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We have better refrigeration these days, sure, but before electric refrigeration was widespread there was an extensive nationwide ice distribution network. Peop
by fennecfoxen 13y ago
We have better refrigeration these days, sure, but before electric refrigeration was widespread there was an extensive nationwide ice distribution network. People would essentially quarry it out from frozen northern lakes during the winters, store enormous cubes of it in warehouses packed in sawdust, and ship it out in railroad cars across the nation.
The icebox significantly predates widespread electrification.
- maxerickson 13y agoThere was also flirtation with other tech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_chiller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_chiller My understanding is that my grandparents used to fill their own ice house (on a farm).
- csense 13y agoEinstein and Szilard actually patented a refrigerator design [1]; AFAIK it was never commercialized. If you're reading this and know about refrigeration tech, you might be able to contribute to the Wikipedia article; it's been tagged as "needs attention from an expert in Technology" since 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator
- mortenjorck 13y agoYou just made me realize I never questioned where the 20th-century iceman would have gotten his ice from in a world without condensers. That's a fascinating infrastructure to imagine – shipping ice long distances in the summer heat with no active cooling. I actually want to read more about this.
- huffman 13y agoThis is an interesting wiki article on an ice baron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Tudor#The_ice_business http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Tudor#The_ice_business
- ash 13y agoThere's a fascinating post about prepairing ice at the end of 19th century - beginning of 20th. The post is in russian, but photos are good enough on their own: http://engineering-ru.livejournal.com/39019.html http://engineering-ru.livejournal.com/39019.html
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoThere's a silent YouTube video referenced at the end of that piece showing the stages of ice harvesting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x9rc-54s-I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x9rc-54s-I очень хорошо.
- oh_sigh 13y agoKeep in mind that the rate at which a block of ice melts scales with its surface area, so it actually becomes easier to transport large blocks of ice, if you have the other infrastructure to support it.