Happy Birthday!


John Gorrie

was born 10/3/1803
(d1855)

He was the inventor of air conditioning, and thus Florida's greatest hero. In 1842 Dr Gorrie needed to lower the temperature in his wife's sick-room. He'd waited in vain for ice from Maine that has been lost in the wreck of the schooner that was carrying it. He set a vessel of ammonia atop a stepladder, let it drip, and thus invented an artificial ice-making machine whose basic principle became employed in air conditioning and refrigeration and most importantly, in liquid consumables.

BUT

         We wish you'd avoid putting ice in your drink
          It harms your intestines and palate, we think
          And if you escape that, it still isn't nice
          To wake up hung over because of bad ice!
  
                  Away, away with rum by gum, with rum by gum, with rum by gum
                  Away, away with rum by gum, the song of the temperance union

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