WENHAM LAKE ICE. [From Frazer's Magazine.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 867, 23 November 1853, Page 4

WENHAM LAKE ICE. [From Frazer's Magazine.]

If, io the midsummer when everything was still with heat, a little child were to come to us and beg for * cup of cold water, what would it think, if we were to tell it thin tale ?—? — A very long way off, in the New World, there it a greaf cup, hundreds of feet deep, made in the mountains. This cup is always full of crystal water, which in the winter season gets so cold that great ships come and carry it all over the world, so that every person, when he is heated »s> you are, can, if he likes, have a draught of its delicious icy contents. In all probability the child would think we were telling it some tale of Fairyland, and would oot dream that we were speaking of an everyday working fact. Yet such is the case : the crystal cup is the Weohara Lake, held in a hollow of the mountains in New Hampshire, Massachusetts. This lake, which is of small extent, having only an area of 500 acres, is supplied by pure springs which issue from its rocky bottom ; its waters aie so pure that analysis cannot detect any foreign elements held either in suspension or in combination. This condition of purity is not alone, however, the cause of the celebrity which the ice fotraed from it has of late years attained throughout the world, and especially in England : there are many such lakes in America capable of producing equally good ice, and which are indeed used as the ice farms, if we may so term them, for borne consumption ; the real reason of the celebrity of the ice produced from the Wenham Lake lies in the fact of its being near the seaboard, übich enables the company to which it belongs to ship it easily to all parts of the world. This lake is only 18 miles north-east of Boston, and by means of the Eastern railway, which receives a branch line from the lake itself, is within an hour's run of the wharf at that city : so that, for all practical purposes, the ice might be said to be formed at the ship's side. These unusual facilities have enabled the company to withstand competition, otherwise the market of England would soon have become keenly contested by the Yankee ice spe» culators, for this article is extensively used in America, and large sheets of water are utilized as raurh as mines ; and here, when nature is everywhere else at rest, the ice farmer watches with anxiety the product of bis watery acres, ripening through the absence of the sun. If it were not for the difficulties of conveyance, Barnum would have been long ere this looking upon the Mer de Glace as a speculative lot, and making bids for all the mountain peaks of Europe above the snow line. Owing to this drawback, however, it is found more practicable to bring even this perishing commodity a distance of three thousand miles. The ice trade in America has long reached a magnitude of which we in the old country have no conception. What we consider a luxury, brotUer Jonathan has long looked upon as a common necessary of life. He cannot live without a plen- j tiful supply of ice. It might be urged that this is owing to the great heat of the American summers. Perhaps so ; but that which at one season of the year is desirable and delicious, at another can only be indulged in through habit. The Americans consume pretty much the same quantity of ice in the winter as in the summer. With every meal it is placed upon the table, and it forms a constituent of all their driuks. In England, a publican will tell you that two-thirds of

his spirits drinking customers will call for hot brandy and water •, in an American liquor store, tbe constant demand is for a glass of sherry with a knob of ice in it, or cocktail, or mint julep, with the like accompaniment of liquefying crystal. The aggregate consumption of this article throughout the States mutt be something enormons, for in Boston alone upwards of 50,000 tons are consumed annually — a much larger quantity than is used throughout England. The ice crop of America is consequently of great national importance ; and as it is liable to perish by change ot weather, even more speedily than grain, human ingenuity has been brought into play to cut *ud bouse it with a speed and regularity strongly contrasting with the rnde manner of smashing it with poles and shovelling in the irregular lumps, such as we tee practised upon our own borne grown ice. The scene at Wenbam Lake after a bard frost is highly interesting. At first sight, the stranger is puzzled to make out the meaning of the process be sees going on upon the level tarface of tbe dark ice. If it were ltnd he would not wonder ; but what can tbe horses be ploughing for ? That he will presently see is part of the process of reaping the ice harvest. This season generally commences when: tbs ice is about a foot thick, provided always no snow has fallen and melted on it. Operations are begun by ruling a line as it were across the slippery surface of a circumscribed space of about three or four acres ; this line is made by a small and exceedingly sharp hand plough, which cuts along tbe solid mass, throwing up as it progresses a glittering dust. This line, which if two or three inches in depth, serves as a guide to a machine drawn by horses, called the marker, which traversing beside it, cuts two parallel lines, about twenty-one inches apart. Similar lines are drawn until tbe whole surface is marked. The grooves are now deepened to six inches by the action of a horse plough. A similar process is carried on at right angles, so that when tbe whole is finished the entire area is divided into squares of twenty-one inches each way. Tbe next step is to detach these blocks from each other, and lift them out of the water. To accomplish this the saw is brought into play, and a line of B|uareB having been cut through, the remainder are easily detached and floated out by means of tbe ice-spade, a wedge-like implement, which no looner enters the groove than the block splits off with th« utmost ease — that is, provided the weather is frosty during the operation ; otherwise tbe task is net quite so easy, the ice being much more tough when thawing. Tht floating squares have now to be secured and housed ; for this purprse a low platform is placed near the edge of tbe ice, having an inclined plane of iron, which dips down into the water. Up this plane the great blocks are jerked by tbe ice man, who wields bis ice book witb great dexterity. Wheo a load is secured, it is transferred to a sledge, and drawn to the ice stores which line one side of tbe lake. The process of lifting is performed by a. hor»e, and is exceedingly ingenious. Eacb block is pushed from tbe sledge on to a platform of exactly the same height, in the centre of which is a square opening, fitted witb a hoisting frame ; on to this tbe blorkis slid, tbe horse immediately pulls, tbe platform ascends, and when it reaches an opening in tbe ice-house, it is made to tilt up and discharge ita burthen into the interior of the ice-house. These ice-housrs are themselves worthy of attention ; they are, in fact, gigantic refrigerators. Generally, they are built of pine-wsod, with double walls, placed about two feet apart, the space being filled up with sswdust, a very perfect nonconducting ny diuon. In these houses the loss by thawing is very inconsiderable compared to the mass in store — the greatest watte, as we shall see presently, occurring on the voyage of such as is exported. To secure this perishing crop, numbers of men are employed in fine frosty weather. As many as a hundred men, and between thirty and forty horses, are often to be seen busily engaged upon the lake, and tbe scene is full of bustle and life. If, however, a fall of snow should come on, all further operations are put an end to, and the proprietors look with an anxious eye to the weather glass ; if it i« high, and no thaw succeeds, there is not much harm done. When the snow-storm ceases, the surface, of the ice is swept clean, and tbe process of cutting again proceeds. If, on tbe contrary, tbe snow should thaw, £»oto-ice wonld be formed with tbe next frost ; and this being quite worthless, must be removed before tbe sound portion can be gathered in. This process is performed by a plane drawn by horses, which, guided by a grooved line, smoothly cuts off to tbe depth of three inches all tbe rotten surface, and exposes the black-looking ice beaeath. If by this skimming process it is rendered too thin to store, a nigbt or two's frost will add below tbe required thickness. When the ice is wanted either for home consumption or shipment, it is placed in air tight trucks, which cany it it once alou£ the Hoe to Boston, and even to the ship's side*. When taken on board it is carefully packed in saw dust, and excluded as much as possible from the external salt air. But notwithstanding every precaution that it is possible to take, waste of from a third to a half of its substance often occurs. A ship which left Boston, for instance, on August the 16th last, with 502 tons »f ice, arrived in London with only 326 tons — thus there was a loss of 176 tons in the short space of fifty-one days. This loss was owing to two caases. Firstly, the great difficulty of procuring a good drainage in a ship, in consequence of which the saw-dust becomes saturated, and ia converted into a conductor of heat; and, secondly, the extraordinary solvent powers of the sea atmosphere, impregnated as it is witb salt, which housekeepers know thaws ice instantly. Arrived in this country, it is stored in the warehouses belonging to the Company. Tbeie are situated in tbe dry arches supporting the Waterloo Road, wbicb, towards the bridge, are at least forty feet high and seventy feet long. In these spacious dungeons, in silence and in darkness, old King Frost ia cooped a close prisoner through tbe long summer days. Tbe visitor wbo is curious enough to inspect these storehouses sees nothing but huge heaps of sawdust ; but the frosty breath issuing from bis mouth makes him aware of the low temperature of the atmosphere. In the season, as much as two thousand tons of ice are sometimes stored here without losing much in weight. These gigantic icehouses, five in number, happen to run underneath some fish shops, which, it will be remembered, lie on the left hand side of the road,

going oTer the bridge from the Strand ; and there is a capital joke told by the icemen thereanent. On one or two occasions they found, much to their astonishment, a number of lobster shells among the ice, a circumstance which puzzled them as much as the presence of minnows in the milk ias would a London housekeeper. The mystery was speedily cleared np r however, by finding that some of the bricks at the end of one of the vaults had (of course by accident) become loosened, and (be vast refrigerator was conveniently bestowing iis preservative powers upon the fresh fish stores of the superimposed warehouses. We have spoken hitherto of the Wenham Lake? Ice exclusively, but it is not pretended that all the ice comet from thence that is imported by the Company. Cargoes are often imported from Norway, of excellent ice, cut and carried on tbe •ame principle as in America. Indeed, it would 1 be but reason ble to suppose that as the demand increased, the ice-producing countries of the northern latitudes would be laid under contribution. Nevertheless it will be a long time before they can come in competition with the ice trade of America, where every appliance for its preservation and conveyance has been so long in we, Of course it would be utterly impossible to tell the nationality of different blocks, as they alt consist of pure spring water. Any block that is at all tainted in colour, or which holds any impurity in solution, however clear it might appear, ia always put aside at once as rough ice for freezing purposes. Consequently, the ice sold as Wenham Lake ice by the Company may be used with confidence, in immediate contact wilb the articles of food required to be cooled, Before the Wenham Lake Ice Company introduced the portable refrigerators it was only the rich wbo possessed icehouses, that could command a cooling medium in the sweltering summer raontbt. Now every man, for eight pounds, can possess a more perfect icehouse than any nobleman did a few years ago. Indeed the old icebouses have become entirely obsolete now that any gentleman, for ten pounds a year, can keep his refrigerator full in any part of the country, the Company forwarding the ice in square hampers, carefully packed in sawdust. The refrigerators are made on pretty nearly the same principle as the fire-safe, the object of both being the same — to keep their contents free from the action of the external temperature. To insure this, the y/alls are filled with charcoal-, the best non-conductor for the purpose. Among the many comforts we moderns enjoy, we know of none comparable to the comfort — no I comfort is not the word — the absolute luxury afforded us through this singular application of a scientific principle. Henceforth no decent housekeeper need tolerate swimming butter or lukewarm drinking water in the dog-days. Neither •hould tough joints, warm from the slaughter house, be suffered to pass as heretofore, on the plea that ' there is tio keeping meat this hot weather.' We have invented a shield that the arrow* of Apollo cannot penetrate, and the iced larder will, without doubt, soon become as tvuch an universal comfort among us as the bright fireside. To butchers and dealers in perishable provisions of all kinds this invention will prove invaluable, as its adaption will obviate *11 the incoureniences to which they bare hitherto been put in warm weather. It might be asked, however, why need we go so many thousand miles for ice, whilst we have it produced at home? "Protection to British pools ! Native ice for everi" The reason is very clear. Those who noticed the huge block of ice that was exposed last summer in the wiidow of the Wenham Lake Ire Company, in the Strand, a worthy throne for King Frost himself, will remember how long it remained there during the very hot weather, and how imperceptible was its thaw. The same weight of snow, which is of course ice in infinitely small particles, would, if scattered on the ground, have melted iv a few minutes, at even a temperate degree of heat. The difference between the two bodies in resisting the liquefying power of the atmosphere is entirely owing to the varying amount of surface opposed to its influence. The solid cube of ice of, say two hundred pounds weight, can only be attacked by the air acting on its six superficies, which, compared with its entire bulk, forms but a small portion of the whole ; whereas, the millions of particles of ice forming the snow mass of equal weight, presents scarcely any thing but surface to the surrounding atmosphere. Now, English ice might be considered little better than snow for durability, as it is generally taken in a very fragmentary condition from shallow pools, which are not always even pure to ths eye. American ice would be superfluous if we could procure blocks from some of our spring water lakes, but these being generally of great depth, require harder and more continuous froits to freeze them to any thickness than we are ever visited with. Ai long, then, as Dame Nature continue? the solo manufacturer, we must depend for our blocks of table ice upon countries whose latitudes or isothermal lines are colder than our own. The time is not, however, far distant when we shall be enabled to dispense with the aid of the winter season, and to imitate at all times of the year the process of nature in the formation of ice. The question has long been reduced to one of expense, chemistry having already shown us a dozen methods of producing degrees of cold far beyond anything tbat nature spontaneously exhibits. Thus, the liquid carbonic acid gas, whilst in the act of evaporating, stands at 165 degrees below zero, and the ice formed hy it is *o intensely cold tbat it instantly causes a dough upon the band that holds it. This method of producing ice is, however, both expensive and dangerous, and we only mention it for the parpose of showing how poweiful are the resources of the chemist. The simple action of freezing water, however, can be effected with comparative economy, and in small quantities ice is formed by the mere evaporation of water from the so r face of porous vessels. Within this last year patents bate been taken out for forming it on a large scale, and the great demand into which it has grown will no doubt induce our chemists sooner or later, to bring their knowledge practically to bear upon so important and profitable a subject.