Dear Al-Khalid "Willis"
Soon we will celebrate, along with the world, the 150th anniversary of your birth. Although we never met in person, you have been with me, almost daily, since 1956, the year I had the pleasure of getting to know you, and this connection has endured for nearly 70 years. It will remain with me as long as I live, especially during the hot summer months and the cold winter nights.
I clearly remember your beginnings as a quiet and intelligent child. You used to tell us that your name would one day be immortalized, and we would mock you, while the more polite among us would simply smile. Nothing in your modest upbringing and family life, on a remote farm in New York State, hinted at such a destiny.
You grew into a young man, the smartest and most handsome among us. I struggled with you to understand mathematics, but you overcame those difficulties, leaving me to grapple with my own challenges. You subsequently earned your degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1901, a dream I failed to achieve, despite my father’s wishes.
We were delighted when you joined the Buffalo Forge Company in 1902. Your life changed when the company received a request from a printing press in New York City, asking for assistance in eliminating the high humidity and heat inside the facility. These conditions caused the paper to expand or contract irregularly during printing, resulting in poor print quality and blurred colors. Fortunately for us all, the company tasked you with solving this problem. Your goal was never to invent something that would improve our lives, but simply to find a way to reduce humidity within the printing press. This led you to design a device that circulated air around cooled pipes, condensing excess moisture and allowing it to drip off (based on the same principle as dew formation), and then reheating or adjusting the air temperature as needed. The result was not only cool air, but also the ability to control humidity levels, marking the first modern air conditioning system to integrate both functions.
In 1911, encouraged by our friend “Jack,” you published your famous Rational Psychrometric Formulae, which laid the scientific foundations for the entire air conditioning industry. I clearly remember your decision in 1915, contrary to our opinions, to embark on a major venture by founding a company with a capital of $32,600 (or 10,000 dinars) for refrigeration manufacturing. This marked the beginning of the air conditioning giant, Carrier Engineering Corporation. Two years later, the company installed “Willis Carrier air conditioners” in shopping centers in Detroit. People flocked to them during the summer, ushering in the era of central air conditioning and a major transformation in human life.
Through air conditioning, the American South became a massive economic hub. This would not have been possible, as few were willing to live in that hot and highly humid region. Hospitals became capable of performing precise surgeries in sterile, controlled environments. Thanks to air conditioning, many sensitive and precise industries could be developed. Without air conditioning, it would have been impossible to build skyscrapers, modern aircraft, high-speed passenger trains, various military engines, space capsules, submarines, and countless other applications.
Thank you, my friend. You made our lives in Kuwait, thousands of miles away from you, easier thanks to your ingenious invention, which was largely responsible for enhancing the enjoyment of life and extending human longevity.
When the time came for your death in 1950, at the age of 73, your reputation had reached every corner of the earth, both cold and hot. You left behind an unforgettable legacy and a company that today is valued at more than $73 billion, ranking among the largest air conditioning companies in the world. It was no surprise that TIME magazine included you among the 100 most influential personalities of the 20th century.
Ahmed Al-Sarraf
