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Re: Ancient refrigerators

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On 2021-02-19, Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> wrote:
> Rich D wrote:
>
>> How did they make ice, in the days before electricity?

Electricity? I once lived in a house with no electricity supply. We used 
a Kerosene fridge. I believe there are also propane fridges.

>> 
> In the early days, they cut it out of frozen lakes and rivers and stored it 
> in ice houses insulated with thick layers of hay.

Usually a deep hole in the ground, often an impressive stone/brick 
superstructure over over the top, and a trap corridor with doors each 
end to keep any heat out.

There was also a trade in ice from areas where it was cold. 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_trade

>
>> And did they figure it out empirically, prior to the
>> development of thermodynamic theory?
> Mechanical refrigeration was developed about 1850, but took a while to 
> become widely commercially available.  I think the physics was pretty well 
> understood by that time.

making ice on a commercial scale came well before home fridges - mostly 
the ice was for the fish and meat trade, but you could buy in blocks of 
ice for domestic use.

There is a pretty good history here ...

https://www.reddyice.com/blogs/detail/ID/12/the-chilling-history-of-ice

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Ancient refrigerators Rich D <rdelaney2001@gmail.com> - 2021-01-07 20:43 -0800
  Re: Ancient refrigerators RosemontCrest <rosemontcrestwinery@post.com> - 2021-01-08 04:10 -0800
    Re: Ancient refrigerators Rich D <rdelaney2001@gmail.com> - 2021-01-10 15:00 -0800
      Re: Ancient refrigerators RosemontCrest <rosemontcrestwinery@post.com> - 2021-01-18 15:25 -0800
  Re: Ancient refrigerators Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> - 2021-02-18 20:44 -0600
    Re: Ancient refrigerators Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2021-02-19 17:57 +0000

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