History of Refrigeration question:

speeder · speeder's Garage

This has been bothering me today. Everyone knows that before modern refrigeration people had "ice boxes", and some guy in an ice truck came around and delivered ice everyday, or other day, right? Well how did they make the ice, say in Texas or some other 100 degree place, before refrigeration was invented??

God, this is driving me nuts! TIA.

singpilot · 10-26-2003, 03:10 PM

They had trucks with real insulation. Not the EPA approved pantywaist stuff we have today.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by singpilot
They had trucks with real insulation. Not the EPA approved pantywaist stuff we have today.

So they drove it from Alaska everyday??

Anyone else want to take a crack at this?

cegerer · cegerer's Garage

Why I know this is beyond me. I should really delete this information from my brain cells to make room for more important matters ...... like maybe the chassis numbers of all the 908/3's. Before refrigeration and ice factories, the south imported natural ice from the north. Packed it in sawdust and it lasted for months!! I remember seeing old photos of the local river up here where they would cut the river ice up into large blocks and prepare to ship it south. -- Curt

singpilot · 10-26-2003, 05:19 PM

In big trucks with real Pre-EPA insulation, haha.

U R Right, I didn't read the question.

island911 · 10-26-2003, 06:43 PM

They had ice cellars & ice houses for storage. (or so Laura Ingels-Wilder says) If you were close to a mountain you would stock up. Otherwise it was shipped in.

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/ice/iceimport.htm

HarryD · 10-26-2003, 07:43 PM

OK, So why is an Air Conditioner rated in tons?

I'll reveal the answer later.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Thanks for the replies! So all of the warm places like the southern U.S. had their ice shipped from the North, and the North saved it up all year from the winter? That would be a lot of ice, for the whole country. Must have been a huge industry!

My Dad told me that the best manual labor job in the summer was working at the ice factory, for obvious reasons. Beat the hell out of roofing or being on a road paving crew.

RickM · RickM's Garage

Afterwards the ice was produced in plants where commercial refrigeration equipment was used. It was then delivered to homeowners and businesses. This was before the "home" version (refrigerator/freezer) was developed and marketed.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Rick, That is what I had guessed, Thanks. Do you, (or anyone else), happen to know approx. what year commercial refrigeration appeared? How about home refrig/freezers? There must have been one year when rich people got them, and another year for everyone else?

How about air conditioning? Home/office/car? I cannot imagine what it was like on a train full of people or an airliner w/o A/C.

HarryD · 10-27-2003, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by speeder
Rick, That is what I had guessed, Thanks. Do you, (or anyone else), happen to know approx. what year commercial refrigeration appeared? How about home refrig/freezers? There must have been one year when rich people got them, and another year for everyone else?

How about air conditioning? Home/office/car? I cannot imagine what it was like on a train full of people or an airliner w/o A/C.

Here you go!

RickM · RickM's Garage

And ther you have it! Interesting page.

What struck me.... Quote: “Good sources were harder and harder to find. By the 1890’s, natural ice became a problem because of pollution and sewage dumping.” Signs of a problem were first evident in the brewing industry. Soon the meatpacking and dairy industries followed with their complaints."

Boy, I wouldn't want to be the one sipping that cold one or biting into a steak only to discover evidence of a "problem".

singpilot · 10-27-2003, 10:14 AM

The airplane problem was actually the opposite, how to keep everybody warm. As you climb higher, it gets colder. Standard Lapse rate is 2 degrees C per thousand feet of elevation. Freezing level varies from the surface (or below it, and therefore not important) to a high of 24000 feet. I very rarely see it that high, but have seen it there.