Weightman, Gavin. The frozen water trade, a true story.WEIGHTMAN, Gavin. The frozen water trade, a true story. Hyperion. 254p. illus. index. map. c2003. 0-7868-8640-4. $13.95. SA "We are without ice! The supply is used up. The little chilly building between the Supreme Court and the Scotch Kirk is denuded of its treasures. Dirty water and sawdust sawdust used as litter for chickens and bedding for horses. Sawdust made from treated timber may cause pentachlorophenol and other wood preservative poisoning. Fungi growing in sawdust litter in poultry houses may cause poisoning in the birds. is all it contains ... If there were any such thing as public spirit in Bombay we might hope for the adoption of measures to preserve us from the recurrence recurrence /re·cur·rence/ (-ker´ens) the return of symptoms after a remission.recur´rent re·cur·rence n. 1. of the present evil ..." Such a reaction, quoted in the Bombay Telegraph and Courier in July 1850, was precisely was Frederick Tudor had hoped for in the early years of the 19th century when he first got the idea to take an abundant and valueless resource of the Boston area winters and make it a highly valued and demanded commodity. His efforts were fraught with every disadvantage except sheer will power. It took until the 1840s for a general consensus to emerge that ice was a necessity, and a decade more for it to become a lucrative business. This book tells the personal story of Tudor in its entire entrepreneurial splendor Splendor Aladdin’s palace built of marble, gold, silver, and jewels. [Arab. Lit.: Arabian Nights] Alhambra the palatial 13th-century Moorish citadel in Granada, noted for its lofty situation, beautiful courts, and fountains. , revealing the fascinating history of refrigeration refrigeration, process for drawing heat from substances to lower their temperature, often for purposes of preservation. Refrigeration in its modern, portable form also depends on insulating materials that are thin yet effective. in America and wherever ice traders could generate a market. Today we take refrigeration for granted, but imagine an ice famine caused by a warm winter, no way to cool the patient in an era when yellow fever yellow fever, acute infectious disease endemic in tropical Africa and many areas of South America. Epidemics have extended into subtropical and temperate regions during warm seasons. and malaria malaria, infectious parasitic disease that can be either acute or chronic and is frequently recurrent. Malaria is common in Africa, Central and South America, the Mediterranean countries, Asia, and many of the Pacific islands. were rampant, shipping hundreds of tons of ice to India where a demand was quickly established in the 1830s, and the logistics of harvesting and moving huge quantities of frozen water. Tudor and his associates eventually conquered the market and invented the implements and methods to simplify harvesting, storing and shipping their product. This is a great story of capitalism at work and a small part of history that greatly impacted the personal lives of all people in America. Ann Hart, Trustee, Juniata county Lib., Mifflintown, PA |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion