Breckinridge County KyArchives History .....Ice Houses - Cooling Systems 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 September 23, 2006, 7:07 am

Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past

In olden days there was a saying, "The rick have ice in the summer; the poor 
have it in the winter."  The was true in all America until 1851, when a man 
named Gorrie invented the ice machine.  It was thirty or forty years before 
metropolitan areas obtained the equipment and facilities to manufacture and 
make it available for distribution and sale, then only those nearby had the 
opportunity to obtain it.  It was near the end of the century before towns and 
county seats installed ice plants.  For many years rural Kentucky communitites 
wre iceless, except in the winter, unless they cut and stored a supply of ice 
in icehouses while the streams and ponds were frozen over.

Only those financially able to build and insulate a building sufficient to keep 
ice from melting during the summer months could afford such luxury.  The houses 
were constructed with double walls and filled in between and overhead with 
sawdust.  The doors were also well insulated.  When the ice on ponds and 
streams became three or four inches thick and firm enough to support the weight 
of workmen, filling the icehouse was begun.  The ice was sawaed in uniform 
blocks, dragged to the bank of the pond or stream, loaded on wagons and hauled 
to the house, where it was stacked in uniform tiers about six inches from the 
walls until the house was filled.  When it was full, water was poured over it, 
freezing it into a solid mass.  After which more sawdust, filled in between the 
ice and over the top, made it withstand summer heat withoutmelting.  Those so 
fortunate had cold milk, butter, ice water ice cream and lemonadte the year 
round.  Ice chests could be bough in sizes ranging from twenty-five to one 
hundred pound capacity.  These would keep food cool for several days, but 
contamination had to be guarded against.  City dwellers and those with 
icehouses were the oly ones to enjoy these comforts.

Contry people had to depend upon nature for their cooling systems, which were 
springs, spring houses, cellars and wells.  Liquid and solid foods were placed 
in containers and placed in the water or on the floors or shelves of cellars 
and warm houses.  Pails of milk and other foods were suspended on ropes when 
wells were used for such.  These methods of cooling and refridgeration 
continued in use until the mechanical refrigeration was developed in the 
1920's.  The first obtainable was the gas and oil burning variety, which 
agitated the refrigerant.  The continued in use until about 1930, when the 
electric refrigerator came into use.  Country folks had to wait for rural 
electrification before they could enjoy these comforts.  This came in the early 
1940's and it was another ten years before the public in general, had safe 
refrigeration.

Storing and transporting perishable merchandise today is equipped with colling 
systems that keep required temperatures for the time needed.  Home freezers are 
kept full of meats and vegetables, stored in season and kept frozen until 
needed.  These methods have all but removed the dangers of food poisoning, 
which was a health menace in the past.  If the present generation had to 
pattern their living conditions after that of only fifty years ago, they would 
panic and rebel against humanity.  If a refrigerator stops operating, those 
affected seem doomed to destruction until it is operating again.

Refrigeration has contributed much to the comforts and health of our nation and 
new uses in unexplored fields of science will add more to its value.





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