An electric fan mounted on the ceiling that circulates air in a room.
The ceiling fan was invented in the 1860s by American engineer Philip Diehl, but the concept comes from the 'punkah' - large cloth fans operated by servants in colonial India. British colonials couldn't survive Indian heat without these human-powered fans, so they mechanized the concept. The word 'fan' itself comes from Latin 'vannus,' a winnowing basket used to separate grain from chaff by creating airflow.
Ceiling fans are mechanized versions of the 'punkah' system from colonial India, where servants would pull ropes to wave giant cloth fans over British officials. We basically took a labor-intensive status symbol of colonial oppression and turned it into affordable home comfort technology.
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