Automobile air conditioning

Automobile air conditioning (also called A/C) systems use air conditioning to cool the air in a vehicle.

A company in New York City in the United States first offered installation of air conditioning for cars in 1933. Most of their customers operated limousines and luxury cars.

In 1939, Packard became the first automobile manufacturer to offer an air conditioning unit in its cars. These were manufactured by Bishop and Babcock Co, of Cleveland, Ohio. The "Bishop and Babcock Weather Conditioner" also incorporated a heater. Cars ordered with the new "Weather Conditioner" were shipped from Packard's East Grand Boulevard facility to the B&B factory where the conversion was performed. Once complete, the car was shipped to a local dealer where the customer would take delivery.

Packard fully warranted and supported this conversion, and marketed it well. However, it was not commercially successful for a number of reasons:

The option was discontinued after 1941.

The 1953 Chrysler Imperial was one of the first production cars in twelve years to offer modern automobile air conditioning as an option, following tentative experiments by Packard in 1940 and Cadillac in 1941.Walter Chrysler had seen to the invention of Airtemp air conditioning in the 1930s for the Chrysler Building, and had offered it on cars in 1941-42, and again in 1951-52.

The Airtemp was more advanced than rival automobile air conditioners by 1953. It was operated by a single switch on the dashboard marked with low, medium, and high positions. As the highest capacity unit available at that time, the system was capable of quickly cooling the passenger compartment and also reducing humidity, dust, pollen, and tobacco smoke. The system drew in more outside air than contemporary systems; thus, reducing the staleness associated with automotive air conditioning at the time. Instead of plastic tubes mounted on the rear window package shelf as on GM cars, small ducts directed cool air toward the ceiling of the car where it filtered down around the passengers instead of blowing directly on them, a feature that modern cars have lost.

Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile added air conditioning as an option on some of their models in the 1953 model year. All of these Frigidaire systems used separate engine and trunk mounted components.

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