Showing posts with label Dr. John Gorrie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. John Gorrie. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Feel the heat of the late afternoon sun

As the sun went down this evening it was still in the mid-80s. The water looks refreshing but is in the 90s. The sun is slowing moving off the buildings and docks but it's leaving behind today's heat and humidity. The sky has a hot cast to it and without a cooling afternoon shower today tomorrow should start where today's heat left off...high. Although like the next person I love a fun day on a sandy beach, I lift a glass high to the inventor of air conditioning, Dr. John Gorrie. (John Gorrie spent the last twenty years of his life on the Gulf Coast of Florida and Tampa has an elementary school named for him. Knowing that he lived with our humidity for a good portion of his life makes his brilliant solution that much more understandable. Floridians really admire and respect Dr. Gorrie's 1851 ice making invention, even if we don't instantly recognize his name. Who remembers going to an ice house in Florida and seeing the huge blocks of ice? And the men with ice tongs?)