In the nineteenth century before mechanical refrigeration, storing ice harvested in the winter was a thing. So how were they lit for people working inside? I can’t imagine that either flame or windows were particularly good when trying to keep the ice insulated.
I can’t think of any lighting techniques in use at the time that aren’t from either sunlight or combustion.
You’d use either and don’t worry about it.
Lanterns or indirect sunlight aren’t exactly a major issue. You cover the ice with straw or dirt or whatever and that will help insulate. Sure, there will be some melting, but there’s going to be some melt, anyway.
Ships used to carry ice from the northern states to the southern states and beyond to the Caribbean. Whatever loss you get from a lamp or from indirect sunlight isn’t going to amount to much compared to loss from ambient temperature on that sort of trip.
I worked in a London pub back in the 60s. We had ice delivered twice a week on an open lorry. It was in big blocks weighing maybe 100 lbs each and covered in sacking. The delivery guys lifted it with sharp pincers and put it in our cellar.
People didn’t generally “work” inside an ice house. They added ice, or removed ice. But most of the time, the ice would just sit there quietly, without any people around. The ice would have been covered in something opaque and insulating. I imagine the inside was generally dark except when ice was dragged in or taken out.
Here’s a building which was built as an ice storage facility. I don’t know if the windows were original to it or not.
At first glance I thought the address said “Shithole Ave”…
Images of old ice houses I’ve seen show them as windowless buildings. I’m sure they must have used candles or lanterns inside.
When you’re doing anything inside, it’s either putting more ice in, or taking ice out. Either way, the door will be open while you’re doing it, which will let in a little light. And it’s not like you need a lot of light to stack or retrieve big solid cubes.
A candle or a lantern isn’t going to throw off enough heat to melt much, if any of the ice. Even if you held a candle flame right up against a large block of ice, it’s going to take a very long time to make a dent in it. (A bigger danger might be accidentally setting the straw insulation on fire.)
Sawdust and straw were the most common types of insulation.
I’ve been researching the Miami & Erie Canal around Cincinnati, and old plat maps show that there were ice ponds everywhere. When the canal froze in the winter and was unusable, the canal boat operators would harvest ice and store it in nearby wooden icehouses. In spring when the canal thawed they would ship it to market, probably storing it again in better-insulated icehouses in the city.
I think the straw and sawdust on the ice would stay wet enough to prevent accidental fires. Possibly straw used as wall insulation was a potential fire hazard but prior to the 20th century it was a very common potential fire hazard and people had experience avoiding creating actual fires. In addition, an ice house is far from the worst place for an accidental fire to start.
What about at a sea parks?
My gramps said even as late as the 1950s high school student football players would be encouraged by the coaches to pick up a summertime job delivering ice. Refrigerators of course were not uncommon but they were expensive, a lot of poor folk still used ice boxes, and especially in apartments. The idea was, carrying 50 pound blocks of ice up several flights of stairs was good training for the off season.
The local historical Ice House around here, now a museum, is a large round brick structure right next to the river. All I can say is summertime without A/C must have been miserable, and Ice in the summertime would have been a treat.
I highly recommend the following book on the topic
- Weightman, Gavin (2003). The Frozen Water Trade: How Ice From New England Lakes Kept the World Cool. London: Harper Collins. [ISBN]
Although there had been ice houses built and used before Frederic Tudor is the one who made cutting, storing, and transporting ice into a business. And, surprisingly, it was a difficult and uphill battle.
My grandfather had an icehouse until the 1970s; there were tourists who rented cabins with iceboxes, and RVs still had iceboxes (not fridges). By the time I saw the ice house it had a few electric lights (I think), but the door was pretty big, so you go in, grab the nearest ice with your ice tongs, bring it out and close the door. Not much need for a lot of light. I think he was just using the icehouse to store ice he purchased by the time I was a kid, but photos from the 1960s and before establish that he used to fill it the old fashioned way, with ice from a nearby lake
When did a typical Ice House run out, or would it last all through the summer?
If it ran out partway through the summer, then you’d make it bigger for the next year. It’s not like it was an expensive building: Basically, all it is is enough of a roof to shade it from the sun and enough walls to stop most of the wind.
Well . . right. I just wondered if it was impractical to store ice and have it last through the entire summer into fall, in places like the midwest where it routinely pegs above 90F for weeks at a time and never drops below 80F at night. September is oftentimes no slouch for high temperatures either. The Ice House here in the Cedar Valley is reasonably well constructed of hollow brick and built in 1921 said to hold 6,000 to 8,000 tons of ice.
Setting straw and/or hay on fire was an even bigger risk in barns; and people routinely used lanterns in barns. Occasionally something went wrong and the barn burned down; that was the way the world was. Sensible people did their best to prevent it by using enclosed lanterns and being careful where they put them. I expect the same was true in ice houses; and the risk of fire from damp sawdust or straw over ice must have been lower than the risk of a haymow catching.
And agreeing that the amount of heat brought in by a lantern or two, only present when people were adding or removing ice, wouldn’t have significantly increased the melting of the ice.
Also agreeing that the light from opening the door may have in many cases been sufficient.