Cutting the ice out of the St. Lawrence River used to be one of the big winter rituals in Montreal. As late as the 1950s they were still doing it and transporting blocks to icehouses. As Quebec was a poor province, I imagine electric refrigeration took a lot longer to catch on.
I remember being shown an ice house in the grounds of a large mansion many years ago. Obviously the family were wealthy and could have ice throughout the summer.
It was partly underground and similiar to this one.
(I’m not sure, but the picture above might have been the one illustrating the cover of Minette Walters’ book The Ice House)
We still get coal deliveries for people in our row, they’ve not completely died out yet.
I believe the first ice producing machine was invented by a Dr. Emmett Brown, reknowned blacksmith, circa 1885. His whereabouts afterwards are currently unknown. 
Excellent history of ice and refrigeration here. One of the big problems with the natural ice industry was contamination. Clean sources of natural ice were getting harder to find just as artificial sources came into being. Basically, pollution was a problem for the ice industry 100 years ago.
Funny thing is that I can’t remember what the episode was about. I remember that there was something about Napoleon’s army, who was eating tinned food. Lead from the solder contaminated the food and caused problems. A better way of preserving food had to be found. IIRC somehow the technology of food preservation ended up being a factor in the building of the Concord or the Space Shuttle. Or something like that. I don’t remember.
Actually, it was an episode of the original Connections. Episode 8 - “Eat, Drink and Be Merry.” I know this because I showed it to my AP students two weeks ago. 
Here in central Oregon, they used to mine ice from caves. Still can, as a matter of fact- there’s a cave not thirty miles from here that has ice all year long.
Increased size of armies led to preserved food, like canning. Bad canning led to people exploring the ideas about “bad air” which Gorrie did in Florida. This led to refrigeration, which led to chilling gasses, which led to the vacuum flask, which tied in with Oberth trying to V-2 London, which led to von Braun, et al building the Saturn V.
Ahh, time to crack open one of my favorite historical trivia questions.
Q: By the 1850’s the US’s largest export, on a tonnage basis, was cotton. What was #2?
A: Ice.
It seems like you could bring it down from Canada by boat pretty easily.
Yes, we were always being warned not to eat the river ice, only the “artificial” ice. Of course, being little boys we paid no attention.
Are you sure? I remember Connections coming out much later than The Day The Universe Changed.
Connections came out in 1978, TDTUC came out in 1985.
Hm. I didn’t see the former until years after the latter. Maybe the episode was ‘repackaged’ or retitled?
Check out this book about the early days of transporting ice (from Europe to America!)
The Frozen Water Trade : A True Story by Gavin Weightman Fascinating.
According to This thread, “The Secret Life Of Machines” is on at the moment in the States. I would heartily recommend the whole thing, but particularly, for your question, “The Secret Life Of The Refrigerator”.
That sounds right. “Connections” first appeared on PBS and was repeated on one of the cable channels a decade later. The success of the old connections series morphed into Connections 2 and Connections 3 on cable.