The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1890-03-08
lCE-MAKING.
HOW WATER Is SOLIDIFIED IN
SOUTHERN CITIES.
The Process Depends Upon the Heat.
Absorbing Power of Ammonia
The Machinery and APP
paratuS Required.


warmest climates in any amount re
quired, and this ran be done 80 chcauiy
that in this country the old business of
carrying it from the Northern and
Southern. States has we'd ni.n dis
bappcafed. Every Southern town now
has its Zee factory, and in the larger
] cities several may be found, and thei.
product is superior to any but the clear
est natural lee, frozen u!rlcr the Sudden
and severe cold Of St. Lawrence Valley,
while its substance is as pure as the dis
,, titled water OF which it i made
| Y The machinery and apparatus re-
| quired for making ice commercially forni
All extensive plalu. There must he ii
powerful engine to drive 0the pumps
great iron rctortS to hold thee aqua
ammonia and generate the Gas, and to re-
eeive it again; Il long system ofpipe coils
for the. circulation Of The Gas; and eX-
tcnsiye watts, in which the lee can, are
| placed and the iGe formed.
The processis simple ia its philosophy,
and depends upon the heat absorbing
| power pf a substance which is cxpa9l,i-
| ing after great condensation. The SUB
| st9nce used in this case is ammonia,
| Mixed with eatGr to the amGlllt of
| tweMy-six per cent, it is placed in one
| or mora great cylinders or rctortS, which
contain coils Of pipe. Into these pipes
steam is sent. heating the contents %
| the retort until the ammonia is separated
| from the water and forced out into an
| other retort, where it is subjected to a
| pfcss Ire of something over 200 pounds
TO the square inch, under which it lique-
ties.
IN another room, which has double
walls and ceiling and protected doors, as
! III a refrigerator, are arranged one ore
| maybe several watts, each perhaps fifty
| feet square and ten feet high, i'll which
are suspended from the top frame or COW
| ering as many cans, made of galvanized
iron, as the space will accommodate. A
convenient size is q can about four feet
high, eight inches wide one way and six
| teen inches the other, which will hold a
| cake weighing Just 900 pounds. Some,
however, art muulA iaISu- tho. this as *
the case in some of the New Orleans fac.
tories. where the cakes are slabs extend
ing clear across the vat, which mood D.. lac
sawedeup before marketing. Between
all these cans, as they hang an the vat,
pass lines of iron pipe, connected with
mains outside that lead from the retorts,
and the whole watts filed with brine; SC
that when the cans are all in place the
space between them is filled with salt
water, in which they are immersed up to
their rims. This brine is kept in motion
bv pumps, so as to maintain uniform
temperature throughout.
Such is the whole apparatus for manu-
facture. In the great condensation to
which the ammonia gas has been sub
iected IN order to liquefy it, it has been
obliged to part. with its heat, and the
large pipes in which it is carried to the
watts are white with frost, showing how
cold they are.
When ice is to be made, the cans are
filed with distilled water-thc machinery
for producing which is part of the plant
and covered with thick caps. Then
the stopcocks are turned, and the am
monia admitted from the main pipe into
the coils that run throughout the brine
in the val.
The instant the tremendous pressure is
relieved by opening the stopcocks, the
liquid ammonia expands into gas, and
rushcs to fill every coil of the pipes. In
this expansion it must reassume the
amount of heat it parted with when I'M
dergoing condensation, and it extracts it
from the surrounding brine, which pres
entity becomes so cold that it in turn ex-
tracts all the heat there is in the distilled
water within the cans, which at once be-
gins to CONCEAL, as would the water out
side the cans were it not saline and in
motion.
In few hours each can is found to
contain block of solid ice. A travel
ing pulley is then rolled over it, hooks
arefastened in the can; it is hoisted out
of the vat, lowered for a moment into q
bath of warm water to loosen the ice, and
then upset, whereupon the block slides
out, and is taken away to be stored, OF
put into delivery wagon, or placed in
front of circular saw and divided into
smaller blocks.
A perfect block of such ice is as white,
! transparent and f1awless as Il cube of flint
glass-a perfection due to the absence of
anv air whatever in the distilled water
from which it is made. Spring, or ny
drant water, however pure, will not an
0swer here, as it contains so much air that
the ice would look like snow, and have
little solidity ol'value. With the greatest
precaution, however, some air will get
mixed into almost every canful, and will
appear in the ice as a core or ree-shaped
centre of quill-like bubbles, which is
sometimes exceedingly beautiful. The
freezing always begins at the bottom and
sides, driving the air to the centre and
proceeding toward the top, SO that the
cans do not burst. OF course fish, meat,
fruit, or anything else suspended in the
water of the can will be enclosed in the
ice with. handsome effect. The ice is sold
at wholesale for from 40 to so cents a
hundredweight; at retail for IS to Is
cents.
After the ammonia gas has done its work
| it is returned to a retort, and thence con-
Quoted again to its starting place, where
it is reabsorbed by the water, and can be
used over again. Thus the process goes
on continually as long as needed. There
is some waste, of course, which is sup.
piled by pure or anhydrous ammonia.
One of the curiosities of the factory is to
set cup of this on the stove. 1t will boi
almost Immediately, but the unlearned
visitor is astounded to see mercury drop
far below freezing point when it is
,,Jun,ol into tbo vaporouS nhulIition -