CHAPTER I.
An Historical Sketch.
The Origin of the Ice Business in the United States—Its Wonderful Development Commercially and in the Manifold Uses of Ice—A Pen Picture of a Modern Ice Harvest.
Prior to 1805, there was no regularly conducted traffic in ice, in this country. In the winter of 1805–6, a supply was secured at Boston, Mass., and the following summer a cargo was despatched to the West Indies, where yellow fever was then raging.
Domestic and Export Trade were both of very slow growth, and, in 1825, the ice consumed in the United States and exported to foreign ports was probably less than fifty thousand tons. During the thirty years following, the consumption of ice increased more rapidly, and the enterprise of the shippers carried the fame of Boston ice all around the world. Cargoes were consigned to London, to the East Indies, and the West Indies, Rio de Janeiro, Calcutta, China, Japan, and Australia.
The Export Trade reached its height about this time. Frederick Tudor, of Boston, Mass., who shipped the first cargo to the West Indies in 1806, and whose enterprise had carried his ships to all the ports mentioned, was titled the “Ice King.” Not many years after this, ice and refrigerator machines began to supply the demand for ice in tropical climes, and the importations of the natural product soon ceased. Two million tons is a liberal estimate of the amount of ice stored at this date, 1855, in the United States, with six or seven million dollars of invested capital.
Many New Uses for ice have exerted a marked influence on the demand during the succeeding years. During the war of the Rebellion, the Government was a large purchaser, on account of the hospital service. The brewers, who in earlier days, had suspended operations during the heat of the summer, now pursued their avocation continuously, with the aid of ice. Meat packers found in ice an agent for immensely augmenting their product, while the fisheries consumed many thousand tons.
The demand for ice creams and cooled drinks, together with the growing taste for luxuries, in our cities and towns, has stimulated the retailing of ice until, at this time, there is hardly a town or village, where ice privileges exist, that does not support a representative of the ice trade, and there are few large towns in the South which are not furnished with one or more artificial ice factories.
The Use of Ice.—It is safe to say that, at this time, the users of ice, directly or indirectly, now include nearly the entire population of the United States.
Development of Methods.—The progress made in the methods and conveniences for securing the natural ice crop, and in the construction of storage houses, has kept pace with the growth of the demand. Originally, axes and saws comprised the dealers’ outfit. Now, a modern plant is replete with tools and appliances, whose manufacture is a distinct calling, and may comprise vessels, cars, wagons, immense storage houses, where upward of one hundred thousand tons of ice are gathered under one roof, also city supply depots and wharfs, all of which are equipped with special regard to handling this product.
Extent of the Ice Industry.—The annual consumption of natural and manufactured ice is very great. By adding to this the equivalent, in tons of ice, of the work performed by refrigerator machines, in the various industries in which they are used, the grand total is estimated to exceed twenty million tons of ice used each year.