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 dwtaylor999
  
Location: Unassigned Lands, Oklahoma
Gender: Male
 |  | The Ice Man cometh
< on 5/1/2011 3:33 AM >
|  | | | We've all heard the older generations tell us how bad they had it, and how easy things are for us. You've heard it, "Up hill, in the snow, both ways!" We roll our eyes and answer the latest text message on our i-phone while scanning a couple of hundred channels on the giant flat screen while simultaneously kicking some Orc butt on WoW.
However, they're weren't exaggerating, well, maybe a little.
Believe it or not, there was once a time in the not so distant past when ice was something special. Before modern refrigeration began to become widely available in the 1920's, keeping your food from growing strange fuzzy things was something of a challenge. Ice was harvested from ponds, lakes, and rivers in large blocks and then stored in warehouses. Sawdust and straw were used to insulate the ice, so it could be used in the warmer months.
The horse-drawn ice wagon and the daily occupation of the iceman, who made regular delivery of block ice to your door, was as much a social institution as the milk man.
An ice box was essentially just an insulated cooler, with a compartment for the block of ice, and other compartments for your perishables. All towns had at least one ice house, with some of the larger municipalities offering the free use of an ice box if you purchased their ice. These ice boxes ranged from simple wooden units to elaborate pieces of furniture. In apartments, the ice boxes where "built in" so the ice man could deliver the ice directly into the rear of the ice box through a door on the outside. Many of these old ice boxes are quite collectible today.
  
As industrial pollution and sewer runoff grew with the populations, problems with contaminated ice began to appear. When early mechanical refrigerators became available, they were installed in the ice houses to produce clean and sanitary ice for home delivery. These early units used ammonia for the cooling agent, which was quite toxic. With the spread of electricity and the introduction of safer refrigerants, mechanical refrigeration in the home began to become more widespread in the 1930's, though the cost was beyond most Americans. Some pics of some early refrigerators, really just ice boxes with refrigeration units attached.
 
After WWII, the price of refrigerators dropped signficantly, though ice plants continued home delivery up into the 1950s in many areas of the country.
Because of the importance of the icebox in recent human history, the name "icebox" is still used for the modern home refrigerator by many older Americans. It's hard to imagine, but ice was such a rarity in the summers, that children would follow the ice wagon and take chips of fallen ice as treats.
This is the old ice house in Ralston, Oklahoma. Built around 1908, the plant was used up through WWII, closing shortly after the war ended. Ice was originally delivered via horse drawn wagon, but was later delivered by truck to not only the town, but many of the rural farmsteads surrounding it.
If you look, you can still make out the faded name.
Originally, there were other buildings to the right of the ice plant, as well as a street which passed next to the building, both long gone. The front dock was used for customers, this dock on the side was used to load ice onto the wagons and trucks.
Though the city had a good municipal water system, the plant had it's own well. Why pay for water when you could get it for free?
The original plant was the single building on the right, but expanded into the neighboring building, which was built sometime after 1915, as it doesn't show on my old maps.
A piece of the old ice making equipment.
A simple little unassuming building, nothing special, except for the period in history it represents. I'll close with an old photo of the Ralston ice plant circa 1921.
I can hear my grandpa now. "Damn right we had no ice. Had to grab it from the dirt when the ice man dropped it, and we were damned glad to get it!"
Ruins, the fate of all cities. |
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pkrearden
Location: Funkytown, TX
Gender: Male
| | Re: The Ice Man cometh
<Reply # 1 on 5/2/2011 4:03 AM >
| | | | I love the historical insight in your posts man. good job.
"there is no devil, there's just god when he drinks." - Tom Waits |
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