ASHRAE Journal - December 2019 - 47

ASHRAE - CELEBRATING 125 YEARS

to maintain 78°F (26°C) space temperatures, but there
were still comfort complaints, due to use of ﬂoor-level
distribution and "clammy" conditions.
Carrier entered the movie-palace market around the
time of the Central Park Theater and studied the successes and failures of systems at many facilities. He
noted, with his team, that air distribution needed to
evolve. Carrier engineer L.L. Lewis introduced an overhead supply air distribution strategy using custom-engineered diffuser cones (Figure 4). Interestingly, theater
designers were initially opposed to these, due to their
impact on aesthetics. Over time, through integrated
design between engineer and theater designer, overhead
supply systems gained acceptance.

Figure 4 Carrier Theater Cooling System. An early diagram of Carrier's system for air
distribution for a theater. Source: Historictheaters.org

Overcoming Obstacles
There remained two major obstacles for comfort cooling in theaters: cost and space requirements. While a
3,000-seat movie palace could better absorb the cost of
a $50,000 system within a basement, smaller facilities
couldn't absorb this cost and could not rely on ammonia-based equipment, although smaller. Carrier solved
this issue with the invention of the centrifugal compressor, using dielene as a refrigerant. The compressor was
unveiled in 1922. A more reﬁned version would later be
installed at the Rivoli Theater in 1925. It is thought that
the New York City inspector initially refused to issue a
permit, due to a lack of familiarity with dielene and a
concern that it was ﬂammable.1 The Rivoli opened with
the Carrier system on Memorial Day, with box ofﬁce
receipts increasing by $5,000 a week. In the ﬁrst summer, many other facilities took a wait-and-see approach,
but quickly air conditioning became associated with
the movie experience, something included with the
price of admission. The Rivoli redoubled its investment in a $65,000 system in the ﬁrst summer. Over the
following ﬁve years, Carrier outﬁtted more than 300
theaters with refrigeration systems. It was not until 1927
that Broadway theaters started to adopt air conditioning, rather than going on hiatus during the summer.
The Ziegfeld Theater was outﬁtted with a new system
advertising it as the "Coolest Theater in the World." The
New York Times reported, "There will be a cooling plant,
capable of keeping the theater at 50 degrees if desired."
Refrigeration and air-washer evaporative cooling systems co-existed for quite some time. Between 1925 and
1930, the Air Conditioning Corporation of Minneapolis

installed 8,000 central-station evaporative-cooling systems.² In 1937, 11 out of 15 shows on Broadway were in
air-conditioned theaters.1
The chronology over 50 years-from 1880 and the
Madison Square Theater to the air conditioning of Radio
City Music Hall in 1932-is deeply tied to entrepreneurship, monumental changes in technology, an everevolving demographic, and the formation of critical
engineering societies like ASHRAE, originally founded in
1894 as the American Society of Heating and Ventilating
Engineers (ASHVE). In 1954, the organization changed
its name to the American Society of Heating and AirConditioning Engineers (ASHAE) almost 30 years after
the 1920s golden age of air conditioning in theaters.

Research and Development
Through the brief chronology already presented, the
industry experienced an intense demand for science
and research to inform design. Movie exhibitors were
bound by the same requirements for ventilation as public schools, but the exhibitors embraced air conditioning more quickly than in other markets. Outdoor air
requirements of 30 cfm (14 L/s) per person presented a
signiﬁcant challenge for early air-conditioning systems.
This 30 cfm (14 L/s) requirement was originally intended
for mechanically ventilated spaces and published as
a standard by ASHVE in 1914. Early system engineers
found a need to recirculate a portion of air to achieve
D E C E M B E R 2 0 19

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