Sleeping on rooftops and going down the subway: how New Yorkers endured the heat before the era of air conditioning

Summer in the main metropolis of the world is not only hot, but also very humid. Being in the city at such a time is a real challenge. Even after a short walk through the sultry streets, you feel sticky and you want to take a shower immediately. If in other countries everyone is looking forward to summer, then in New York, as I found out, some just can't wait for the end of the "creepy" July and August.

The salvation from such heat is air conditioners. Now it is difficult to imagine life in the United States without this device. But this was not always the case. As the Americans told me, 40 years ago, not all had air conditioners. And even earlier, people did without air cooling at all. If in cold countries there is the concept of "overwintering", then in the States it is quite appropriate to introduce the concept of "fly over." How did the Americans experience summer years ago?

I managed to talk to two women, who look over 80 years old, and find out from them what summer was like in their childhood. One of the interlocutors recalled that at that distant time she lived in the New York area - the Bronx. According to her, people spent most of their time in ... the subway in summer. A huge crowd gathered there. Many were not going to go somewhere. They just wanted to feel the underground coolness. Presumably, even at that distant time, the air in the subway was cooling. But how?

I could not find the technical details of the structure and operation of the New York subway 60-70 years ago. But I found out that the first air conditioner in the world appeared, it turns out, in New York. This event took place in 1902. American engineer-inventor Willis Carrier assembled an industrial refrigeration machine for a printing house located in Brooklyn. Curiously, the first air conditioner was not intended to create a saving coolness for workers, but to combat humidity, which greatly deteriorated print quality.

Another woman remembered herself at the age of six, almost 80 years ago. She admitted that in the summer she slept near the pool, constantly wetting the sheet with which she was hiding in the water. And other residents of the house in which she lived slept on the roof. For this, they used sun loungers or mattresses. Very unusual, isn't it? Would you agree to sleep next to your neighbors on one undivided territory, under a starry night sky? Surely at that time people simply did not have a choice and an opportunity to escape from the heat in apartments, so they were forced to share a common roof. Now, of course, it is difficult to imagine that after watching their favorite evening TV shows, people collect pillows with bedding and go upstairs to sleep.

By the way, despite the fact that New York is considered one of the most expensive cities, nevertheless, you can often find very old air conditioners, which are probably many decades old.

Some buildings have central air conditioning. Such houses can be identified by the absence of characteristic devices on the windows or walls.

In the apartment, there may be an installation similar to a heating battery. It really serves as a heating device in winter, and in summer it turns into an air conditioner that cools air.

More and more often now you can find "smart houses" in which you not only will not see an air conditioner, but you will not even hear the characteristic hum. The rooms are quiet and pleasantly cool.

Thanks to air conditioning, summer in New York and the United States in general is now quite comfortable. But choosing a vacation in a metropolis this season is probably still not worth it. You are probably not going to spend all your time in rooms, even if they are air-conditioned.