New-York tribune., 1910-07-17
AS TO OUR ICE
Processes of Artificial Produc-
tion Briefly Described.
VIII.

The making of ice by artificial means Of
fers so many and varied features to inter
est, an attempt to describe them would
take up more space than can well be
spared here, where the chief purpose is to
instruct.
And so, there will only be shown the
treatment water receives ere 1t is thought
safe to turn it into those symmetrical, crys-
tai clear cakes that are so surely displacing
the natural ice..
If It be Croton water, it comes into the ice
factory direct from the city mains From
that moment It undergoes treatment solely
to remove the impurities it brought within
itself: for, never being exposed to the at
mosphere for an instant, it can acquire no
others on its way through the plant save,
perhaps, while acting as a servant, and be-
fore 1t is metanorphosed into product. 1t
may take up little oil and other foreign
matter. though nothing which can be con-
sdered a menace to health, when, after It
is first heated in the fuel economizer, 1t is
put into the boilers and furnishes power;
but these are easily eliminated by passing
the live steam through coke filters. Incl
dentalIy, no pathogenic germs could sur
vive this stage of the proceedings, even
though they do have more than the cat s
When, as steam, the water has performed
it's service, and has been coke filtered. 1t is
conducted to the evaporators to be returned
to its liquid state.
From thence the water flows into con-
densers which increase its density and also
lower its temperature.
Then it is conducted to reboilers, OF
''skimmers," that remove air, gas and any
other form of impurities that may still re-
main. If it were not for the reboiling In
closed vessels. air would be left IN the
IVA those bIIDhlpS
sees in what is usually called needle ice"
Leaving the reboilers it flows through a
cold water constantly cascading over it,
greatly reduces its temperature.
The layman would think this certainly
the last process before cOngelation: but
the expert makes assurance doubly sure
by sending the water through a battery of
charcoal filters for a .s1 final =, purifeation ere
from which it is led through hose into the
cans in which it is frozen.
It should be explained that no water is
ever added to or taken away from the
contents of these cans after the freezing
process has set in; that their tops complete
iy cover them and fit securely; that the
chamber in which the brine tanks are in
stalled is practically closed to the outside
air, to maintain as low a temperature as
possible, and that, therefore. the chances Of
anything foreign-such as dust, for exam
pIe-even reaching, let alone getting into,
the cans are scarce worth estimating.
The brine in which the cans are set is
kept at uniform temperature OF IA oe-
grees F. by the ammonia process; and 1t
takes some fifty-two hours TO freeze their
contents solidly The ice cakes are auto
matically discharged from the cans, and in
the same way-for no human hand is al
lowed to touch them-delivered to that
model of a sanitarily clean apartment, the
storeroom, where the temperature is con-
slant at 80 degrees F.. and from which ef-
fectually "closed proposition they are
eventually served out through small aper--
lures that will only permit the passage OF
one at a time.
To add to the foregoing any comment as
to the purity of a product so made and
handled would be a waste of time and
space.