Van Ellis Huff (1894 – 1987) was a

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

trained engineer who popularized residential use of a combination

jalousie window A jalousie window (, ) or louvered window (Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom) is a window composed of parallel glass, acrylic, or wooden louvres set in a frame. The louvres are joined onto a track so that ...

. Drawing inspiration from common wooden slat windows he'd become familiar with in the Bahamas, he designed a hand-cranked glass, aluminum and screen window version that found widespread use in temperate climates before the advent of

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

.https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DD143CF935A25751C1A961948260 Official New York Times Obituary Fitted also in cooler regions in porches and sunrooms, jalousies became a multimillion-dollar industry and the company Huff had built to manufacture them prospered. However, amid complaints over underbidding and his salesmen's tactics, Huff sold his share in 1956 and retired. Huff is sometimes referred to inaccurately as the "inventor" of the jalousie window. The first patent for such a window, #687705, was applied for on Nov. 26, 1901, by Joseph W. Walker.

References

University of Florida alumni People from Florida 1987 deaths 1894 births 20th-century American businesspeople {{1890s-US-business-bio-stub