Free Republic

Reflections on the anniversary of the birth of Gouverneur Morris Willis Haviland Carrier invented the first modern air conditioning machine in 1902 at the Buffalo Forge Company, and today, a century later, it’s difficult to imagine a home or office being built anywhere in America without either central A/C or at least a window or room unit to alleviate the summer heat. There was no such technological solution in the Founding Era, when statesmen committed to the Glorious Cause spent months at a time in Philadelphia, trying to think straight in a muggy meeting room at what we now call...

Appointment for Return of Art Left in the Subway By COREY KILGANNON The man on the telephone called himself Paul and said to meet him this afternoon at 80th Street and Broadway. "No third parties," he said. And so the stage seems to be set for the final act of the case of the mislaid art. This is the affair of the professional art framer who left two precious pieces of art on a subway platform on Thursday: an original Picasso print and a study by Sophie Matisse, great-granddaughter of Henri Matisse. The framer, William H. Bailey, 63, who was...