Published
Aug 19, 2026 9:02 AM EDT
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To say Summer 2026 has been a scorcher would be an understatement. In Europe, prolonged heat waves and record-setting hot days have crossed the threshold from unpleasant to deadly. This year alone, Europe has already reported around 25,000 heat related deaths. And more heat waves are on the way.
The United States hasn’t escaped unscathed, but it’s managed to mitigate the heat’s lethality thanks in large part to widely accessible air conditioning. An estimated 90 percent of U.S. households have AC in 2026, compared to just around 20 percent of households in Europe. In the United Kingdom, which is on track to set a record for heat-related deaths this summer, AC is only a fixture in around 5 percent of households.
But that near-ubiquity in the U.S. wasn’t always the case. Modern electrical air conditioning didn’t exist until 1902, and it would take another half century for the technology to become affordable enough to be commonplace. Before that, people had to get creative. And while it might seem hard to believe for many Americans who have come to view climate-controlled seasons as the standard, AC was actually met with eyebrow raising skepticism for much of the early 20th century.
Still, the public gradually warmed to the concept, often after being exposed to it in large gathering places. Long before air conditioning was ever considered for homes, it was first adopted in factories and warehouses in an effort to increase efficiency. Success there then led to the technology’s implementation in movie theaters and then department stores.
Theaters from Chicago to Houston would heavily advertise their ice-cool amenities, which would draw in eager, sweaty crowds. Marsha E. Ackermann, author of the 2002 book Cool Comfort, wrote that air conditioning “was part of the total entertainment experience.” At least at the beginning, seeking out AC relief was a communal affair. Cool theaters also likely contributed to the rise of summer blockbuster films. Prior to the introduction of AC into theaters in the 1920s, movie-going was still somewhat seasonal. Viewers coming in to escape the heat wound up creating a habit of summer film watching that persists today.
In lieu of widely available AC, Americans relied on a sophisticated infrastructure of ice transportation, sometimes referred to as the ice trade. This cross-country and transatlantic network began in the early 1800s. It persevered until the 1930s when mechanical cooling and refrigeration became more widely available. Huge blocks of ice, sourced from frozen lakes in the Northeast, were cut with handsaws and other tools, then moved to insulated warehouses where they could be stored for months.
Horse-drawn wagons would then transport these ice blocks all across the country, and special shipping vessels were even built to send U.S. ice as far away as Kolkata.
But, as anyone who’s watched an icy soda turn watery on a summer day can probably gather, moving hard ice to warm climates wasn’t exactly foolproof. Author Salvatore Basile notes in his 2014 book, Cool, How Air Conditioning Changed Everything, that an ice shipment might lose two-thirds of its weight to melt by the time it finally reaches its destination. That massive inefficiency, and the considerable labor involved, earned shipped ice the moniker “white gold.” Basile notes the price of ice in the mid-19th century was 10 times the price of beef.
The ice also wasn’t necessarily the same quality people are used to in 2026. Pollutants from the lakes where the ice was sourced would often get trapped inside the blocks, and horses would sometimes leave droppings on them during the journey. When the ice finally did melt, it often emitted a foul odor.
Americans who could afford it regularly had large ice blocks delivered to them by “icemen.” (This was an era when milkmen were also a common sight.) And like the milkman, good-looking couriers delivering the coveted cooling relief became a source of jealousy for insecure husbands. The trope was common enough that composer J. Fred Helf even wrote a famous song titled “How’d You Like to Be the Iceman?” Most often, people would place the ice in an icebox to keep perishables cool.
But ice also served as a more direct form of relief: People would sometimes place massive ice blocks on the ground and sit on top of them, fanning themselves with the cool air evaporating off the block. Photos like the one below show children licking massive ice blocks for a slight reprieve from the summer heat.
Ice-cooled drinks and ice cream are still popular ways to beat the heat today, but before AC, they were viewed with even greater reverence.
