The Monmouth inquirer., 1894-05-03

Skating on real ice in summer attire is
rapidly becoming one of the most popular
indoor amusements in San Francisco.
To native sons aud daughters who have
never experienced the rigors of an East
ern winter, it is thrilling novelty. To
those who have enjoyed the exhilarating
sport in land OF billiards. and frosts, il is
made more enjoyable by the fact that
winter dress is unnecessary.
These are only a few of the reasons why
the frozen lake in the big Mechanics Pa
vilioD, with nearly 10000 square feet of
polished surface, is visited daily by hum
dreds who can skate and many who are
speedily learning. The sheet of ice is five
inches in thickness, 100 feet long, and 60
feet wide AT least 500 persons can skate
with comfort at a time, but it was tritie
crowded on the opening night for no less
than S11 glided or struggled over the
slippery surface, according to the re-
spective skill of the skate wearers.
This idea of big skating rink with
natural ice, said w. w. Donaldson, " is
not exactly new one in this country.
Right here in this city it has been tried
three times, but each attempt failed be-
cause the organizers did not master the
intricate mechanical appliances. This is
the first natural ice skating rink operated
in the United States, and the fourth in
the world There is one in Paris an
other IN Berlin, and a third in Southamp-
ton, England. Therefore this is the fourth
in the world and the first in the United
States The successful construction of
this rink is the result of ten years of care
ful study and experiments on my part
while engaged in the cold storage bust
ness. l was preparing a similar rink in
Chicago when the disastrous fire destroyed
the big cold storage building at the
Worlds Fair. The plant being destroyed,
We had to abandon the project.
How is. this natural ice produced
There is no secret about it. The ice is
produced by machine of the ordinary
type employed in cold storage work The
difference here is in the manner of freez-
ing. In cold storage it is done in tanks
and insulated rooms. Here the ice is
frozen three times day, and the refrig-
Grant used is anhydrous ammonia. This
is employed to cool the strong brine
After the brine is cooled it is pumped
through system of pipes 10000 feet in
length, which run through the water that
is turned into ice. The cold brine alb
serbs the heat. The floor beneath is in
sulated and made up of dead air cells
and covered with lead to make it water
tight
In the placing of the pipes lies the
principal secret. The pipes run in three
eenters from header at each end of the
tank. These headers are six inches in
diameter, and the pipe is taken out of
each header at six inch centers. This
admits of circulating the brine from both
ends at the same time. The return is
also taken from both ends and carried
back to the brine tank. By this means
we have cooling surface exposed to the
outside air In this way we outwit ma
ture, and our ice surface has an even
temperature all over. Through inch
pipes leading from the headers the brine
is kept in constant motion.
"Of course, after being used several
hours the surface of the ice becomes cut
up and somewhat rough. That is why
we have three sessions daily-morning
noon, and night During the intervals
the snow is swept off the ice, and with
hose or orchard sprayer a thin coating of
water is spread over the ice to fill up the
cuts. In this manner we have a perfectly
smooth surface three times day. The
water is frozen at temperature of about
ten degrees above zero, which would be
as cold, probably, and as hard as ice fro
zen in any cold country when the tenn
perature is about zero.-San Francisco
CqH