Ice cutting
Ice cuttingis awintertask of collecting surfaceicefrom lakes and rivers for storage inice housesand use or sale as a cooling method. Rare today, it was common (seeice trade) before the era of widespread mechanicalrefrigerationandair conditioningtechnology.[1]
History
[edit]The work was done as a winter chore by manyfarmersand as a winter occupation byicemen.Kept insulated, the ice was preserved forcold food storageduring warm weather, either on the farm or for delivery to residential and commercial customers withice boxes.A largeice tradeexisted in the 19th and early 20th centuries, until mechanical refrigeration displaced it. Due to its harvesting and trade, ice was considered a "crop".[2]
Ice harvesting generally involved waiting until approximately a foot of ice had built up on the water surface in the winter. The ice would then be cut with either ahandsawor a poweredsawblade into long continuous strips and then cut into large individual blocks for transport bywagonback to theice house.[3]Becausesnowon top of the ice slows freezing, it could be scraped off and piled inwindrows.Alternatively, if the temperature is cold enough, asnowysurface could be flooded to produce a thicker layer of ice.[4] A large operation would have a crew of 75 and cut 1500 tons daily.[5]
Ice cutting was a considerable export industry for northern countries inScandinaviaandNorth Americaduring the 19th century. It started in the United States around 1800, and spread to Scandinavia around 1820, by whichNorwayby the mid century became a major exporter toEngland,Europe,the Mediterranean, and as far away asKingdom of Kongo,EgyptandNew York.[6] CoastalTelemarkhad 1,300 workers exporting 125,000 tons in 1895–96, while the Oslo Fjord was the main European export region withNesoddenmunicipality alone employing 1,000 men and exporting 95,000 tons in 1900, at a time when Norway's combined ice export at 500,000 tons stood as the world's largest.[7]
Domestic production and sales were the largest single market source for ice in America and Europe. From the 1850s onwards ice cutting took on large-scale industrial proportions inGermanywithBerlinas a key market.[8] In the 1880s,New York Cityhad over 1500 ice delivery wagons and Americans consumed over 5 million tons of ice annually.[9]
Ice Sculpture
[edit]Ice cutting is still in use today for ice andsnow sculptureevents. Aswing sawis used to get ice out of a river for theHarbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festivaleach year. A swing saw is also used to cut ice out from the frozen surface of theSonghua River,China.[10] Manyice sculpturesare made from the ice harvested this way. In some countries at highlatitudes,evenice hotelsandice palacesare made.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Inspection of Ice. Ice and Refrigeration Illustrated, Southern Ice Exchange.1896.Retrieved2011-10-17.
- ^"Ice, A Most Luxurious Crop".mountvernon.org.RetrievedJune 29,2024.
- ^Jones, J. C. (1984)America's Icemen: An Illustrative History of the United States Natural Ice Industry 1665-1925.Jobeco Books, Humble, Texas.ISBN978-0-9607572-1-3
- ^Bowen, John T (1928)."Harvesting and Storing Ice on the Farm".Farmer's Bulletin:6–8.Retrieved2014-05-25.
- ^Ward, Tom (1975).Cowtown: an album of early Calgary.Calgary: City of Calgary Electric System, McClelland and Stewart West. p.192.ISBN0-7712-1012-4.
- ^Per G. Norseng,"The new Ice Age",Universitetsforlaget 2019.
- ^Den siste istid.NRK, March 2012. Visited on August 16, 2020.
- ^Ingo Heidbrink,"The Natural Ice Factory",Norwegian Maritime Museum, retrieved August 16, 2020.
- ^O'Donnell, Edward T. (31 July 2005)."The Dawn of New York's Ice Age".The New York Times.Retrieved26 August2019.
- ^AFP (13 November 2008)."Ice is money in China's coldest city".The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived fromthe originalon 23 September 2012.Retrieved26 December2009.
External links
[edit]
- The Ice Industry,from 1795 to 1895. One hundred years of American commerce, edited by Chauncey Mitchell Depew
- Maine Ice Industry,an annual report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State, by the Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics
- The Ice Crop: How to Harvest, Store, Ship and Use Ice(1893) in theScience History Institute Digital Collections
- Use Your Car for Ice-Cutting This Winter,Popular Sciencemonthly, February 1919, page 34.
- KK.org Amish Homebuilt gas powered ice cutter to make ice for non-electric icebox
- blueflower.tripod.com Homebuilt gas powered ice cutter
- HMdb.org THE HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE, Ice Harvesting
- winnipeg.ctv.ca Modern ice cutter in Manitoba.
- pudsandlosers.blogspot.com, Ice Palace 2 - Cutting Ice, Saturday, January 31, 2009
