Lennox 🇺🇸

Lennox was founded in 1895 in Marshalltown (Iowa), when inventors Ezra Smith and Ernest Bryant brought their idea of a riveted steel coal boiler to the mechanical workshop of Dave Lennox (1855-1947); Lennox kept the patent in exchange for building the prototype and from there came the first riveted steel boiler, sold as “Torrid Zone”. In 1904 he sold the business for $57,789 to a group of local entrepreneurs led by David Windsor Norris, the city newspaper editor, whose family ran it for generations and still retains a significant stake.

For decades it was a heating brand sold exclusively through installers, until it expanded into air conditioning —sources place its first units in 1935 and its first central air conditioner in the mid‑fifties. In 1962 it opened its first European factory, in 1978 moved the headquarters to Richardson, near Dallas (Texas), and in 1999 it went public as Lennox International.

Today it manufactures in Marshalltown, Saltillo (Mexico) and Orangeburg (South Carolina), and groups the brands Armstrong Air, Ducane and Allied in residential and Heatcraft in commercial refrigeration. In 2018 a tornado destroyed the historic Marshalltown plant, which was rebuilt later with more than 750 employees.

Pending verification

Year of the first Lennox air‑conditioning unit (1935 according to some sources, 1952‑1955 according to others).

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