Industry History
The entire process of ice harvesting was incredibly unsafe. The threat of drowning men and horses was constant. Sliding 300–400 lb. blocks of ice could break bones and crush limbs. Working around the clock, numb hands, frigid waters, and sharp tools made ice harvesting treacherous.
Tudor built a functioning ice depot in Havana Cuba with the ability to hold 150 tons. Tudor’s first commercial endeavor “created a thirst people never realized they had.”
Frederick Tudor (1783–1864) founder of the Natural Ice Trade was known as the “Ice King.” Tudor came from a wealthy Boston family; instead of following in his brother’s footsteps and going to Harvard, he quit school at age 13. An ambitious young man he worked on the family farm and…Read More
Thomas Moore a farmer and inventor created a refrigerated “ice box” to keep butter from melting on the way to market.
Farmers in the Northeast were cutting and selling natural ice from ponds. Ice was seen as a luxury item and consumed by only the wealthy. Towards the end of the 18th Century in the New England states, demand for ice began to increase.
500 B.C – Egyptians and Indians made ice on cold nights by setting out shallow earthenware pots filled with water.
As the American society grew more accustomed to fresh meats, milk, fruit and produce, the ice industry expanded into one of the most powerful industries in the nation.
At the turn of the 20th century, nearly every family, grocer and barkeeper in America had an ice box. Ironically, America’s dependence on ice created the very technology that would lead to the decline of the ice empire.
Ice revolutionized the way Americans ate and drank. A dependable ice supply made it possible to deliver fresh meats, seafood, dairy and produce to distant markets and keep it safe from spoilage in home ice boxes. Fruit growers and packers capable of shipping refrigerated products worldwide became huge multinational corporations.
Ice harvesting eventually became the victim of its own success. Industrialists grew impatient with the unpredictability of natural ice. Water pollution made it difficult to find suitable supplies.
Home delivery continued for a long time, in the 1920’s apartment buildings were still being constructed with ice doors opening into the kitchen. In the mid-1940’s electric refrigerators replaced the ice box.
The natural ice business has melted away with scarcely a trace.