating coils were behind the back seat.
~Back in 1930, all that was a long way off. One experiment at the General Motors Research Laboratories that year used blocks of ice, jury-rigged in the back of Charles ‘Boss Ket’ Kettering’s personal V-12 Cadillac Town Car, to see how much energy it would require to cool a car. Kettering was general manager of GM Research.
With the back seats removed and a hole drilled into the floor for drainage, the engineers would drive for a while, then stop and weigh the ice, to determine how fast the ice was melting. Their conclusion:
‘With the ambient temperature at 95 degrees in bright sunshine, with 40 percent relative humidity and the windshield open half an inch (windshields opened in those days), it required heat removal at 12,000 BTUs per hour to maintain an interior temperature of 85 degrees, at 65 mph.’
In 1990, Gerald Elson, who was then general manager of Harrison, gave a presentation to the SAE that included the ice-block experiment and other information on the early days of air conditioning.
The objective was to bring the temperature down by only 10 degrees, he said, because in the early 1930s, it was believed ‘if the temperature was cooled much in excess of 10 degrees, it would cause a person to faint from shock’ when emerging from the air-conditioned space.
‘What will the people in 2040 laugh at us for?’ he asked his audience. Elson is now a GM vice president and general manager of the Midsize and Luxury Car Group.
The ‘shock’ of too much cold air didn’t seem to worry Dr. John Gibbons, a New Yorker who invented an ‘air-cooling device for autos,’ according to The New York Times of Aug. 16, 1936.
‘Inventor Says Apparatus Makes Car Interior 14 Degrees Cooler Than It Is Outside,’ the headline said.
The description of the ‘device’ sounds like the basic layout of the Packard system that would be introduced three years later.
It’s easy to wonder how seriously the newspaper took the idea, however. Immediately below the air-conditioning article was a story reporting that somebody in Providence Forge, Va., claimed a rooster had started laying eggs.
New Yorkers had to wait until March 17, 1940, for their first air-conditioned taxi, according to The New York Times of that date. The taxi was a Packard.
According to the book Famous First Facts, the capacity of the first Packard system was ‘equivalent to 11/2 tons of ice in 24 hours, when the car was driven at 60 mph, or 2 tons at 80 mph.’
But Packard was interested in getting other things off the ground in 1940, besides auto air conditioning. Also in 1940, according to the Times, Packard agreed to produce Rolls-Royce aircraft engines.
Before World War II interrupted, Packard equipped only 1,500 cars with air conditioning from 1939 to 1942, according to Harrison. ~
Jim Henry is an Automotive News staff reporter.”
First-rate piece – you should shop it to the Hemmings magazine. The experts reporting at the Barrett-Jackson auctions would do well to always point out A/C, it’s become more of a selling feature in vintage vehicles.
Found a ’66 Coupe de Ville locally a few years ago, a very good driver at a nice price, but couldn’t get past its lack of air-conditioning. Didn’t feel like reliving childhood memories of baking in a car on summertime trips.
A/C is also excellent for defogging windows in the rain, not that fine old cars should be driven in a downpour.
Impressive work. The detailed research and presentation reminded me of our old friend “Ate up with Motor”, high praise indeed. (What became of him anyway? I miss him.) I’m looking forward to your next installment.
Great article and fine research, thanks Tom
A little-known option Packard offered for 1941 model year was a cellarette beverage cabinet built into the partition divider in formal sedans. The air conditioner lines were run through one of the compartment which was equipped to make ICE! Imagine, ice cubes frozen while you drove, now that’s luxury!
Nice article, but you should always credit photographs taken by others that are cited in publications, even on the web. Like this one and the evaporator in the ’41 Cadillac’s trunk. A link at the end isn’t enough.
TG57Roadmaster aka
Tom Gibson
I also grew up NOLa–here I am in our ’53 Mercury wagon with a Frigiking. I remember that particular car especially, at least the last year or so that we had it–dark green–I even managed to acquire a copy of it years later, which I still have (no a/c though–I live in a much cooler climate now). Later heard from my dad that the FK in the Merc would get so cold that even us kids in the way back were happy. I think those round vents could be aimed at the ceiling to make it reach the back, after my parents in the front seat got cooled off. I definitely remember that the metal unit would sometimes spit ice. How the little 255cid flathead–these engines were already prone to overheating and vapor lock–coped with the load I’ll never really know, although I think my father told me that the Merc’s radiator–already huge–was double-cored, something like that. This picture was probably 1959 or so–6 yrs old was ancient for a car then, but I guess he knew how to take care of them. My father was an a/c nut–we had central air my whole life, the kind with a big wooden water tower outside. Later cars included a switch to an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser for some reason–I know he told me he liked GM’s smoother rotary compressor and reheat system…he made me a machinery nut. Thanks for the article.
GM’s A/C compressors were piston-type and most Frigidaire home air conditioning compressors (at least those made after the mid-1950s) were also piston compressors.
Those in GM refrigerators, at least the sealed units from the 1930s and newer, were rotary.
The long Frigidaire compressors that most 1960s and 1970s GM cars had had axial pistons, that’s why they were called “A6” compressors as they had 3 double-ended pistons and 6 cylinders.
Thanks, Phil. I took one of those long GM compressors apart once–I think there was a hacksaw and maybe an acetylene torch involved–and remember the “wobble plate” (?) and pistons. What were the fatter but also round GM compressors called–used in the mid-50s–what was their design? I remember seeing these on Buicks etc, some with trunk-mounted evaporators, some in-dash.
I don’t know what the very early a/c cars had but before 1962, GM cars with the larger compressors had an “A5” compressor. I am not familiar with these but they were also piston compressors with 5 cylinders (and I assume 5 pistons) which were also axial and moved by a swash plate.
I just found a link with some information: http://www.counterpersontraining.com/index.cfm?go=lms.module&moduleid=48&mode=train&contentIndex=7&topicId=164
You can see that in this design, the swash plate isn’t in the center of the compressor like on the “A6”
The 2nd car I owned in HS a ’59 Rambler Ambassador wagon had factory A/C with an enormous compressor under the hood but it worked good for the age.
A friend told me a story about his grandparents who had a Packard with the early air conditioning system. During the summer they went on a vacation out west and would meet fellow travelers who couldn’t understand how they drive in extreme heat with the windows up. The concept of an air conditoned car was unthinkable.
I remember as a kid seeing an occasional car in the heat of summer with the windows closed. After a while, I finally figured it out!
Our first family car with AC was a 1964 Olds Dynamic 88 station wagon. Bit of a story with it, dad ordered one custom built, not with AC. After 6 weeks or so, it arrived at the dealer. Only problem was the salesman forgot to order the adjustable steering wheel, which was crucial because dad had a bit of a big belly! The owner happened to be there and told the salesman to give him the car on the sales floor which was a loaded 88 wagon, same price. Not only AC and adj wheel, but PW, PS, Plocks etc, etc. Before this, he only bought 6 cyl, sticks with a heater as the only option!
Ive got so used to AC in cars that I missed it for the 7weeks or so I was in a borrowed car an injury made driving a manual difficult but an automatic I can drive left foot only, things improved eventually and I got my car and AC back then I bought a newer model with great AC and 6 speed auto just in time for winter.
I don’t think the development of small A/C systems that can be used not only in autos, but other vehicles, too. Stuff like military tanks now have A/C.
Regardless, I can’t imagine what a revelation it must have been on those old Packards, Cadillacs, and Chryslers to get an A/C system of any type. Even the rear ducts make sense since the very well-off who could afford the car and option could probably afford a chauffer, as well.
I had 1972 Triumph convertible with an aftermarket AC. It was great with the top down having cool air blowing on the passenger and driver. I love it. Joe B
My Dad was Depresion Era holdout, six cylinder basic models no AC, no power, just something else to break. He purchase Mama a Honda Civil in the late 80’s , it was the first New car that had a AC.