Ice cutting
Ice cutting was a winter occupation of icemen whose task it was to collect surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses and sale as a pre-refrigeration cooling method. Kept insulated, the ice was preserved for all-year delivery to residential and commercial customers with ice boxes for cold food storage.
Ice cutting 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 a handsaw or a powered saw blade into long continuous strips and then cut into large individual blocks for transport by wagon back to the icehouse.[1]
This occupation generally became obsolete with the development of mechanical refrigeration and air conditioning technology.[2]
Ice cutting is still done for ice and snow sculpture events. A swing saw is used to get ice out of the river for the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival each year. A swing saw is used to cut ice out from the frozen surface of the Songhua River.[3] Many Ice sculptures are made from the ice.
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- ^ Jones, J. C. (1984) America's Icemen: An Illustrative History of the United States Natural Ice Industry 1665-1925. Jobeco Books, Humble, Texas. ISBN 9780960757213
- ^ Inspection of Ice. Ice and Refrigeration Illustrated, Southern Ice Exchange. 1896. http://books.google.com/books?id=BRMpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA307&dq=%22ice+industry%22&hl=en&ei=_b-cTs62NcLq0gHd0dSCCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22ice%20industry%22&f=false. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
- ^ AFP (13 November 2008). "Ice is money in China's coldest city". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/travel/ice-is-money-in-chinas-coldest-city-20081113-62yj.html. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
[edit] External links
- The Ice Industry, from 1795-1895. One hundred years of American commerce..., edited by Chauncey Mitchell Depew
- Maine Ice Industry, from Annual report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State ..., by the Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics
- Use Your Car for Ice-Cutting This Winter, Popular Science monthly, 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
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