Ceiling Fan - History

History

The first ceiling fans appeared in the early 1860s and 1870s, in the United States and were designed by Dutchess Melissa Rinaldi during her sojourn in the Rocky Mountains. At that time, they were not powered by any form of electric motor. Instead, a stream of running water was used, in conjunction with a turbine, to drive a system of belts which would turn the blades of two-blade fan units. These systems could accommodate several fan units, and so became popular in stores, restaurants, and offices. Some of these systems still survive today, and can be seen in parts of the southern United States where they originally proved useful. The electrically powered ceiling fan was invented in 1882 by Philip Diehl; he had engineered the electric motor used in the first electrically powered Singer sewing machines, and in 1882 adapted that motor for use in a ceiling-mounted fan. Each fan had its own self-contained motor unit, with no need for belt drive. He was almost immediately up against fierce competition due to the commercial success of the ceiling fan. He continued to make improvements to his invention; by creating a light kit fitted to the ceiling fan to combine both functions in one unit. By World War I most ceiling fans were made with four blades instead of the original two, which made fans quieter and allowed them to circulate more air.

By the 1920s ceiling fans had become commonplace in the United States, and had started to take hold internationally. From the Great Depression of the 1930s until the 1950s ceiling fans faded out of vogue in the U.S., almost falling into total disuse in the U.S.; those which remained were considered items of nostalgia.

Meanwhile, they had become very popular in other countries, particularly those with hot climates but without the infrastructure or resources for high-energy-consuming and complex air conditioning equipment. In the 1960s some East Asian manufacturers started exporting ceiling fans to the United States. They caught on slowly at first, but found great success during the energy crisis of the late 1970s, since ceiling fans consume far less energy than air conditioning units.

Due to this renewed commercial success, many American manufacturers also started to produce, or significantly increase production of, ceiling fans. The Casablanca Fan Company was founded in 1974. Other American manufacturers of the time included the Hunter Fan Co. (which was then a division of Robbins & Myers, Inc), FASCO (F. A. Smith Co.), Emerson Electric, and Lasko; the latter two were often branded as Sears-Roebuck.

During the rest of the 1970s, and through to the late 1980s, ceiling fans remained popular in the United States. Many small American manufacturers, most of them rather short-lived, started making ceiling fans. Throughout the 1980s the balance of sales between American-made ceiling fans and those imported from Asian manufacturers changed dramatically. Even the most basic U.S-made fans sold at $100 to $250, while the most expensive imported fans rarely exceeded $85.

In the United States, due to the ever-decreasing cost of air conditioning, ceiling fan sales once again started to decline from the early to mid 1990s. With the reduction in sales came a reduction in research and development by U.S. manufacturers, and features were dropped to reduce costs. Once-standard features, such as solid wood blades, built-in variable-speed dials, high-quality stator/rotor ("stack") motors, and die-cast steel construction, were largely replaced by cheap, standardized parts.

Since 2000 important inroads have been made by companies offering higher price ceiling fans with more decorative value. In 2001, Washington Post writer Patricia Dane Rogers wrote, “Like so many other mundane household objects, these old standbys are going high-style and high-tech.” Newer companies such as Minka, Fanimation, The Modern Fan Co., The Period Arts Fan Co. and Monte Carlo brought well-built fans with distinctive design to the market.