Carrier Corp.

In the Senate Chamber and House of Representatives; in the ape-house of the Bronx Zoo; in the White House executive offices; in the Roxy Theatre, Manhattan and in Paramount Theatre, Paris; in Lakeside Press, Chicago (where TIME is printed); in the Secretariat, Delhi, India; in Diner No. 1418 on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe; in the San Francisco Stock Exchange; in the London County Council Hall; in Postum Cereal Co., Battle Creek, Mich.; and in many another structure, Carrier Engineering Corp. has installed equipment to condition the air.

Treatment of air is not a new process but it has developed widely only in recent years, and Carrier Engineering Corp. has led the movement. Air-conditioning involves washing air, freeing it of dust, adjusting the humidity (lowering it in summer, raising it in winter). Provision is also made for warming or refrigerating the air. The biggest users of conditioned air have been places where many people gather and those industrial plants in which the atmosphere must be just so.

Carrier Engineering Corp. had its inception in 1915 when Willis Haviland Carrier and Joel Irvine Lyle left Buffalo Forge Co. to start the new concern. Engineer Carrier has remained president of the company, made many a technical contribution, the most important of which was a centrifugal refrigeration system developed in 1922. Like many a brilliant engineer, he works hard, must be reminded to eat and have his hair cut. Sometimes he goes forth to hunt and fish, often returns with mighty plans in his head. Mr. Lyle is executive vice president, treasurer, general manager. His is a good business head. In 1925 the company did a gross business of $2,353,000, earned $112,000. Last year its business was just under $8,000,000, its earnings $672,000.

Last week plans were announced for a holding company to be known as Carrier Corp. It will take over Carrier Engineering, Brunswick-Kroeschell Co. (specialists in marine refrigeration), and York Heating & Ventilating Corp., Philadelphia. Each company will retain its identity, but Carrier Corp. will conduct all research, direct sales and engineering activities.

At present air conditioning is expensive unless a whole building is equipped when first built. Some tycoons, however, have the air in their offices conditioned (Orlando Franklin Weber, president of Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., is a stout booster for "manufactured weather") and the cost is within the reach of homeowners. Ambition of the air-conditioners is "to make a building not cooled in summer as obsolete as one not heated in winter."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.