Air Conditioner... something that we can't live without.. I agree with that.. hihi..
coz.. these lately there is no air con in my office.. is so hot.. I can't think... can't concentrate... it's make me feel so uncomfortable there.. *sigh...

This.. I found the history of it... just some another inform that I found.. huehehehe...
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Air Conditioner The idea of air conditioning started before a machine was created to produce the cooling effect desired. The first attempt at building an air conditioner was made by Dr. John Gorrie (1803-1855), an American physician, in Apalachicola, Florida. During his practice there in the 1830s, Dr. Gorrie creating an ice-making machine that essentially blew air over a bucket of ice for cooling hospital rooms of patients suffering from malaria and yellow fever.

In 1881, when President James Garfield was dying, naval engineers constructed a box-like structure containing cloths saturated with melted ice water, where a fan blew hot air overhead. This contraption was able to lower a room by 20 degrees Fahrenheit but consumed half a million pounds of ice in two months' time.

A close ancestor to the modern air conditioner units was first made in 1902 by an American engineer by the name of Willis Carrier. The machine at that time was called "Apparatus for Treating Air" and was built for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co. in Brooklyn, New York. Chilled coils were used in the machine to cool air and lower humidity to 55%, although the apparatus was made with enough precision that the humidity level desired was adjustable.

After the invention by Carrier, air conditioners began to bloom. They first hit the industrial buildings such as printing plants, textile mills, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and a few hospitals. The first air-conditioned home was that of Charles Gates, son of gambler John "Bet a Million" Gates, in Minneapolis in 1914. However, during the first wave of their installation, Carrier's air conditioner units were large, expensive, and dangerous due to the toxic ammonia that was used as coolant.

In 1922, Carrier had two breakthroughs - he replaced the ammonia with the benign coolant dielene and added a central compressor to reduce the size of the unit. The next advance was when Carrier sold his invention to movie-theater operators, with a notable debut in 1925 at the Rivoli on Broadway in New York City. In a short amount of time, air conditioners were installed in office buildings, department stores and railroad cars. The United States House of Representatives had air conditioners installed in 1928, with the Senate, White House and Supreme Court following suit in the years after. After World War II, window units air conditioners appeared, with sales escalating from 74,000 in 1948 to 1,045,000 in 1953.

Today, air conditioners have been said to be a partial cause for the changes in the South, and for most of us who have experienced its cooling benefits in times of searing heat waves, it is an invention that is hard to live without.

Source: Jones Jr., Malcolm. "Air Conditioning". Newsweek. Winter 1997 v130 n24-A p42(2).

• Restaurant: A restaurant is typically large, with personalized tables and a range of food to choose from the menu. The origin of restaurant is a subject laden with controversy. Some say the first establishments of the dining place began in 13th century China, Hangzhou to be exact. Being the center of trade, the place was in need of taverns and tea houses, which then proceeded on to serve meals. Some say they originated from the 15th century taverns in England, but most agree that the first properly ran restaurant was one ran by a gentleman named Boulanger in Paris. Afterwards, he was apparently involved in a dispute concerning the accusation of him monopolizing one particular type of dish, the ragout (dish cooked in sauce). The particular jargon ‘restaurant’ actually means ‘restoratives’, referring to soups and broths-light meals with the ability to ‘restore’.
  
  
• Brasserie: Unmistakably French in nature, a Brasserie is a small, cozy eating place, which commonly serves hearty amounts of liquor, usually beer. Meals are served in one-dish nature and the atmosphere is usually informal. Sometimes, the meals are regarded as a second affair.
  
  
• Bistro: A bit similar to brasserie, a Bistro is also usually petite and simple. Meals are prepared in simple manners and a range of wine or other liquors is available. Authentic-style Bistros may not provide menus.
  
  
• Prewpub: Again, a combination of alcoholic drinks and meals. However, a Prewpub proudly brews its own drinks to serve.
  
  
• Café, Coffee shops and Tea-Houses: As the names suggest, A Café and its sibling, the Tea-House, focuses more on the drinks and teté-a- teté that comes with them. Socializing and contemplating are the common aims of thos venturing into a Café. However, a Café or Tea House may also be synonymous with delicious pastries and light meals.
  
  
• Diner: Very American-style eating spot not to be mistaken with fast food restaurant. True, the meals served are Hamburgers, fries and the likes, yet a Diner has a stronger touch of authenticity and home-made-ness. Diners evolved from mobile lunch-wagons serving inexpensive meals for downtown workers. To this present day, a diner usually maintains its mobile look with chrome fabrics and art-deco interiors, although the building itself is considerably immobile.