Inventor. Dr. John Gorrie is recognized as a West-Indies-born American, who invented the first mechanical ice machine, receiving US Patent #8080 on May 6, 1851. He was a pioneer in early research on refrigeration and air conditioning. He invented the air conditioner in hope of a cure for Yellow Fever during the 1841 epidemic. After being born to Scottish parents on the Island of Nevis, his family first lived in South Carolina. He received his medical education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York in Fairfield. He moved to the Gulf Coast of Florida in 1833, which was before Florida was a state. He was a practicing physician in the community of Apalachicola and in two hospitals. He first made mechanical ice in 1844 and the next year, abandoned his medical practice to continue with his inventions. His original ice machine and the notes he made are on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. After not receiving financial support, he abandoned his invention. Another Scotsman, James Harrison of Australia improved on Gorrie's idea and is credited with the first practical refrigerating system, which was built in 1854. Sources document that the two inventors worked independent of each other. Gorrie was inducted into the Florida Hall of Fame in 2014. The State of Florida honored him as a "notable person in Florida's history" by donating in 1914 the statue of John Gorrie to the National Statuary Hall collection located in the United States Capitol Building, and naming a Florida state park, two Florida grammar schools, a bridge across Apalachicola Bay, and museum in his honor. He has a monument in Gorrie Square in Apalachicola. The John Gorrie Award is presented each year to a graduate of the University of Florida Medical College.