ASHRAE Journal - September 2019 - 38

ASHRAE - CELEBRATING 125 YEARS

thermostat was ﬁrst marketed by Jewell Manufacturing
Company in 1907 (Figure 3). Such thermostats were
widely promoted as fuel-saving devices during World
War I and ultimately became popular enough that the
largest manufacturer of wind up clocks in the world was
said to be none other than the Minneapolis Honeywell
Regulator Company!
Other appurtenant controls were developed, such as
those designed and marketed by Honeywell Heating
Specialties Company beginning in 1924 exclusively.
Frankly, many factors were in place for a technical
development spurt. In the United States, progress was
hampered by the post-war depression that persisted
in the early 1920s. As the economy recovered, so did
renewed enthusiasm for technological development
in HVAC&R. A review of the trade publications of the
period shows increases in "new products" announcements, accompanied by expanded advertising (Figure 4).
Packaged gas furnaces incorporating a burner,
blower, humidiﬁer and ﬁlter did not appear until
the late 1920s. Probably the ﬁrst was a gas-ﬁred unit
invented by Carlyle Ashley, which was marketed as the
"Weathermaker" furnace by Carrier-Lyle Corporation
beginning in 1928. Ashley's design was signiﬁcant
because it was the ﬁrst high-efﬁciency (91%) gas furnace.
From the early 1930s on, advertisements and
announcements for packaged heating units with steel
cabinets began to appear in the trade press. Often these
units were promoted as being so clean and quiet that
they were suitable for placement in a home living area.
Such was the case with General Electric's oil-ﬁred boiler
introduced in 1932.
GE's packaged boiler featured all the latest innovations for comfort, safety and style. The unit included
a high temperature limit, pre- and post-purge of the
combustion chamber, automatic control by a night setback thermostat and were suitable for steam or forced
hot-water systems. And the unit included a built-in
heat exchanger for domestic hot water with separate
thermostatic control. The GE boiler could be combined
with air-cooling using a heat exchanger for a forced-air
residential air conditioning system. A similarly designed
gas-ﬁred boiler, as well as a hot-air furnace, was also
available2 (Figure 5).
The newest technology was a sensation. Complete
home heating and cooling systems were prominently
displayed at the World's Fairs of 1933 and 1939 by a
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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 19

FIGURE 4 Successful development of automatic heating systems led to industry
promotion, as exemplified by a mid-1930s campaign by an industry trade journal.
(From: Automatic Heat and Air Conditioning, October 1936, p. 32).

FIGURE 5 The oil-fired boiler that was introduced by General Electric in the mid1930s incorporated the latest heating technology. (From: Automatic Heating With
Oil, General Electric Co., 1936, form FP-108, p. 12).

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ASHRAE Journal - September 2019

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