The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1883-01-17
THE MARVELS OF ICE.
(Coatinuod from unnc 80
BY HELEN HARCoUET.

OF it, that is peculiar TO pure water
in its liquid form; but in reality it's
true color is dark, beautiful blue,
which can only he seen IL great
masses, as in the cleits or crevices OF
icebeygs or glaciers.
The strength and Aint-like char
acter of ice increases in exact pro-
portion to the degree OF cold to
which 1t is exposed: Rivers do not
begin to freeze, except on their mar,
gins, until the temperature has fallen
TO twenty degrees, at least, and if
the current be unusually rapid, still
greater degree OF cold is required to
bind up and letter their active
strength.
The longer the intense cold con-
tlnues, the greater becomes the depth
OF the ice, and the greater its bearing
power.
1t has been ascertained by frequent
and exact measurement just how
great weight may be placed with
IMMUNITY upon ice of certain thick
ness; so much SO, in fact; that ii is no
longer necessary 10 saw out 8 piece
OF ice In order to measure ills depth,
or, at least, to approximate it very
closely. For instance, if a sheet of
ice will bear the weight of . halt
grown child, it is at least one inch
thick; it man may step upon it in
safety, it must be two inches or more
In depth; ii man on horseback can
cross 1t, 1t is not less than four in>
ches thick; ii it will uphold an eight.
FOUNDER piece of artillery, then the
ice is not less than six inches; at
eight inches in depth battery OF
field artillery may cross 10 safety,
while any plumber of people that can
crowd upon it, an army on the march,
for instance, will be in perfect secu.
rity, If the ice has depth Of eleven
or twelve inches.
In this latitude, ice seldom attaips
a greater depth than two feet neither
IN France is this thickness often exs
ceeded; but in Russia's long and Sc
we're winters, the rivers frequently.
lheaE ca th9if sIsEfaee cIaaz blue.
like ice that measures three, four, or
even five feet in depth.
That such ice as this must possess
marvellous strength, may well be
imagined, and in the winter OF 1910,
st. Petersburg witnessed a strange
sight, consequent upon the stone like
character OF the ice with which the
river Neva was filled.
At Queen Anne's command, an ice
palace was built on the river bank;
it was just commenced near the CEN
ter of the river, but even the enor-
nous strength of the ice beneath it
was overtasked in the effort to up
hold the weight placed upon 1t,
and when the edifice was halt COM
p!eted, it began TO sink, and had to
be abandoned; but, as we have seen,
Queen Anne was not to be so defeat.
ed, and another ice palace was reared
on the shore.
Not piece of timber, not stone,
not nail was used in this vast build
ing, nothing but ice, ice everywhere,
ice always; its pillars and ballus>
trades, windows, doors, staircases,
statues, even the various articles OF
furniture, all were OF ice, most beauA
titulIy carved and 1retted, as though
made OF the costliest marble, upon
which it We're fit TO expend the most
delicate workmanship.
Ia tie courtyard of this wonderful
palace were placed several cannon,
formed of the same icy material, can
non whose walls were only four in
ches thick, yet, though loaded with
iron balls, which, when fired, pene-
traIed two-lnch plank at distance
OF sixty yards, those apparently trail
walls resisted the force of the explo.
sion!
This, as we have SAID, was in the
winter OF TAO, season OF unusually
intense and long continued cold all
over Europe, and it was not in Russ
STA alone that experiments were made
upon the stone>like qualities OF the
Ice then 1olmed.
In Germany, a carver, Won Mein-
ert by name, quarried out huge
block OF clear, crystalline ice, and
with hammer and chisel, went to
work upon this strange substitute for
marble, and as . tosoIt, produced
,lon seven iert in length, so well and
80 delicately carved, that competent
sculptors declared that it could not
have been better done in the finest
grained marble. Not content with
cue piece OF work, Won Meiuert sur