John Gorrie

John Gorrie, physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian, is considered the father of refrigeration and air-conditioning. He was born on the Island of Nevis, October 3, 1802, and received his medical education in New York.

• Pursuing the study of tropical diseases, Gorrie moved to Apalachicola, Florida, a large cotton market on the Gulf coast.
• With remarkable foresight and without knowledge of microbiology, he urged draining the swamps and sleeping under mosquito netting to prevent disease.
• He also advocated the cooling of sickrooms to reduce fever and to make the patient more comfortable. For this he cooled rooms with ice in a basin suspended from the ceiling.
• After 1845, he gave up his medical practice to pursue refrigeration projects. On May 6, 1851, Gorrie was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine to make ice. The original model of this machine and the scientific articles he wrote are at the Smithsonian Institution.
• Impoverished, Gorrie sought to raise money to manufacture his machine, but the venture failed when his partner died.
• Humiliated by criticism, financially ruined, and his health broken, Gorrie died in seclusion on June 29, 1855.