News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-04-23
CHATS WITH YOUNGSTERS.
A LUMP OF ICE FOR A HOT SUMMERS
DAY.
How the Ice Is Made Outside of Freezing
Points Factory.

hAp" AHD ACc ~ "N'"'"S Na
Points Factory.
Take the worst mud-puddle along the
highway and when it freezes up the ice
will be as clear as that cut from the
river, says NJ. Quad in the Detroit Free
Press. Haven't you often wondered at
this? Wouldn't it seem reasonable to
expect the ice to be the same color as
the water Why isn't it2
That's the keynote of my subject.
Dame Nature has some very curious
ways, my boy, and this is one of them.
In summer she helps that mud-puddle
to render itself offensive to the eye and
the nose-in winter she alone purifies it.
When her cold, frosty fingers begin to
dabble in the waters of the sloughs and
ponds and bayous she begins to purify.
As the freezing process Is carried on the
water is refined, and when the ice comes
you see it clean and transparent. Ma
ture may not be able to squeeze out all
the weeds and sticks from this pond ice,
but it would surprise you to see what
she does cast aside in the process of
publication.
The first hint of how to make artificial
ice must have come from a man who had
closely studied Natures ways. Before
the war all the ice used in the South was
shipped from the North, and it had
ready sale at 50 per 100 pounds. Many
ships were engaged in the trade, loading
the ice on the New England coast and
delivering it at Charleston, Savannah,
Mobile, Galveston and other points.
Much of this ice was naturally lost in
the handling, and the high price made
it an article of luxury. The invention
of a process by which ice could be
turned out in large quantities at very low
rates was, therefore, hailed with great
satisfaction. There is not now city of
any size in the South without its manu-
factory, and ice can be had at retail fox
81 to S1.50 per 100 pounds. No
Northern ice can find a market except
along the seaboard. l have seen, on
three different occasions, lumpg of
Northern ice and cakes of artificial ice
placed side by side in the sun, and in
each instance the artificial lasted much
the longest
And now as to the manufacture /:
There are two processes, but we will
take the simplest, which is called the
ammonia process. The building may be
an old barn or rough shed, and the en-
CINE of from ten to twenty horse power.
As l saw the operation in a Georgia
own they pumped their water from a
'anal, and it was too muddy for fish
20 live in. Fill barrel with it to stand |
,ver night and there would be two inches |
If mud in the bottom of the barrel next |
The water is first pumped into large |
condenser, and is there purified and |
passed to condenser number two. 1t is |
gain purified, and is then pumped into
he baths. Each bath is a huge, square
lin, provided with apertures for holding
inety- six tin molds. These molds are |
ixteen inches long, eight wide and four
hick, and are open at the top. Each
an, when filed with water, is placed in
he bin in a compartment BY itself, and
large lid shuts down over all. AS the
Eater reaches the molds it is so clear
nd transparent that you could easily
'erceive a grain of sand at the bottom
f the can. Through the bins and
round the cans ammonia gas is con-
family circulating in pipes, and salt
7ater is churned about and kept in con-
tant motion by means of paddles
worked by machinery.
1t takes seventy pounds of salt to
make ''bath" for three bins holding
S8 molds, and it is renewed once
week. One barrel of ammonia will last
small factory like the one I am de-
cribing about ten days.
Let the factory start with all the |
holds full of water, and it is only about |
lalf an hour before the men begin to |
AXE out ice. The molds are lifted out |
IF the bin and carried to a vat of hot |
water and dipped. This loosens the ice,
md it is flung on table. Each cake |
weighs twenty pounds, and three of |
them are placed together to freeze solid. |
This makes q cake sixteen inches long,
twelve inches thick, and twenty four
inches wide. 1t is so perfectly clear
that it reflects your image like glass,
and you can read newspaper print
through three feet of it.
There is the engine pumping up the |
muddy water at one end of the old |
pudding, and the men handling the |
,urcst, incest ice you ever saw at the |
,ther, while between them are only a |
ew tanks and pipes. 1t seems wonder |
al, doesn't it?
Ia summer it is a common thing in !!
new Orleans and other Southern cities |
O see blocks of artificial ice in the win |
lows of restaurants with quail, rabbits
nd other game frozen in them. One |
tho does not understand that it is
rtificial ice is fain to wonder how on
arth the articles got in there.
And in connection with this ice ques
ion / want to drop hint to the farmer
Joys Of the North. There is hardly
farm in any county on which fish
,ond cannot be made. You want clean.
lear water to feed it. If the inlet is
,reek you must arrange matters in such
/ way that, during higher water, when
he water is muddy, it can be diverted
rom the pond. A fume or race, or
pipe from the creek to the pond can be
closed up at any time.
Perch, bass, mullet, suckers, bull
heads, pike and other varieties will live
and thrive in pond on the farm, and in
time the farmer will have fish to sell at
the nearest market. There is amuse-
ment, recreation and profit all in one,
and when the winter comes this same
pond will yield all the ice wanted at the
farmhouse during the summer. There
are many of these fsh-ponds in the
South, and the owners are making big
money from the sale of fish alone. l
have seen them fed by pipe running
from a windmill and tank long way
of, and again by fume leading off
a creek. Any natural sink or basin will
make the lake if you can get water
and the fish should be fed now
and then with bread crumbs. The
farmers boy who will go into this will
have more sport than in hunting and
more profit than in selling eggs.