How naming conventions shape our understanding of refrigerants, risks, and public perception.

Few institutions in the world become so famous that they are better known than the person whose name they bear. You might recognize Andrew Carnegie’s name as the founder of Carnegie Hall in NYC, but what about Solomon Guggenheim or Albert Hall?

The Herrick Laboratories at Purdue University are famous all around the HVAC&R world as a center of excellence for research and development and are said to be the largest academic research facility in the field, with more than 40 staff serving 250 graduate students and 100 undergraduates. Alumni from the labs are now in senior positions in industry and academia around the world with an unrivaled network of contacts to continue making technical progress long after they leave West Lafayette. So who was Herrick and how did his name become synonymous with such engineering excellence?

Ray W. Herrick was born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1890 and trained as a toolmaker, finding work with Packard in Pontiac and then Ford in Detroit. He quickly rose to be a key member of Henry Ford’s production supervisors, working as the troubleshooter on the novel assembly lines being tested in Ford’s Highland Park plant. When Ray went to enlist for the Army Air Service during World War I, Henry went to the Recruiting Office with him to persuade the army that he was more use to the country if he remained in Highland Park. Ray stayed with Ford until the end of the war, then had a succession of jobs in manufacturing, including the supply of engines and compressors to Ford. In 1934 Henry persuaded Ray to take over H. Brewer & Co. in Tecumseh, Michigan, to manufacture compressors and thus Tecumseh Products was born.

Their revolutionary design was cheaper to manufacture than any other hermetic compressor on the market and they quickly grew to dominate the domestic refrigerator and window air conditioner sectors.

Ray Herrick’s down-to-earth style was coupled with a generous spirit, much in the style of Andrew Carnegie, and later in life he made several philanthropic donations as well as setting up the Herrick Foundation in 1949 to support publicly funded charitable organizations across the United States. To date, the Foundation has donated more than $500 million to community projects, mostly anonymously.

In 1958 Professor Bill Fontaine at Purdue University agreed to create, with Herrick’s financial support, a research facility to bring real-world problems to the academics. The original lab building was a converted horse barn—still on campus and now known as “the legacy building,” although it is now dwarfed by the state-of-the-art living laboratory behind it. The labs are now home to the Center for High Performance Buildings, which conducts research in all facets of the interactions between people and their buildings, whether they are at work, at home or at leisure. All of this is very much in line with Ray Herrick’s original vision for the facility, ensuring that his legacy is kept alive for future generations.

I have benefited from many interactions with the Herrick Labs over the years, but I still think of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his unfortunate assistant, Beaker, whenever anyone says “Herrick Labs” to me because my brain simultaneously translates it to “Muppet Labs.” No offense intended!