Wheeler figured out how to apply the fledgling science of electricity to make a fan turn. Drawing on the work of Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla, Wheeler invented a desktop fan consisting of two blades—unshielded by any sort of protective cage—powered by an electric motor. The fan was marketed by the Crocker & Curtis Electric Motor Co.
Meanwhile, the further development of the electric fan fell to Philip H. Diehl, a German immigrant who'd lost everything in the 1871 Chicago fire. Diehl pulled up stakes for the East Coast, where he went to work for the Singer Sewing Machine company. He took a sewing-machine motor, mounted a fan blade and attached the whole thing to the ceiling—thereby inventing the ceiling fan, which he patented in 1887. Later, as head of his own company, Diehl added a light fixture to the ceiling fan. In 1904, Diehl and Co. put a split-ball joint on an electric fan, allowing it to be redirected; three years later, this idea developed into the first oscillating fan.
Fans caught on rapidly. By 1910, Westinghouse was marketing an electric fan for household use with the claim that the electricity to operate it would cost only one-fourth of a penny per hour.
Self-contained window fans, made of plastic instead of metal, were introduced in 1934 by Vent-Axia, a British company. In 1937, the development of a new plastic laminate for coating fan blades, Micarta, made fans quieter and less likely to warp or corrode.