The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1874-10-09
How They Make Ice in India.


Now. although ice keeps so well for
a long time when packed in ships built
for it, and in this way car be conveyed
to IN East Indian port, it would be
impossible to carry it into the interior
of the country, where there are no rail
roads to transport it quickly. But the
East Indian who lives at a distance from
the coast is not obliged to do without
cooling drinks, for not only does he
contrive to cool water by putting it in
porous jars and setting them in a IT.
rent of air, but he has a fashion of his
WI for making ice, and a very curious
fashion il is.
In the warm countries of Europe ice
is manufactured by the use of ether,
but this would be a very costly process
in India, and would place it entirely
out OF the reach OF the mass of the
people. Their own method of manu-
featuring ice, although a slow one, is
very simple, and costs nothing.
They have discovered by observation
what We are taught in natural philoso-
ply, that during the day the earth alb
serbs heat, and during the night it
gives It ont, or, to speak more properly,
radiates heat. This is much more
noticeable in tropical than in temper
ate countries. They know also by ex-
perience that, in order to enjoy the
GOODNESS of night, they must avoid the
shade Of trees, and lie out in open
places. The reason of this, perhaps,
they do not know, which is that the
branches of the trees interfere with this
radiation. Without reasoning on these
facts, the East Indian acts upon them.
and uses his knowledge of them in
manufacturing ice.
In an open space, where there are no
trees, parallel bitches are dug in the
ground three or four feet deep. These
are filed with straw, and nets are
SlItlCLtu ONtI llth. vi tlICoC ASS Az
placed small earthen saucers, holding
about a wine-glass of water. There is
nothing more to be done but to wait
for a clear, starry, and perfectly calm
night. When such a night arrives, the
little saucers are filed with water in the
evening, which water by 4 o'clock in
the morning is found to be covered
with a thin coating Of ice These cakes
of ice are very small, it is true, but
when they are all thrown together into
the ice-houses under the ground they
form themselves into masses of quite a
respectable size. In these primitive
ice-houses the ice keeps for some time.
The straw is placed in the bitches be-
cause 1t is a bad conductor of heat, and
by its means the saucers of water are
separated from the ground, and receive
little or no heat from it. The water,
therefore, gives ont more heat than it
receives, SO that its temperature is con-
tinuallv lowered until it reaches the
freezing point, when it, of course, be-
comes ice.
This ice is more or less mixed with
bits OF straw and with dust. 1t cannot
be used to put into liquids, but placed
around them makes them delightfully."-
cool and refreshing, and we can well
imagine what a luxury it must be In
this torrid region.
These are the two methods by which
the people of India procure ice-carry-
ing it there from a great distance, and
freezing water by a slow process. And
yet, in India itself there are immense
ice-felds that never melt, containing
material enough to supply perpetually
every town and little hamlet in the
country. For the Himalayan noun
tains, with their towering tops covered
with everlasting snow and ice, stretch
along the western part of the Indian
peninsula. What a trial it must be to
the temper of an East Indian, who is
nearly melted with the heat in the
plains below, to look up at those white
peaks, and think how much snow and
ice is wasted there that would be of the
greatest service to him if it could only
be brought down. But that is the