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John Gorrie
1802 - 1855
*Statue of Gorrie in the National
Statuary Hall in Washington D. C.
An early pioneer in the invention of the artificial manufacture of ice,
refrigeration, and air conditioning, was granted the first U.S. Patent
for mechanical refrigeration in 1851.
Dr. John Gorrie is considered the father of air conditioning and refrigeration.
He was also a physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian.
Gorrie represents Florida with his statue placed in the National
Statuary Hall in Washington D. C.
¹Gorrie was born on the Island of Nevis on October 3, 1802, and spent
his childhood in South Carolina. He received his medical education
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District
of New York in Fairfield, New York in 1833.
Dr. Gorrie married Caroline Frances Myrick Beman, the widowed proprietress
of the Florida Hotel
in Apalachicola, on May 8, 1838. They had one son and one daughter.
Dr. Gorrie studied tropical diseases. This influenced him to move to
Apalachicola, Florida, a large cotton market on the Gulf coast.
During his residence, Gorrie served as mayor, postmaster, city
treasurer, council member, bank director, and founder of
Trinity Church.
His most significant work, however, was in medicine. During an
outbreak of yellow fever, Gorrie became concerned for patients
ill with the disease.
With remarkable foresight and without knowledge of microbiology He
urged draining the swamps, clearing weeds,
and maintaining clean food markets in the city. He also recommended
sleeping under mosquito netting to prevent the disease.
Gorrie became convinced that cold was a healer and noted that, "Nature
would terminate the fevers by changing the seasons."
He noticed that outbreaks of yellow fever fell off in the winter,
when the weather turned cooler and advocated
the cooling of sickrooms to reduce fever and to make the patient
more comfortable.
He cooled rooms with ice in a basin suspended
from the ceiling. Cool air flowed down across the patient and
through an opening near the floor. His methods proved effective, but,
at that time, ice was hard to come by. Since ice had to be brought
by boat from the northern lakes.
Gorrie decided that he needed a way to make the ice himself
and began to experiment with
making artificial ice. He worked
tirelessly on his design, basing his experiments on work previously
done by others. He used the principal that as a liquid evaporates,
it extracts heat form the air, making it cooler. Likewise, when a
gas that is under pressure is released, it, too absorbs heat.
His machine
produced ice in quantities, leakage and irregular performance sometimes
impaired its operation.
*Drawing of Gorrie's
Ice machine
²In 1851, the year Gorrie received a U.S. patent on his ice machine,
his chief financial backer died. With his invention being ridiculed
regularly in the press, his other investors fell by the wayside.
²Without funds, Gorrie retreated to Apalachicola, where he awaited word
on a patent for his other innovation, the air-conditioning process.
It never came. Reflecting on his troubles, he concluded that mechanical
refrigeration "had been found in advance of the wants of the country."
Suffering from a nervous collapse and devastated by failure, he died
in 1855 at age 51.
To view larger image click photo
***Model of first ice machine displayed at
the John Gorrie Museum : Apalachicola, Florida
Department of Commerce collection
Some information is from
Exploring Florida
Architect of the Capitol - National Statuary Hall Collection
*Statue photograph and Ice Machine drawing is courtesy of
Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia
** Photograph courtesy of:
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
***Photograph courtesy of:
Florida Memory Project-Photographic Collection
¹Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia
²From an article written by Minna Scherlinder Morse
Titled:Chilly Reception
for the Smithsonian Magazine
John Gorrie State Park
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