Quote of the day - On the death of the frozen water business at the hands of inexpensive electricity: During the 1800s, American companies had turned the distribution of ice into a thriving word-wide business. Huge sheets were sawn from lakes and rivers in northern states during the winter and stored in insulated icehouses. Packed in hay and tree bark, the ice was shipped in railcars or the holds of schooners to customers as far away as India and Singapore, who used it to chill drinks, preserve food, and make ice cream. At the trades peak, around 1880, Americas many frozen water companies were harvesting some 10 million tons of ice a year and earning millions in profit. ... But over the next few decades, cheap electricity devastated the business, first by making the artificial production of ice more economical and then by spurring homeowners to replace their iceboxes with electric refrigerators. Carr, N. G. (2008). The big switch: Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google. WW Norton & Company, p.90.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 22:47:57 +0000
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