1* 



[I IBBBO. 



ICE-HOUSES AND ICE-TRADE. 



to account for depression of temperature, by an adequate 

 ition of the entire series of the phenomena concerned. It u 

 true that the thick aheet of ice and iU covering of mow will present 

 an obatacle to the direct radiation of beat into space from the bed of 

 the river, though they themselves will hare *uoh radiation above. But 

 the bed of the river, at a comparatively high teni|ratiira, will Buffer 

 refrigeration by the radiation of iU heat to the ice on the surface of 

 the rJTer, and may thin (and if there be Uroe enough must necessarily 

 thus) be cooled eventually to the freezing point, and 10 effect the 

 formation of the eround-iee. A familiar and readily intelligible illus- 

 tration of this will be found in an observation of Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, 

 which occur* in the invaluable collection of physical fact* presented by 

 hia ' Himalayan Journals,' and already cited in the article DEW. When 

 in the narrow valley* of Ka*t Nepal, in the month of November, and 

 at the elevation of 8000 feet, the nights were ao brilliant, and the 

 radiation from the earth and bodies upon it consequently ao powerful, 

 that the upper blanket of hia bed became coated with dew, from the 

 rapid abstraction of heat by it* radiation to the tarpaulin of big tent, 

 iUelf frosen by i'l own radiation to the sky. The direct radiation of 

 the blanket to the aky wa> prevented by the tarpaulin, but this did 

 not prevent the conversion of the aqueous vapour in contact with the 

 blanket into dew. In this case, the frozen tarpaulin corresponded in 

 its action to the surface-ice of the river, the blanket to the river-bed, 

 and the dew upon it to the ground ioe. Had the exposure been longer 

 continued, or the temperature of the whole system of radiating bodies 

 been lower, hoar-frost instead of dew would have been formed, and the 

 parallel would then have been perfect, according to Dr. Parquharson's 

 view of the origin of ground-ice. 



Mr. Eiadale thinks ground-ice is the result of frozen spieulfc from 

 the atmosphere, analogous to hoar-frost, falling into the river, and 

 there forming mi' /n, around which the water freezes at the bottom ; 

 but this is quite inadmissible. V.. Arago's explanation in part, and 

 the very simple fact that water, when at 32 of Fahr., if at rest, or 

 in very slow motion (which is the case at the bottom of rivers), will 

 freeze, seem among the most natural ways of accounting for the 

 formation of ground-gru. M. Arago attributes the formation to three 

 circumstances 1st, the inversion, by the motion of the current, of the 

 hydrostatic order, by which the water at the surface cooled by the 

 colder air, and which at all points of the temperature of water under 

 89* Fahr. would, in still water, continue to Boat on the surface, is 

 mixed with the warmer water below ; and thus the whole body of 

 water to the bottom U cooled alike by a mechanical action of the 

 stream ; 2nd, the aptitude to the formation of crystals of ice on the 

 tones and asperities of the bottom in the water wholly cooled to 32, 

 similar to the readiness with which crystals form on pointed and rough 

 bodies in a saturated saline solution ; 3rd, the existence of a less impe- 

 diment to the formation of crystals in the slower motion of the water 

 at the bottom than in the more rapid one near or at the surface. 

 But, as has been said, no explanation yet given is quite satisfactory, 

 and the phenomenon yet remains to be studied under all the variety of 

 circumstances which may attend it. A knowledge of the temperature 

 of the water at different depths is most essential to a just appreciation 

 of the real cause of the phenomenon. 



Ground-gru differs materially from surface-ice. Dr. Farquharson 

 describes it as having " the aspect of the aggregated masses of snow, 

 as they are seen floating in rivers during a heavy snow-shower ; but on 

 taking it out of the water, it is found to be of a much firmer con- 

 sistence than these : it is a cavernous mass of various sized, but all 

 mail, pieces or crystals of ioe, adhering together in an apparently 

 irregular manner by their sides, or angles, or points, promiscuously ; 

 the adhesion varies according to circumstances." This corresponds 

 precisely with what is stated by Col. Jackson to have been observed 

 by him in the Neva at St. Petersburg. Dr. Farquharson says, that 

 when it begins to form at the bottom, it aggregates in forms somewhat 

 resembling little hearts of cauliflower. Mr. Weitz, author of the paper 

 in the ' Journal of the Geographical Society ' on the ground-gru of the 

 Siberian rivers, says that which he noticed at the bottom of the Kann 

 (an affluent of the Jenissel), 40 versU from Krasnojarsk, was of a 

 greenuh tinge, and resembled patches of the eonfervoideae. From these 

 nets we conclude that though the appearances of the ground-gru may 

 vary with circumstances, it is in all oases essentially different from the 

 solid compact sheets of surface-ice. 



[Drw; FmnziKo; HAH; HOAR- FROST ; MRTKOROLOOY ; SHOW; 

 WATEB ] 



!< KHERO. [8RA.1 



ICE HOUSES AND ICE TRADE. Considering ioe as an article 

 of commerce, one of the most important points connected with it is 

 the adoption of means for preventing the substance from melting away 

 in hot weather. Ice-nounes are expressly constructed to this end. 

 Such structures are not only useful for preserving ice which is to be 

 applied to the cooling of liquors, or to the pre|ration of articles of 

 confectionary, but also as affording the most ready if not the most 

 effectual means known for keeping meat fish, game, vegetables, and 

 fruit sweet and fresh in hot weather. Although these important con- 

 veniences are rarely to be found among the buildings of an English 

 farm, they are frequent in threw of North America, and might be 

 advantageously introduced iu this country, especially upon such farms 

 as are connected with Innn. 



One of the simplest modes of preserving ioe consists In enveloping 

 it in a great quantity of straw, above the surface of the ground, in 

 such a position that moisture, which U even more injurious than heat, 

 may drain off freely. For this purpose the ground should be raised in 

 tli<> f nn of a flattened cone, upon which should bo laid a stratum of 

 faggots. Straw in laid upon the faggots to the thickness of a foot or 

 more, and the ice is piled upon it in a compact eonical mass, the larger 

 the better. Over the ice is laid first about a foot thickness of straw ; 

 then faggot-wood to a further thickness of two feet, the interstices of 

 which have the effect of keeping a stratum of confined air round about the 

 pile*of ice ; and, finally, two or three feet of straw arranged as a thatch. 



An underground ice-house may be simply a large <vll ir. with hollow 

 or double walls, floor, roof, and doors, and furnished with a trapped 

 drain to allow the escape of such water as may be produced by a partial 

 thaw, without admitting any air. Such ice houses are usually formed 

 rn the shape of an inverted cone, which is considered the most advan- 

 tageous because it keeps the ioe more compactly together than any 

 other form, and because, in case of any thaw taking place, the remain- 

 ing ice will naturally slip down, so as to keep the mass solid. In all 

 cases it is well to interpose u layer of straw, reeds, or chaff (the last 

 named is preferred to straw in Italy, where it is used for packing ice 

 for travelling) between the walls and the ice; and by the use of faggots 

 as well as straw any perfectly dry cellar in a suitable situation may be 

 used as an ice-house. In some situations a sufficient degree of hollow- 

 ness in the walls may be produced by the adoption of the plan of 

 building with bricks on edge, or by some similar contrivance. Une 

 mode of building hollow walls which may be thus applied consists in 

 the use of half bricks divided longitudinally, as stretchers, leaving a 

 space equal to the full width of a brick between them. Hollow floors for 

 ice-houses may be constructed in various ways, with bricks on edge and 

 tiles or flags. Whatever be the construction of the ice-house itself, 

 there should be no opening by which it can communicate with the 

 external air excepting through the entrance passage, which is usually 

 at least two or three yards long, and furnished with two, three, four, i>r 

 more doors, of which not more than one must be opened at a time. 

 Where the difficulty of excluding external temperature is very great, 

 treble walls, roofs, and floors may be used ; and the entrance-passage 

 may be made crooked, with a door at every turn. 



London gives a ground-plan and section of a complete ice-house of 

 approved construction, of the inverted conical shape, with an arched 

 roof, which it is proposed to cover with two or three feet of earth, or 

 more in hot climates, over which he suggests the propriety of training 

 ivy, for the sake of excluding solar heat. In this design a small pump 

 is shown communicating with a well in the drain of the ice-house, for 

 the purpose of raising the thaw-water for drinking or other use Ure 

 describes a similar structure, but with solid walls and a conical roof of 

 timber, which may be simply thatched, or covered with brickwork and 

 thatched, and which should have a gutter round it to collect and con- 

 duct to a distance all rain that falls upon it. In Gordon's plan the 

 excavation is made considerably larger than the ice-house, which con- 

 sists of a framework of strong timbers, roughly boarded outside, and 

 lined with straw set on end and confined by laths nailed to the timbers. 

 The conical roof is thatched with straw or heath, and the space between 

 the outer boarding and the surface of the excavation is filled with heath, 

 brushwood, or fir-tops, and neatly thatched or turfed over. In some 

 situations simple excavations in calcareous soils, with a long circuitous 

 passage by way of approach, ore used instead of more regular ice- 

 nonn*, 



In filling an ice-house, the ice should be broken with mallets to a 

 coarse powder, and well rammed down as it in thrown into the ice- 

 well; its upper surface being kept of a concave shape, and a little 

 water being occasionally added to fill up all interstices, and to facilitate 

 the congelation of the whole into a solid mass. A better method is 

 to sprinkle the ice with water saturated with salt, at the rate of a 

 pound of salt to a gallon of water. This salt and water may be 

 applied by a common watering-pot upon the surface of the ice at 

 intervals of two feet from bottom to top of the mass, an extra qimnt it y 

 being poured on when the filling is completed. By this means the ice 

 becomes so firmly compacted as to need the force of a pickaxe to break 

 it up, even in the heat of summer. Snow U occasionally presci 

 a similar manner to ice, it being carefully compressed into a solid 

 mass. In Portugal and some other countries, when the snow has been 

 collected in a deep gulf, some grass or green sods, covered with ilnm; 

 from the sheep-pens, is thrown over it; and under this covering the 

 snow is so well preserved that it may be taken up and transported to a 

 considerable distance throughout the summer. 



An Ice-box, or sort of portable ice-house, is occasionally used. It 

 consists of an inner and outer caning, six inches apart, the t> 

 between which is filled with burnt cork reduced to jiowder, (hix being 

 found in possess higher non-conducting properties than the chai 

 wood. The lid is double, and is filled with the same substance ; and 

 it is madn perfectly air-tight by means of projecting ledges, \\hirli, 

 when shut, dip into a gutter filled with water. Ice may be preserved 

 for several weeks in such a box, in which also bottles, dishes, Ac., may 

 be placed. Similar to this contrivance is the American ice-safe, intro- 

 i few years ago into this country. 



The French, in 1859, constructed an extensive range of ice-houses 

 in the Bois de Boulogne, between the Auteuil railway and the f ortifi- 



