How was ice first made so that it was available on luxury ocean crossings, and ice boxes throughout the summer

Question

Ice was available on luxury ocean crossings, and ice boxes throughout the summer months, usually delivered by the "Ice Man". How was it made, and how was it stored before refridgeration?

Answer 1

Actually, they used to cut huge blocks from frozen lakes and river beds. We have pictures of my great, great grandfather doing just that. He had a special tools as well has these huge, heavy tongs that were used to carry the big blocks of ice. They were then housed in ice houses that were often dug deep into the ground and insulated with sawdust. Not fool proof and not as effective as the modern freezer, but it would get them the ability to keep things cool.

Answer 2

One method was simply to save it from the previous winter. It would be stored in large warehouses or underground cold rooms, with straw for insulation.

There's also a method in which water could be put into ditches that were open to the sky at night, in an area of low humidity. It would cool off enough that there would be a thin skin of ice in the morning.

Finally, before home refrigerators were invented, a man invented a large industrial ice-making machine.

Answer 3

Between the walls of the box is a glass vacuum. Since heat requires the movement of atoms, a vacuum prevents the flow of moving atoms from one side to another. Of course every time you open the box, you are letting the heat in (or out if you wanted to keep the contents warm) and the bigger the block of ice, the longer it would last.

Ice for consumption is fairly new and required a freezer that would blow the hot air out and using a cooler gas like nitrogen or freon to slow the remaining air atoms down (creating coolness).

Answer 4

Ice was made in freeze factories probably with liquid nitrogen. The ice man would deliver a huge block of ice and it would be put into a box on top of somthing similiar to a fridge called an ice box. Since we all know cold air drops, anything below it (in the ice box fridge) was then cooled.

Answer 5

mimaolta's answer is good. My family history also includes harvesting ice from lakes - in Minnesota. I lived for a while in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mts. where there is at least one man-made lake that was made to provide ice for Philadelphia.

Answer 6

There were no luxury liners before the invention of refrigeration. Only slave ships and war ships.