My friend Joe and I were walking around town the other day, snapping pics of my lovely little neighborhood. We just happened to notice this crazy old air conditioning unit outside of an apartment building on our main street. It sits upon two extra-strength, extra-fancy brackets – and as you can see, it’s a battle of old vs. new out there.

Here is a closeup:

I thought it was pretty interesting because the bracket and platform seem very old – and the air conditioner (if that’s what it is) does too. So I started Googling, and found that the first modern air conditioner was invented in 1902 by Willis Carrier. Then a little light went off in my head.  Syracuse (20-30 minutes from where we live) is home to the Carrier Corporation, the world’s largest air conditioning manufacturer. And yes, the company is named after that Carrier. In fact, the University’s large athletic stadium is named after the company – you might have seen our football team lose 42-12 in it last week. Sigh…. Anyway, they didn’t sell residential models until the 50’s so it’s probably not as old as the brackets imply – but I bet if I could get up there, I’d see the Carrier name on it somewhere!