The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-04-12
A COOL SUBJECT.
How Lss L. Nanufactured--An Interest
mg Description.

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
Haven't you often wondered at this?
Wouldn't it seem reasonable TO expect
the ice - be the same color as the water?
Why sat 1t?
That's the keynote of my subject
Dame Nature has some very curious
ways, nay boy, and this is one OF them.
In summer she helps that mud-puddle to
render kself offensive to the eye and the
nose-in winter she alone purifies it.
When her cold, frosty fingers begin TO
sdabble IN the waters of the sloughs and
ponds and bayous she begins to purify.
AS the freezing process is carried on the
water NJ refined, and when the ice comes
you see it clean and transparent. Nature
may not be able TO squeeze out all the
weeds and sticks from this pond of ice, but
At would surprise you to see what she
does cast aside in the process of purifica-
ton.
The 6Tst mint OF how to make artificial
ice must have come from man who had
closely studied Natures ways. Before
the war all the ice used in the South was
shipped from the North, and il had
ready sale at s. per 100 pounds. Many
ships were engaged in the trade, loading
the ice on the New England coast and
Ialirarsn~ ot (tborlarton 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
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 mandatory, and ice
can be had at retail for 81 to Sl.50 per
100 pounds No Northern ice can find a
market except along the seaboard. L
have seen, on three different occasions,
dumps of Northern ice and cakes of arti-
fetal ice placed side by side IN the sun,
and in each instance the artificial lasted
much the longest.
And Row a. 10 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 engine of
from ten to twenty horsepower As
saw the operation in Georgia town they
pumped their water from a canal, and it
was too muddy for a fish to live in. Fill
a barrel with it to stand over night and
there would be two inches OF mud N the
bottom .Of the barrel next morning.
The water is first pumped into large
condenser, and is there purified and
passed TO condenser number two. 1t is
again purified, and is then pumped into
che baths Each bath is huge, square
soin, provided with apertures for holding
ninety-six tin molds These molds are
sixteen inches long, eight wide and four
chick, and are open at the top. Each
can, when filed with water, is placed in
the bin in compartment by itself, and a
large lid shuts down over all. As the
water reaches the molds it is SO clear and
transparent that you could easily perceive
"a grain of sand at the bottom of the can.
Through the bins and around the cans
ammonia gas is constantly circulating in
pipes, and salt water is churned about
-and kept In constant motion by means of
paddles worked by machinery
1t takes seventy pounds of salt to make
a bath" for three bins holding 2SS
melds, and it Is renewed once a week
e0ne barrel of ammonia will last small
factory like the one am describing.about
sen days.
Let the factory start with all the molds
full of water, and it is only about hall an
hour before the men begin to take out
zee. The molds are lifted out of the bin
and carried to a vat of hot water and
dipped This iOosens the ice, and it is
flung on a table. Each cake weighs
twenty pounds, and three of them are
placed together TO freeze solid. This
makes cake sixteen inches long, twelve
inches thick, and twenty-four inches
wide 1t is so perfectly clear that it re-
fleets your image like a 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 build
ing, and the men handling the purest,
incest ice you ever saw at the other,
while between them are only a few
tanks and pipes. 1t seems wonderful,
doesn't it?
In summer it is common thing in
New Orleans and other Southern cities
20 see blocks of artificial ice in the win
iows of restaurants with quail, rabbit
and other game frozen in them. One who
does not understand that it is artificial
ice is fain TO wonder how ON earth the
articles got in there.
Andin connection with this ice question
j want to drop hint to the farmer boys
OF the North. There is hardly farm in
any county on which a fish pond cannot
be made. You want clean, cold water
20 feed IT If the inlet is a creek YOU