Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1873-02-15

THE SUPPLY ENoRMoUs-FoURTRES THOU
SAND TONS FOR NENT srMMER.

THE SUPPLY ENoRMoUs-FoURTREN THOU
SAND TONS FOR NEXT SUMNER.
We recently visited the extensive ice
ice fields on the northern waters of the
BraRdywne above Costesvile controlled
by Pussy Il Rice OF Wilmington. The
property on which the dam Is Situated
belongs to c. E. Pennock d. Co., who have
their extensive mills located ut that point.
Pussy Il Rice have erected six large
houses which will hold eleven thousand
tons of ice, and are erecting two more
capable Of holding three thousand tons,
so that which all are filled they will have
stored away fourteen thousand tons of ice.
This, il will be seen, is very large amount
when the same firm had but 1900 tons last
summer
The Wilmington aud Reading Railroad
Company have laid siding close to the
houses so that the ice can be conveyed to
this city very readily, while there is a
building adjoining the freight house of the
W. & K. Il. R., In this city, whers the ice
can be slowed temporarily.
The process of cutting is very interest
ing and well worth seeing. Owing to II
large quantity Of snow being on the ice, a
plsner is frst used which takes off about
three inches and leaves nothing but the
pure article for housing. Ills then plowed,
cutting the ice in cakes % by A inches,
which lie conducted through a channel cut
In ths Ice to the mouth Of an Inclined
plane, where there Is an endless chain
running from the water to the top of the
houses, 70 which are attached drags about
| eight feet apart which catch the ice and
/ convey II to any spot desired hetaeen the
| ground and the top then the cake Of Ice
is run down "run" to the doors of tho
houses when 1t is pushed in by men, and
inside again eight or nine men are kept
busy arranging the Jumps so as to keel
them as compact as possible. steam
engine furnishes the power to keep The
chain In motion, and It does its work
-pleudidly, putting in the ice AT the rat,
of two tOus a minute, or 1000 per day.
! The supply Is without parallel In thu
section of the country. Daring the fresheti
on the Brandywine this year and indeed
every year within tue recollection Of III,
Oldest inhabitant, the ice has remaini d OIL
this dam while on all the others below anC
above The Ice went of. II appesrs tina
when this dam is once frozen, the ice con
tlnues TO grow thicker and thicker al
Winter and finally melts away IN tn,
Spring but ne,r goes OF with ffCshet
To this fact -Aay be attributed its grea
thicaness. The ice slowed away by Puse,
Il Rice this year, ranges fiom fourteen Il
twenty-five inches in thickness, while il
: Wilmington persons have not been abe t.
get ice thicker than eigbt or eleven inches
, Two or three years ago it will be re
, Inembertd, dealers were unable to get ic
in this vicinity, while tire Messrs Paunoe
! say ii was ten inches thick that yea
in their dam, In fact that dam beat
: Boston al to pieces on raising Ice for o
the year above referred 10 our dealer
! brought Ice only seven inches thick froi
= Boston, while it was ten at Penuock's.
/ Wilmingtonians may feel cor fiient !
the fat1re Of being always supplied wit
p epty Of ice from the pure waters Of IN
Brandywine while Pennock's dam breai
stands,