# How, when and where was Ice first made by humans.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 22, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052 "2002-09-22T00:19:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052/1 "2002-09-22T00:19:18Z")
How when and where, was ICE first made by humans ? Obviously, I’m referring to areas where ICE did’nt occur naturally. And also, I mean made (not transported from a colder area.)
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052/2 "2002-09-22T00:39:02Z")
i think about 1808-1812. the first guy to do it made a killing in one of the big carribean islands. i will cite after i go home tonight.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052/3 "2002-09-22T02:08:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> An American physician, John Gorrie, built a refrigerator based on Oliver Evans’ design in 1844 to make ice to cool the air for his yellow fever patients.
-[The History of the Refrigerator and Freezers](http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrefrigerator.htm)
The cite offers a date of 1748 for the first demonstration of refrigeration (via ethyl ether evaporation), and 1805 for the first machine design. There’s yet more [Refrigeration History](http://www.rogersrefrig.com/history.html) here.
Handsomeharry may be on to something though. Sometimes things get invented more than once.
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### Author:  [@andy\_fl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andy_fl)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052/4 "2002-09-22T04:01:41Z")
Thanks. Those replies were great.
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### Author:  [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-when-and-where-was-ice-first-made-by-humans/129052/5 "2002-09-22T11:29:40Z")
The Egyptians did it. Sorry, I don’t have a cite, but here’s how I remember it working. They used small shallow clay dishes with a little water in them and set them on something where air would circulate underneath them. Apparently the air got just cool enough at night sometimes to just barely freeze the water. Then they stored the ice in caves or something. I know this may not be what you’re looking for exactly, but they did make ice where it did’t naturally occur ( at least not in collectable quantities) by using a form of technology.