The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-09-01
Manufacturing Ice.
rom the Nashville American.

From the Nashville American.
Strolling into one ofthese factories re-
Gently, in the belief that it would be
cool, but finding that it was actually the
hottest place be had been IN during the
entire day, an American reporter
watched the process.
Passing through the outer office, you
get abruptly into the factory, an enor-
nous apartment and very lofty. Three
graceful engines from ii teen to twenty
i've feet tail were moving with myster-
ious strength at the head of the apart
ment, and several big pipes overhead
connected them with the floor below
and an upper room.
Negro men We're walking about over
square places in the floor, and occasion
ally lifting the lid of one, they took out of
1t with a crank a block of ice weighing
20 pounds. This was attached to q
chain suspended from a double bridge
truck, rolled to one side, and tipped
through a hole in the wall into the Ice
house.
There are in this factory about zoo
ofthese little tanks. Each is filed with
water distilled from the steam of the
three engines; and each tank, which is
made of galvanized iron, rests IN well
OF brine or salt water. Running about
under these tanks, which form a floor
ing over the whole place, Is a continu-
Gus coil OF iron pipes, charged with
ammonia, that penetrate the wells
of brine and keep the salt water at a
temperature of twelve degrees. After
filing the tank with the distilled water
it Is left und sturbed Tor thirty-six
hours. The lid is then raised, the iron
tank or can Is drawn UP and dipped IN
to a small vessel containing boiling wa
ter to melt the ice from the interior
sides that il may be removed. This is
the large block Office one sees in the ice
wagons. The ammonia comes from a
factory at Wilmington, Del. in iron re-
torts carefully packed and air tight.
When it Is about TO be used, tiny es-
cape Is made through which the am
monla oozes IN a gaseous form, though
the contents OF the retort are liquid.
This gaseous ammonia Is transferred
directly to the submerged coils OF pipe.
Two charges during the summer viii run
a factory of fifty tons daily capacity.
After this gas has performed its mis-
sion and passed through all the pipes.
the engines suck It through the
pipe overhead, pass 1t TO the upper
floor, and force it through pipes sub
merged IN cold water, where it is con-
densed. 1t IS then received into large
tank below and made ready for another
tour of The pipes in the form of gas In
its rounds the gas makes more or less es-
cape to the open air and is lost for all
time, but very little is lost and the
same ammonia is used until it is con-
sumed by the escapes. Three hundred
thousand pounds of Ice are used every
dav in Nashville and the towns for 100
miles around, One Of these factories
turns out thirty-tive tons daily; the
other produces forty tons, and there Is
being brought here eighty tons of lake
ice. The three companies manufactur-
ing and importing ice into Nashville
sell to the small dealers, who supply
the consumers. They also ship to the
neighboring towns. But the larger por-
ton Of this 100000 pounds per day is
consumed in Nashville.