Beat me to it, I came in here specifically to recommend this book. I have it on the shelf and have read it twice. Nifty little piece of history, and well written besides.
Tell me this dude was at least wearing gloves. Is this the 18th century?
Colorado?
I think I’ll take a nice refreshing glass of horseshit on the rocks. Reading this thread is thirsty work.
Worth mentioning a slight variation on the ice storage where blocks are cut from lakes - in southern Spain, where the lakes rarely freeze, ice was made by collecting and compressing snow, then storing this in large half-underground ‘snowhouses’, way up in the mountains.
What purpose would gloves serve? Protect him from infectious disease? Protect the horse? The horses mouth was repeatedly rinsed with Chlorhexadine solution, but is still a contaminated site.
I read this quite a while ago, and also recommend it.
Although ice houses go back a long way, that book points out that it was mainly a private affectation of some wealthy folks. Ice Houses as a business open to public purchase was pretty much the invention of Frederic Tudor in the 19th century, who had to spend years persuading people that this was a good and profitable business. Hard to believe today, but people actually had to be sold on the notion of buying ice and refrigeration in the 1800s.
Tudor’s efforts paid off, and he because wealthy. He built a sort of amusement park called Maolis Gardens near his home in Nahant, Massachusetts. One of the eccentric buildings is still there, on now private grounds. Here’s an old image of it:
FWIW, but I’ve heard that the strongest motivation for developing artificial refrigeration was the fact that beer could only be brewed in winter, because the brewing process necessitates cold temperatures. In the summer, the beer brewed in the winter before was cooled in ice houses and cellars to keep from spoiling. Refrigeration made brewing beer possible independently from the season and storing cheap, so it was a double boost for the brewing industry.
There were other motivators, too. As James Burke pointed out in one of his series, Dr. James Gorie of Appalachicola, Florida invented a refrigerator circa 1844 in order to cool down yellow fever patients. He got his patent in 1851.
"Dr. John Gorrie Marker, Apalachicola, FL" by George Lansing Taylor Jr..
The small town where I grew up was on the Mississippi River. There was an ice plant a few hundred feet from the riverbank. I assume that long ago, they cut ice on the Mississippi and stored it in an ice house. After they built the ice plant, they instead drew water from the Mississippi and used mechanical refrigeration pumps to manufacture ice year-round. Around 1980, I had the opportunity to see the inside of the ice plant, which I think had ceased production in the 1970s. At that time, the last member of the family that ran the ice business for several generations was using the the office as a painting studio, and the former cold room was just a big open space. I wish I had been able to see it when it was operational.
A veterinarian who dries and smokes meats sounds like a good combination. One way or another, you’re getting your pet back.
Not a veterinarian. A PhD in exercise physiology and a self-taught equine dentist who splits his time between a home in Virginia and one in Florida. Books appointments both locations. Very high demand, we scheduled him a year ahead.
He examines horses solo. If he needs to sedate a horse, the owner (my gf) schedules their veterinarian to be present to administer xylazine sedation.
The guy is amazing. He wears an intense headlight and a GoPro camera. State of the art power floating rasps that run off batteries in his vehicle. Really knows horse teeth, the veterinarian was impressed by his work.
The day he did our horse, his next appointment was near Erie (a few hours drive). Afterwards, he slept at a motel and saw more horses the next day (Sunday). He works weekends and then has Monday to Friday off.
Summary
I am neither an expert in dentistry or horses, but isn’t a year a long time to wait with a toothache? How does that work?
Kankakee, Illinois, still had an ice house on its outskirts in the early Seventies, although it likely had been unused for a long time. It caught fire while being demolished and burned to the ground.
Enough with the horse dental work. Way off-topic.
MODERATING
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Is it harder or easier to use a blind link than to simply say where you’re referring to?
The Amish in my region still cut their own ice.
Does it mention where the ice was harvested from? I ride my bike by Spy Pond in Arlington quite frequently. I remember hearing somewhere that it was a big source of ice, but I haven’t ever confirmed that.
The Ice Plant I knew of is now a bar. Called “the Icehouse”.
It’s a bad place, on the river. Terrible things happen there.
I often wonder if the people know it’s historical reference in there, jukin’ it up.
The book does, but I don’t have a copy with me. I know that several ponds northeast of Boston were used for Ice Harvesting, including Fresh Pond in Cambridge and Wenham Lake in Wenham. Boone Lake was in Hudson, MA, and there’s still a Lake Boone Ice Co. (which doesn’t harvest ice from the lake anymore_