There is nothing more satisfying on a hot, humid day than walking into an air-conditioned building and enjoying an ice-cold beverage. The ability to refrigerate is so prevalent today that it is hard to imagine that a couple of hundred years ago, the idea was viewed as foolish or even immoral.
Winter ice has been harvested and stored for use in the cooler months since ancient times, but it wasn’t until the 1800’s that someone had the idea of shipping ice to warmer climates. In 1805, Fredric Tudor fitted a ship to mimic the design of an ice house, loaded it with ice, and sailed for Martinique. When he arrived, there was nowhere to store the ice, and the locals had no idea what to do with it. Undeterred by this initial failure or the severe ridicule he received for shipping ice, he continued, refining his processes, building demand, and incurring significant debt. His persistence was rewarded. Ice eventually became the second biggest export of the United States, and Fredric was dubbed the Ice King.
Although the Ice King made ice available worldwide, it was still expensive, and supplies were limited in warmer climates. Some people referred to it as white gold. In 1841, John Gorrie, a doctor in Apalachicola, FL, invented a type of air conditioning to ease the suffering of his yellow fever patients. It involved hanging pans of ice over their beds and letting the cooler air fall on them. Unfortunately, there was not enough ice for all his patients, and the ice that was available was too expensive. Gorrie set out to invent a way to make ice that would be cheaper and more reliable than waiting for ice shipments from the North.
Gorrie succeeded in making an ice machine but found little commercial success. It is suspected that Tudor launched a press campaign to prevent Gorrie from threatening his ice empire. Papers referred to Gorrie as a crank and deemed the man-made ice to be immoral. Ice making was the province of God, and natural ice was superior. Gorrie died at the age of 51 from a fever without any ice to ease his discomfort.
After his death, others built on his work. By the late 1800’s, suspicion of man-made ice had evaporated, and there were several large commercial ice manufacturers throughout the country. Ice and refrigeration stopped being a luxury for the wealthy and became a commodity found in nearly every household. Today, it would be hard to imagine living in the South in the summer without the ability to stay cool.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.
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