THE RISE OF THE BUSINESS.

Ice is one of the natural resources of the United States. Formerly regarded as worthless, of no possible utility whatever, it has come with the progress of the country in population and industry to be esteemed of the highest value and to form an important article of commerce. Its formation in the winter season is eagerly awaited by tens of thousands of men who make at least a part, if not all, of their living in collecting, storing, and distributing it for consumption, and by their employers, who, as is now estimated, have $18,000,000 of capital invested in the business, and whose profits are dependent upon the harvesting of a fair average crop of Ice. The natural supply of ice in the United States is almost beyond calculation. In a good winter, not only are all the myriad lakes and ponds of the Northern States, except a few large and deep ones, frozen over to a depth of from 10 to 36 inches, but so are nearly all the running rivers. The water area thus covered with ice is so 'large that the supply aggregates several billions of tons. It would be difficult to compute the exact quantity which forms in any given winter, and no useful purpose would be sub served by any such calculation. It is enough that the supply is immensely beyond any possible requirements of the country. How small a body of water would supply the United States with all the ice it now consumes in one year would not be imagined, until after reflecting that a square mile of ice, 12 inches thick, weighs 700,000 tons. As not over 10,000,000 tons of ices are at present required by the country yearly, it will be seen that any little lake having 15 square miles of surface would yield an ample supply of this valuable commodity. It is not the quantity that forms in any given winter, however, which is of the greatest consequence. Interest attaches only to the quantity actually harvested and stored away in ice houses in the different parts of the country. The possession of such unlimited ice resources is of great importance to the United States. It is a remarkable fact that in some localities the communities already pay out as much money for 'ice in the course of the year as they do for fuel.

The people of tropical countries were the first to make use of ice, and it was natural that they should employ it to promote their personal comfort during the warmer months of the year. The article was, however, beyond the reach of the masses of the people. For many centuries ice was the luxury of the rich. It could only be obtained in small quantities, with much trouble, and at considerable expense. Only those who were in power, or those who were unusually prosperous in business, could afford to consume it. The first attempts at gathering and storing it were in Asia.

In India, the birthplace of so many of what have since become great and world-wide industries, ice was made by artificial means. Water was boiled to free it from the air it contained and was then exposed to the coolness of the night in porous earthen vessels, or in bottles wrapped with wet cloths. The evaporation of the moisture on the outside of the vessels produced intense cold within, and the water froze solid in the course of the night. Ice is still made in Bengal by this process. Shallow pits are dug, about 30 feet square and 2 feet deep, which are filled, to the depth of a foot or so, with sugar-cane, the stems of dried Indian corn, or straw. On this layer of rubbish are placed, at dusk, flat porous earthen pans, filled with water which has previously been \tell boiled. The dry northwest wind, which blows at night, converts the water into ice through the agency of evapo­ration; and the ice, being free from air bubbles, is as clear and hard as could be desired. At sunrise a large force of laborers go quickly to work, removing the thin sheets of ice thus formed to a deep pit, into which they are rammed down and left to congeal into a solid mass. The same practice, in principle, is in vogue in China. Iu the earlier ages of the Romans snow was annually collected on the dry plain of Hannibal's camp, on Mont Albanus, and rammed into cone-shaped pits, about 50 feet deep and 25 feet in diameter at the top. The pit was lined and covered over on top with straw and pruning from trees to preserve the store as long as possible in the summer season. A thatched roof was placed over the pit and the doorway was well covered with straw when not being used. In summer the solidified snow was cut out with axes and picks and sent down to Rome for use. Snow is preserved in pits and caverns on Etna and Vesuvius in substantially the manner just described, even at the present day.

In France, toward the close of the sixteenth century, during the reign of .Henry IV, snow came into use for cooling liquors at the tables of the rich. Its sale became near the end of the following century a profitable trade, although never at any time a largo one. The lack of rapid transportation on land restricted the trade. It is surprising, in view of the great abundance of shipping in the north of Europe at that time, and the great need of some means of keeping fresh the vast quantities of fish caught at sea by the Dutch, English, and Portuguese, that ice was not brought from Norway and Sweden by vessel to the southern countries. It seems to have been reserved to a later age, however, to ship ice by sea from northern latitudes, to reduce its cost to a point within the reach of .a11, and to make it an article of common and extended consumption. The experiment was not attempted until the nineteenth century; and indeed the whole matter of gathering and storing up ice in the winter time in northern regions, and the shipment of it by sea and land to points requiring it for consumption, as a regular business, have been the outgrowth of the last eighty years.

The development of the trade is one of the results of the progress of civilization. With increased density of population have come the growth of large cities, the discomfort of living in them in the summer season, a greater luxury of popular taste, and both the inventive ability and the wealth to gratify the new desires which have sprung out of this state of affairs. The demand for cooling drinks and frozen creams, even in the temperate zone, has become immense, and has been a powerful stimulus to the ice industry. Besides that, trades have sprung up, especially in the United States, which can be prosecuted only with the aid of ice, such as the transportation of fresh fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, and milk, and the manufacture and storage of beer, ale, wine, and butter; and these and other industries have led to even a greater consumption of ice than that which is called for by the gratification of luxurious tastes.

The ice trade of North America was created and begun by Frederic Tudor, of Boston, in 1805. The yellow fever was raging in the West Indies. The need of ice was so great that the idea of sending a ship-load thither as a speculation occurred to Mr. Tudor. A quantity was cut from a pond in the part of Lynn now known as Saugus, belonging to Mr. Tudor's father, and was sent down by wagons to Gray's wharf, in Charlestown, where it was stowed in the brig "Favorite," purchased expressly for the purpose. The shipment of ice has continued to center around Gray's wharf down to the present day, extending, however, in both directions to other wharves. The first cargo .amounted to 130 tons, and the "Favorite" sailed with it to Martinique in 1805. Its arrival was heartily welcomed by the natives; but the shipper lost $4,500 on his venture. In 1807, a second shipment of 240 tons was made by Mr. Tudor, by the brig "Trident," this time to Havana. The enterprise was a novel one, and was regarded with much curiosity by American merchants, the majority of whom were in much doubt as to its probable success. Other occasional shipments were made, but all these early ventures were attended with loss and discouragement. Cargoes wasted greatly before they could be unloaded, and nearly 50 per cent. again before they could be distributed to consumers. The relations of the United States with European powers were complicated. Ships were interfered with and delayed. At one time an embargo was laid, and for two years the country was at war with England. After the close of hostilities, Mr. Tudor secured privileges that crowned his efforts with success. The British government released from certain heavy port charges all ships bringing ice to the islands under their control, and gave the enterprising merchant a monopoly of the trade. Jamaica was at that time the most valuable of the British West Indies; and at the port of Kingston Mr. Tudor established regular ice-houses for the storage of his cargoes, which gave him a solid and permanent footing in the business. In 1815, the Spanish government gave him certain privileges and a monopoly of' the Havana trade. The business then became prosperous and profitable.

In 1817, Mr. Tudor sent a cargo of ice to Charleston, South Carolina. Like all the early shipments, it was a small one, not exceeding about 250 tons. Things have changed greatly since that time—single cargoes having been dispatched from northern ports to points southwards exceeding 1,200 tons. In 1818, Mr. Tudor extended his business to Savannah, Georgia. In 1820, he pushed on to New Orleans, and to accommodate his trade he built ice-houses there, to which the cargoes could be transferred immediately upon arrival. New Orleans soon became one of the most important points to him on the coast. The city grew to be the largest consumer of ice in the United States south of Philadelphia within thirty years of the shipment of the first cargo thither.

In the spring of 1833, Mr. Tudor tried the experiment of sending 200 tons of ice by sailing vessel to Calcutta, in India. The waste, during the long voyage of a hundred and eighty days, was about one-half the cargo, and although this loss was charged to the ice actually landed, it was found that ice could be delivered in Calcutta at one-half the cost of that made by the natives. As in the case of the earlier voyages to the West Indies, money was lost on the first venture to the East Indies; but the practicability of the trade was established, and Mr. Tudor persevered in it until it became a profitable source of revenue to him.

In 1834, the originator of this extended trade sent a first cargo to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Until about 1836, the whole business of shipping ice by sea to distant ports was carried on almost exclusively by Mr. Tudor, and his success earned for him the well-deserved title of the Ice King of the world. About 1837, his success attracted others to engage in the business. They were all at the port of Boston; and that city, being the birthplace of the trade, continued to be the base from which operations were almost exclusively carried on for more than fifty years from the beginning of its history. The port enjoyed the advantage of being able to obtain an abundant supply of the best duality of ice, from ponds in the immediate vicinity, and, by reason of the magnitude of its shipping interests, low freights to every part of the world; the business steadily increased, and was extended to China, Japan, and Australia.

In 1842, Gage, Hittinger & Co., of Boston, sent a cargo of ice in the bark "Sharon" to London, England, a city then dependent upon shallow ponds and a reservoir for an uncertain and limited supply of not very good ice. It is said that the fancy iced drinks, so common in the United States, were then almost unknown in England. In order to promote the consumption of the article he had to sell, Mr. Hittinger exported several competent bar-tenders from the United States to England, and introduced fancy drinks there. A Salem man afterwards chartered a ship to take 1,000 tons of ice to England at $10 a ton. Many ventures were made in this direction, and for a number of years American ice controlled the London market; but this branch of trade did not always produce satisfactory results. Norway ice could be landed in England at smaller expense, and although American efforts to compete with it were continued, they have finally ceased within two or three years. In 1880, Norway even exported a few cargoes of ice to America, on account of a brief prevalence of very high prices here. Many large fortunes were made in Boston by the early adventures in the ice trade. Frederic Tudor bequeathed over $1,000,000 to his heirs at his death, as the result of his energetic prosecution of the business he originated. He also left a large and established business to the Tudor company which succeeded him. The following table, prepared in 1857 by Mr. Tudor, will show the progress of the export trade of Boston down to about the outbreak of the late war:

Mr. Tudor used to claim that the ice trade to Calcutta and the East Indies was one of the important forces that preserved the general commerce with that part of the world almost exclusively to Boston. He was of the opinion that it would have clone the same in the commerce with China if the latter country had been in a more quiet condition. In a short report to the Boston board of trade in 1857, signed by Mr. Tudor and Timothy T. Sawyer, it was stated further:

It may be stated here that the exportation of ice grew to such magnitude as to warrant the construction of three fine wooden barks by the Tudor company a few years ago for their own trade. These vessels were the "Ice King," the "Iceberg," and the "Iceland," each of 1,200 tons registers. They did good service for several seasons; but in 1880 the company was compelled to abandon its East India business on account of the manufacture of ice in the ports to which they had been trading for nearly half a century, and the vessels were sold.

As indicated in the foregoing report, the exportation of ice from Boston was accompanied by the growing np of a local trade as well. In order to preserve a part of the crop for summer use at home, Mr. Tudor stored it, as success earned for him the well-deserved title of the Ice King of the world. About 1837, his success attracted others to engage in the business. They were all at the port of Boston; and that city, being the birth-place of the trade, continued to be the base from which operations were almost exclusively carried on for more than fifty years from the beginning of its history. The port enjoyed the advantage of being able to obtain an abundant supply of the best duality of ice, from ponds in the immediate vicinity, and, by reason of the magnitude of its shipping interests, low freights to every part of the world; the business steadily increased, and was extended to China, Japan, and Australia.

Most of the modern improvements in facilities for cutting and storing ice are due to the inventive genius of Nathaniel Wyeth, the foreman of Mr. Tudor, and to John Barker, also in his employ; and it was owing to the first named of these progressive men that the old-fashioned vault was finally abandoned in favor of regular ice-houses, built first of brick and then of wood, and planted at the water's edge. Mr. Barker and Mr. Wyeth also invented a number of handy tools for use on the pond. The original outfit for ice-cutting consisted of little more than a number of axes, a few long cross-cut saws, each with one handle, and a few ice-hooks. Porous ice or snow was cleaned off either with axes or a rude hand-machine called a scrape. The taking out a supply of ice was a laborious process, usually consuming the whole winter. In place of the clumsy implements of the infancy of the business, horse-scrapers, ice-plows, chisels, breaking-off bars, hooks, etc., of various descriptions were invented, about 60 in all, which greatly simplified and lightened the work ou the pond. These tools, modified year by year in the light of experience, and finally supplemented by introducing steam-power and an endless apron to elevate the cakes from the pond into the ice-houses, have completely revolutionized the whole business. By their aid 100,000 tons can now be cut and stored in the time formerly occupied ill taking out 10,000 tons, not only increasing the certainty of harvesting a sufficient crop, but reducing the cost of the commodity to the consumer.

There is on record one earlier shipment of ice than that made by Mr. Tudor from Boston. It is said that in 1799 a gentleman in Charleston, South Carolina, chartered a vessel to go-to New York for a cargo, and that the ice was cut on his order on a pond near Canal street and Broadway. No trade resulted from this pioneer enterprise, however. The early ice-cutting of New York was clone for the benefit of a few market men who needed the means of preserving their meats for the wants of the population. A. pond in the suburbs answered all purposes for many years. Afterward some ice was cut on Rockland Lake, the purity of whose water made its ice especially preferred. All the appliances of the early clays were rude. The ice was taken out in cakes of irregular sizes, and was hauled away to the river on carts having wheels cut from logs of wood. It was sent to New York by sloop and tumbled ashore, there to remain until the cargo was landed, when it was hauled away to the storehouses. This primitive ­way of doing business answered until after the city began the career of expansion and activity following the opening of the Erie Canal. More systematic methods were necessary, and carious companies were formed with large capital, which operated at Rockland, Greenwood, Croton, and other lakes, and ou the Hudson river above Poughkeepsie. Chief among the companies was the Knickerbocker, whose founder made a fortune like that of Mr. Tudor in Boston. This large and strong concern ruled the New York market for a period of twenty-five years. Its managers adopted all the newest inventions in the business and operated on a very large scale. They extended their trade to Brooklyn in time, and they are now the principal medium of supplying the two cities with ice. Of late years, a large number of new companies have come into the business.

In Philadelphia, the ice trade had an origin somewhat similar to that in Boston, except that the sick whose comfort was had in view were not residents of a foreign laud, but were patients of the Pennsylvania Hospital. The managers of that institution laid in a yearly supply of ice along in the first-part of the century, and often having more than enough for their own purposes, they advertised the surplus for sale. In 1S11, Daniel George engaged in the business as a regular trade. Others followed him, and about 1520 something over 1,000 tons was being cut yearly for the local uses of the city. Two houses, each storing about 500 tons, are known to have been in existence in 1S21, one owned by William Lee, the other by Henry Molier, both deep cellars covered over, and one at least of them built of brick. Some of the ice was delivered to consumers; but in the main the trade was carried on by offering it for sale from the icehouse. Small lots of ice were exported about this time, and fishermen began to buy it to keep their fish fresh until they could bring their catch to market. Twenty years later, the trade had grown to 7,000 or 8,000 tons yearly. In 1539-'40, an impulse was given to the business by Charles Carpenter, the founder of the Carpenter Ice Company, whose energy led to the harvesting of, annually, larger crops. In 1541-'42, the local supply failed, and Mr. Carpenter imported what he required from the northern coast. He passed by Boston and bought what he wanted in Halifax and other British American ports, bringing back huge cakes of thick, clear ice, weighing from 400 to 500 pounds apiece. The same year the Knickerbocker Ice Company, now one of the great concerns of the country, was founded by two old icemen from New York, D. B. Kershaw and Horace Dennett, who brought to Philadelphia the labor-saving tools and the systematic delivery of ice iii wagons. They erected in that year a 5,000-ton storehouse, and Mr. Carpenter built one of 1,000 tons. From that day to this the ice business of the city has been steadily expanding, until it has reached a total cut of about 1,000,000 tons yearly.

Following the lead of the eastern cities, all the communities of any size inland took up the gathering and distribution of ice as soon as their population was large enough to promise the consumption of 1,000 or 3,000 tons yearly. All the cities and many of the villages of the north adjacent to waters that freeze in the wintertime now have ice-houses of sufficient capacity to carry along all the ice that will be needed the following summer. The large cities have all grown into great markets for ice; and numerous small communities in the regions tributary to them, favorably situated for harvesting good crops, have developed a large industry in cutting and storing and selling the ice to the dealers of the larger cities.

The introduction of the use of ice into certain industries has been an important factor in building up this business. Take, for instance, the breweries. The brewers comprise the largest single class of consumers of ice in the United States. They have found that the use of ice for cooling the wort and regulating the temperature of the fermenting and storage rooms enables them to run their establishments the year around. It was the practice formerly to suspend operations in the summer time and make beer only in the cold weather. By running summer and winter both, the capacity of the brewery is nearly doubled. In fact it is in large part due to the use of ice that the manufacture of beer has developed so rapidly in the United States during the last twenty years. A large brewery will consume from 15,000 to 40,000 tons of ice a year, a small brewery from 1,000 to 10,000 tons.

Similar facts exist as to the meat-packing establishments, which have grown up so numerously in the west during recent years. They need ice to run to their full capacity, and by running the year around they give an immense amount of business to the ice companies. The growth of the business of transporting fresh meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, and milk has also added to the consumption of ice. In fact, ice having nearly doubled the product of these outside industries and trades, they have, in turn, fully doubled the product of the ice industry. The exact consumption of ice in the whole country cannot be reported, but it is the decided impression of leading ice men-that if the exact facts could be known it would be found that the brewers, packers, and carriers of fresh provisions now consume more ice than do families, hotels, saloons, and ice-cream establishments.

A large ice business has grown up in the south since Mr. Tudor sent his first experimental cargoes to Charleston and Savannah. The supplies all came from the north at first, but during the last fifteen years a large business has grown up in the manufacture of artificial ice. Natural ice continues to be sent to the seaports of the: south by northern operators, but inland at the south the trade is local and now almost wholly in artificial ice.

The following are the statistics of the trade in twenty principal cities in 1879-80:

The total yearly harvest and consumption of ice hit the United States are not clearly known. They can, however, be conjectured. Twenty leading cities with a total population of 5,930,000 inhabitants consumed 3,961,000 tons of ice in the census year. Besides those 20 cities, there are exactly 200 communities in the ice belt of the country having more than about 9,000 population each, and thus large enough to warrant a local business in the cutting and sale of ice. These 200 communities have a total population of 4,510,000. The consumption in the large cities averages almost exactly of a ton of ice per head of population. In the smaller communities, the consumption would be less, owing to the greater simplicity of life and lack of industries dependent upon ice, and would average not more than about 1 of a ton per capita, according to the best data I can obtain. This would indicate a consumption of from 1,000,000 to 1,250,000 tons per year in the 200 smaller communities referred to. In communities of less than 9,000 populations there is some gathering of ice by individuals, but the aggregate in the United States would be small. Appearances indicate a total consumption of ice in the United States, in the census year, amounting to 5,000,000 to 5,250,000 tons. The harvest would be (allowing for waste) about from 7,800,000 to 8,200,000 tons. These figures are presented not as a result definitely ascertained by complete statistics, but as an estimate based upon the best information at hand, and in response to the demand for such an estimate from the persons engaged in the ice business of the country.

The months in which ice is usually cut are January, February, and March. Consumption takes place chiefly from May to October, both inclusive. The demand begins early or late, and is more evenly distributed through the year, according to the latitude of the city and the character of its industries. In the north 80 per cent. of the consumption is between May 15 and October 15 of each year. (Chart omitted due to space restrictions. RT)

RETURN TO: ICE HISTORY HOME PAGE