How did they make ice before electricity?

Question

So, back in the day there were ice boxes as opposed to our modern refrigerator/freezers. There was no electricity, so the ice man would come and you'd get a big piece of ice for your ice box to keep your food cool all week. But how did the ice man get that ice to sell you with no electricity? Sounds silly, but I have been puzzling over that for the last few weeks for some reason.

Answer 1

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There were a number of different ways of getting/making ice before electricity:-

The simplest method was to go where there was ice and bring it back. Kings in India (and probably elsewhere) used to have snow brought to them from the mountains, as a delicacy. This is bringing ice from "elsewhere in space."

One could also bring ice from "elsewhere in time." In places where winter temperatures are routinely below freezing, ice was cut from ponds and lakes, then stored in special insulated buildings until needed. In America, the Shakers were well-known for their excellent ice-houses; these were double-walled and triple-roofed, with sawdust packed between, and more sawdust laid thickly on the floor.

Finally, one could use a little ingenuity. The Romans used to make ice in the deserts of North Africa or Palestine by taking advantage of the low humidity (and therefore the low temperatures at night). They would put what they wanted to freeze in a pit well-insulated with straw. The pit would be covered with highly-polished shields or other objects during the day, to reflect the heat of the sun; at night, the pit would be uncovered so that it could lose heat to the desert air.

The same principle was used, for example, in British India. In times and places when the nights were cold, water would be poured into molds at dusk and allowed to freeze; then, at about 3 or 4 AM, the ice would be chipped out of the molds and rushed to an ice-house.

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thorough and informative...thanks

Answer 2

from icebergs

Answer 3

never thought of that, they probrobly didnt

Answer 4

salt and hay would keep it cold

Answer 5

glaciers and they mine it

Answer 6

they collect eyes in the winter and were storing inside of the ground

Answer 7

Ice was cut from frozen rivers and lakes, then shipped out.

Answer 8

During the winter it was cut from frozen lakes and ponds and stored in ice houses.

Answer 9

Back in the 1800s, some of the general stores would have ice houses. These were small, panty-like rooms that were specifically built to hold in the cold. (Kind of like a primitive version of a freezer at a fast food restaurant.)

General store owners would have ice shipped in every once and a while by wagons with ice boxes (built just like modern coolers).

Answer 10

I know they used lead lined boxes to keep ice, it must be good insulater. They must have got it from somewhere cold!

Answer 11

The "Ice Man" didn't appear until after there was electricity and water could be frozen. Before that, any one wanting ice had to gather it during the winter or buy it from people whose business was bringing it down from mountain tops. It was stored in places like cellars, sometimes covered with straw or packed in salt to make it keep as long as possible.

Answer 12

Normally ice was harvested from mountains but most often the cool cellars were used to keep things cooler. Oftentimes ice was not even sanitary since it came from lakes or rivers with animal wastes and so forth. Mechanical refrigeration to make ice was first developed around the last part of the 1800s until the late 1920s that used ammonia gases (very toxic).

Long story but that's how it was done before modern refrigeration.