120 
On the Cooling of Wines with Ice. 
[ApRIt, 
V . — On the Cooling of Wines with Ice. 
The community of Calcutta are much indebted to the gentleman who has suc- 
ceeded in providing a supply of ice, which, it is understood, will continue to be 
furnished during the whole of the hot season, — a luxury we have never before en- 
joyed in the lower provinces. At the price fixed, of eight annas per seer, it will be 
found to be more economical than saltpetre, and there can be no question as to 
its superior efficacy. At the same time, it is not improbable that the speculation 
nlay fail from want of support, through inattention to the proper manner of usings 
the ice for the cooling of wines, and owing to the jealousy of the dbddrs, who must 
be opposed to the general introduction of its use, as depriving them of their per- 
quisites of the saltpetre water. From the first cause, many people will be led to 
imagine, that the process of cooling with ice is more expensive, finding that it costs 
them a seer of ice to cool a bottle of wine, when their dbddr cools it as well with 
saltpetre at half the cost. Properly managed, one quarter of a seer of ice is quite 
sufficient to cool a bottle of Claret much more effectually than any abdur can 
do with saltpetre. The best mode of proceeding is, to place the bottle in a tin 
vessel, cased with staves of wood. The tin vessel should not be larger than 
easily to admit the bottle, and deep enough to allow the lid to be put on. The 
ice being unable to fall down between the bottle and the sides of the tin case, will 
lie round the neck, or rather the upper part of the bottle, below the neck, and in 
melting will find its way down the sides. But the great body of cold will be kept 
applied to the upper part of the bottle, and thus the portion of the wine first cooled 
will descend, and a wanner portion rise, until the whole is reduced to the greatest 
degree of cold the ice, in melting, can communicate. If to the £ seer of ice be added a 
handful or two of culinary salt, the cooling effect will be very much increased. 
As the small quantity of ice above mentioned cannot be applied ail round the bot- 
tle, the above method is the only certain way of securing all the benefit of its lique- 
faction. If placed lound the lower part of the bottle, no cold would be communicat- 
ed to the upper portion of the wine ; and also, if the bottle be laid on its side in an 
ordinary tds, and the ice placed over it, as soon as it begins to melt, it will flow down 
the sides, and the upper part of the bottle will not participate in the cooling effect. 
Besides, the large mass of the leaden tan will carry off a great portion of the cold. 
It must be obvious that there would be a great waste of material if ice were em- 
ployed, like saltpetre, to cool the water in the tds. But to those who will not 
take the trouble of instructing their servants, and yet are willing to pay any price 
for cool wine, a method may be suggested of allowing the dbddr to cool the wine, 
as usual, with saltpetre in the common tds; and when the water will dissolve no 
more saltpetre, the temperature may be further reduced to any extent short of the 
freezing point, by adding ice. ’ 
To cool four or five bottles of wine at once, a common horse bucket would an- 
swer very well. The bottles might be placed in sand in the bucket; the sand com- 
mg up to half the height of the body of the bottle. The ice (and salt) at the rate 
of i seer to each bottle, would thus be about the upper part of the bottles, the sand 
preventing it from falling down. Beintr hoavW ti, a „ t , 
. ^ 6 cul b neaviti than water, the sand would re- 
main at the bottom, even when the ice licmefWi ana l4 . , . 
.. . * . “queued, and the melted ice would thus con- 
tinue to surround the upper portion of the bottles. The bucket should have a 
cover, or a coarse blanket should be thrown over it. ““ 
To those who may not be aware of the effort of • . a, 
ice, it .nay be useful to remark, that a T t 
fall below 32 ; but if about half the quantity of salt bp j"" melUns lce ’ 
ployed, the thermometer will sink from 84 or 85 the V UP “ ie “* Z 
or 25 degrees below the freest point a Z te “P«™ture of the air to 20 
to the natives who make ice creams * m “ tl0ned - This is knW “ 
