If the side tracks are placed at both sides of the platform, no time will be lost while cars are being switched, a train loaded on one track being switched out, and the track filled with empty cars, while loading proceeds in the cars on the other track. Diagrams of these platforms are shown at [Fig. 52]. Endless chains, with bars at short spaces, pass along the top of the platform, and carry a cake, at a regular speed, before each bar. (See [Fig. 51].) A short doorway slide is placed between the car and platform, and a man, stationed at the car door with an ice hook, slides the cakes into the car as fast as the stowers can place them.
CHAPTER IV.
Construction of Commercial Ice Houses.
The Earliest Forms of Ice Storage—Development of the Modern Ice House—The Site and Its Requirements—Placing the House—Survey—Foundations—Size of an Ice House—Details of Construction for a House Embodying all Modern Improvements.
The earliest reference to the use of snow for cooling purposes occurs in Holy Writ, and carries us back about three thousand years. History records the custom which prevailed among the Romans, of storing snow upon the mountains during the winter, which was made use of in the summer for cooling beverages. Vaults, or pits, of circular form at the top, and tapering to a point at the bottom, were scooped out in the ground. The sides were lined, and the top thickly thatched with straw, after being filled with snow, which was tightly packed. The doorway was through the top. A modernized Roman snow cellar is shown in Figs. [44] and [45], which is taken from a cellar in use in Virginia. Its successor in the transition to more modern designs is seen in Figs. [46] and [47].
Before ice was cut and stored for commercial uses in this country it was secured, in many instances, by those who used it in their business. Brewers, dairymen, butchers, and some physicians, had ice vaults, or cellars, constructed on the Roman method. The first commercial ice houses were built below the surface of the ground. Gradually they emerged into the light and air, being only partly below the surface. Brick, stone and wood were in use for building materials. Gradually, experience leading the way, the ice dealer has evolved the modern ice house.
The Modern Ice House represents many years of development, and has a scientific, as well as a practical, value. Improvements may be expected in this as in other branches of the ice business. The discoveries and inquiries which scientific and practical men are continually making in this direction are rapidly adding to our store of knowledge. Ice houses, as now built and furnished, give few suggestions of their original prototype.
FIG. 44. INTERIOR VIEW OF OLD STYLE ICE CELLAR.
