William Henry Wheeler was born in Oswego, NY on April 28, 1887. Educated in New York all of his life, he attended public schools in both Oswego and New York City. He received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering at Columbia University in 1911.Between the years of 1933 and 1941, Mr. Wheeler worked for the New York based Schwerin Air Conditioning Company in the capacity of sales engineer. Later, he took a position with Guy Paschal, to assist in the development of a new product.
In Paschal's opinion, filters could never be made to completely eliminate offensive odors from the air. Neither, though, was the practice of adding strong scents to mask these odors effective. So, Paschal took another route. Building on the work of Hendrick Zwaardemaker, a Dutch scientist, Paschal learned that certain pairs of odors compete with each other at the same olfactory site in the nose. Thus, he reasoned, finding pleasant smells to complete with bad ones is the key to removing undesirable odors. By 1939, he had identified many odor pairs that could be effectively used.
In the fall of 1943, Wheeler formed and became president of Airkem, Inc. in New York City which acquired from Paschal the patents and formulas resulting from Paschal's research. Wheeler's company then began distributing these products using the Airkem trademark for industrial and institutional products, and the Airwick trademark for retail products. These new products found immediate acceptance.
Later research discovered many specific mixtures to control odor for a variety of specific applications. For example, mixtures were made to help with the smell of stack emissions from sulphate paper mills, fertilizer, asphalt, sheet metal, tanneries, and poultry food driers among other things.
By 1959, the final year of Wheeler's life, Airkem and Airwick products were being sold in more than 100 countries. The company had two plants in the United States, other production facilities in Canada, England, Germany, France, and Australia, and a series of foreign subsidiaries.
