How did the people in 1800's make ice?

Answer 1

They cut blocks of it out of frozen lakes, streams, ponds, etc in the winter., and then stored it for the rest of the year in underground ice houses insulated with sod, straw, and sawdust.

Answer 2

Recipe for ice, in the 1800's. A) Take a nice lake. B) wait till cold weather. c) When ice hardens up, and is a good 5 inches or thicker. D) take a saw, saw out chunks, blocks, or squares. E) Haul to ice house (small shed in a shaded area) F) start stacking rows of ice blocks, surrounded by sawdust or other insulating material. G) through out the year, remove as needed.

Answer 3

On the most part all answers are correct! As a matter of interest, I would like to add, that at least some of North America's rail systems were still using ice for "refrigerated goods transport" well into 1970's . As a teenager, I worked on a railroad, and during the summer we would use the ice house as a respite from the heat...

Answer 4

During the winter months they would cut huge blocks of ice from rivers and lakes and then store them in huge ice houses which used hay as an insulating material for the ice blocks and this held them pretty well until the next winter when they would cut and harvest more ice.

Answer 5

They didn't. Ice was cut in blocks from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in "icehouses", which were built into hillsides or had below ground cellars. The ice was covered with straw or other available insulation. For the rest of the year "icemen" cut the blocks into smaller blocks and sold the ice to consumers off an "icewagon."

Answer 6

They only had ice for short amounts of time back then, during the winter, they would get large chunks of ice from ponds, rivers and lakes and put them in "ice houses" and then when that was gone, they would have to wait till next freeze...


Edited to add: Here is a l;ink that tells about some of the ice harvests...

http://www.iceharvestingusa.com/demorest/scribners1.html

Answer 7

Believe it or not, ice was harvested from lakes and ponds in the winter. it was stored in barns, covered with sawdust to keep the melting down. The iceman would sell blocks of ice to families with iceboxes well into the summer. The ice lasted in an icebox sometimes up to a month.

Answer 8

Before they had domestic refrigerators, people collected ice in winter and stored it underground in dug out chambers called "ice houses". This was rather expensive and only rich people had ice in summer

Answer 9

i used to live in spain in the late 50's, every morning the guy with the chunks of ice would come by and put them into the icebox.

I imagine it was similar in the 19th century

Answer 10

They chopped ice out of a frozen river and stored it in buildings well insulated with sawdust. When that was gone...that was it.