Air Conditioning
The world would be inhabited in very different ways if not for air conditioning. The first place to ever employ it was Brooklyn’s own Sackett & Wilhelms Lithography and Printing Company, which is still standing in East Williamsburg. On July 17, 1902, engineer Willis Haviland Carrier designed the first AC, to help with the humidity issues that were throwing off the printers’ schedules. He succeeded, and the rest is cold-air history.
The Crossword Puzzle
On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne published the first crossword puzzle in the pages of the New York World. Although other word puzzles existed, Wynne’s version used several innovations that are easy to recognize in the form over a century later. Wynne called his invention a “Word-Cross Puzzle,” but a typesetting error reworked it as “Cross-Word,” as it’s been known ever since.
The World’s First Elevator
By Kenneth C. Zirkel - Own work
This SoHo building still stands, the site on March 23, 1857 of the world’s first passenger elevator. It was installed by a man with a familiar name—Elisha Graves Otis—who had been inspired to build the device by the challenges of lifting debris at the bedstead factory he managed in Yonkers. New York City, and every other city around the world, was forever changed by the innovation he brought to the Haughwout Emporium.
Source: “Made in NYC,” City Guide, March 20, 2024 Contributed by Bobbie Roggemann