CHAPTER V.

CARE, HANDLING AND MARKETING OF ICE.

Care of Ice in the House--Leaking and Waste, How Prevented--Getting out Ice--Lowering Machines--Ice Shipments--Marketing Ice--Ice Wagons and Outfits.

After a house is filled with ice and put in order, it is placed in the care of an attendant. The top dressing requires frequent inspection to keep it intact. Keep the circulating air-chambers in the walls in operation, except when the air is humid; at such times the lower openings are closed. The loft is ventilated directly into the cupola on top of the roof, which also carries off the warm air currents rising through walls.

THE WASTING OF ICE.--Ice in the house is attacked by water, moisture, vapor, warm air and evaporation. Pressure of the mass upon the lower courses assists in their destruction, and heat from the earth is also radiated into them. Evaporation goes on, to some extent, at all temperatures; its immediate effect is cooling, as it carries off heat. Water rots and wastes ice more rapidly than warm air. Water permeates the mass and destroys the ice, while warm air affects only the exposed surface. Vapor is wasteful when it settles down on the ice and is condensed. Air currents, if they are strong, cut away the ice very rapidly, and will sometimes comb the ice.

Keeping the room as air-tight as possible tends to preserve the ice. Whenever the house is opened the warm air enters, and vapor will collect above the ice. This should be given an opportunity to escape, by opening the ventilator doors in the loft floor.

As the ice is taken from the house, the covering of sawdust should be kept in place over the ice as far as possible. If the space over the ice is sealed up, the air, being above the freezing point, becomes saturated with moisture, which settles upon the ice, softening and melting it. When the outside air is cooler than that over the ice or in the loft, the moist air is driven out, if the ventilators are open. Hence, in clear weather, the ventilators should be opened at night. In foggy or damp weather, ventilators should be kept closed.

IN TAKING OUT ICE from the house, it is a good plan to take out three tiers across the house at once. The upper tier is worked a little in advance of the second, which is in advance of the lower, or third, course. This gives a sloping front, on which ice from the top can be lowered without breaking, and work can progress on the three courses at the same time. The covering can also be readily handled.

The tools employed are the house ice saw, raising-chisel bar and striking-under bar. The saw has a narrow point, with a double row of teeth for cutting down into the crevices around the cakes, and a handle arranged to place pressure on the point of the saw. The raising-chisel bar is used for cutting around the sides. The striking-under bar is struck under the bottom of the cake, to loosen it from the cake beneath. Where ice has been packed in double cakes the hand ice plow is sometimes employed to open the grooves, and the splitting chisel for separating the cakes. The ice is run out to the door on the house runs, or skids. The house tools not illustrated elsewhere are shown below.

LOWERING THE ICE.--There are several methods employed for dropping the ice down from the top of the ice to the level of the cars or wagons below. Gravity is the force usually employed. Ice-gigs, with a counterweight to return the empty gig to the level of the ice, are, in one form or another, mostly in use. They can be mounted on a wheeled platform, and moved from door to door, as desired.

PACKING FOR SHIPMENT.--When ice is loaded into cars it is covered with marsh hay; any crevices at doors or windows are carefully packed with hay, to keep out the air. Shavings and sawdust are also employed. When shipped to a distance, the floors and sides of the cars are lined, and in the South each cake is packed in sawdust and done up in burlap.

When shipments are made in vessels, runs are set up from the ice house, to discharge over the vessel’s rail. As the distance is often considerable, the elevation of the runway is high near the house, and if the ice is taken from the bottom courses it is necessary, in some cases, to elevate the ice on to the vessel runway. The ice can be lowered into the hold with tongs. A gig, to take on two cakes at a time, handles the ice with great celerity, a counterweight returning the gig to the deck after the ice is discharged. Ice cakes are packed closely in the hold, being trimmed to shape, when required. Six or eight inches of sawdust are placed at the sides of the vessel, and, perhaps, ten inches of short shavings on top. Hay can be used, but sawdust is the best. Hatches are thoroughly caulked, and the hold is not opened until the end of the trip. The pumps must be sounded every day.

IN MARKETING ICE, painstaking supervision of details is constantly required. Resources should always be in efficient working order when required. A sudden hot spell often doubles the demand for ice, and the utmost exertions will hardly keep pace with it. Enterprise in extending trade should not be overlooked, and the efficiency of the service rendered is of special value in this direction. System and supervision should be extended through every department.

In retailing ice, as conducted in the large cities of the North, no detail of management is deemed trifling. Many ice dealers take pride in having neat and convenient wagons for their retail business. As a handsome wagon and a fine team are the means of attracting favorable attention, so there is nothing which causes more unfavorable comment than ill-kept stock and untidy wagons.

The quality of ice used for domestic purposes is now closely scrutinized, and cleanliness on the part of those handling this commodity, is expected. Ice wagons are usually furnished with an ice scale, an ice axe, several pairs of ice tongs, an ice shave, a bucket, and sometimes a broom. The ice cakes are cut as required, cleaned, weighed, and placed within the customer’s refrigerator or ice box.

The use of coupon tickets is a great convenience. The customer is furnished with a book at the beginning of the season, and for each delivery of ice he receives, a ticket is given back to the ice dealer. These tickets, having the name and quantity indorsed on them, avoid errors and disputes.

STRENGTH OF ICE.--Two inches in thickness of ice will usually bear up a man, four inches in thickness a horse, and ice five inches thick is generally safe for a team of horses and a loaded wagon weighing two tons.

Eight inches in thickness will bear up 150 pounds per square foot of surface, if distributed over an entire field.

Ten inches in thickness will support 250 pounds per square foot of surface. It is usual to estimate that ice eighteen inches thick will support a railway train.

WEIGHT OF ICE.--One cubic foot of ordinary ice will, on the average, weigh fifty-seven and one-quarter pounds, while a cubic foot of water weighs sixty-two and one-half pounds.

Thirty-six cubic feet of ice weigh 2,000 pounds. But as stored in the house, it is reckoned that forty-two to fifty cubic feet of space is required per ton of ice, depending upon the thickness of the ice and the care with which it has been cut and stored.