A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines / containing a clear exposition of their principles and practice

by Andrew Ure

An icehouse should not be regarded as an object of mere luxury, for pleasing the palates of gourmands with iced creams and orgeats. In the southern countries of Europe it is considered among people in easy circumstances as an indispensable appendage to a country mansion. During the Dog-days, especially at those periods, and in those districts where the sirocco blows, a lassitude and torpor of mind and body supervene, with indigestion or total loss of appetite, and sometimes dysenteries, which are obviously occasioned by the excessive heat, and are to be prevented or counteracted chiefly by the use of cold beverages. By giving tone to the stomach, iced drinks immediately restore the functions of the nervous and muscular systems when they are languid; while they enable persons in health to endure without much inconvenience an atmosphere so close and sultry as would be intolerable without this remedy. Icehouses, moreover, afford to country gentlemen, a great advantage in enabling them to preserve their fish, butcher meat, dead poultry, and game, which would otherwise, in particular states of the weather, immediately spoil. Considering at how little expense and trouble an icehouse can be constructed, it is surprising that any respectable habitation in the country should not have one attached to it. The simplest and most scientific form is a double cone, that is, two cones joined base to base; the one being of stones or brickwork, sunk under ground with its apex at the bottom, into which the ice is rammed; the other being a conical roof of carpentry covered with thatch, and pointed at top. The entrance should be placed always on the north side; it should consist of a corridor or porch with double doors, and be screened from the sunbeams by a small shrubbery. Such are, in general, the principles upon which an icehouse should be formed; but they will be better understood by the following explanation and figure.

A dry sandy soil should be selected, and, if possible, a spot sheltered by a cliff or other natural barrier from the direct rays of the sun. Here a cavity is to be dug about 16 feet in diameter, terminating below like the point of a sugar loaf. Its ordinary depth, for a moderate family, may be about 24 feet; but the larger its dimensions are, the longer will it preserve the ice, provided it be filled. In digging, the workman should slope the ground progressively towards the axis of the cone, to prevent the earth falling in. This conical slope should be faced with brick or stone work about one foot thick, and jointed with Roman cement so as to be air and water tight. A well is to be excavated at the bottom two feet wide and four deep, covered at top with an iron grating for supporting the ice, and letting the water drain away.

The upper cone may likewise be built of brickwork, and covered with thatch; such a roof would prove the most durable. This is the construction shown in [fig. 575.] Whatever kind of roof be preferred, there must be left in it an oblong passage into the interior. This porch should face the north, and be at least 8 feet long by 2¹⁄₂ feet wide; and perfectly closed by a well-fitted door at each end. All round the bottom of this conical cover, a gutter should be placed to carry off the rain to a distance from the icehouse, and prevent the circumjacent ground from getting soaked with moisture.

[Fig. 575.] shows the section of a well-constructed icehouse. Under the ice-chamber A the ice is rammed into the space B. C is the grate of the drain-sink D. The portion E E is built in brick or stone; the base L of the ice-chamber slopes inwards towards the centre at C. The upper part of the brickwork E E is a little way below the level of the ground. The wooden frame work F F F F forms the roof, and is covered with thick thatch. G H is the wooden work of the door I. At K the bucket is seen for lifting up a charge of ice, by means of the cord J passing over the pulley M, which enables the servant to raise it easily.

The icehouse should have no window to admit light; but be, so to speak, hermetically sealed in every point, except at its cess-pool, which may terminate in a water trap to prevent circulation of air.

A clear day should be selected for charging the icehouse; but before beginning to fill, a quantity of long dry straw should be laid on the bottom crosswise; and as the ice is progressively introduced, straw is to be spread against the conical sides, to prevent the ice from coming into contact with the brick or stone work. The more firmly compacted the ice is, the better does it keep; with which view it should be broken into pieces with mallets before being thrown in. No layers of straw should be stratified among the ice, for they would make its body porous. Some persons recommend to pour in a little water with the successive layers of ice, in order to fill up its small crevices, and convert the whole into one mass.

Over the top layer a thick bed of straw should be spread, which is to be covered with boards surmounted with heavy stones, to close up the interstices in the straw. The inner and outer doors should never be opened at once; but the one should always be shut before the other is opened.

Dry snow well rammed keeps equally well with hard ice, if care be taken to leave no cavities in the mass, and to secure its compactness by sprinkling a little water upon the successive charges.