very pleasant to read about life without AC, in today's
moderated July.

All the tools, all the industry, all the fortunes
won and lost -- Tudor runs up a huge "coffee debt"
investing in coffee futures, which takes him years
to pay off -- a wonderful carpe diem for any
frustrated (or not so frustrated) entrepreneur.

Part biography, part business history, author Gavin Weightman's "The Frozen Water Trade," is an interesting and readable account of a uniquely American business that is all but forgotten today. In this modern era of refigeration, it seems impossible to imagine the world of a century ago in which everything was cooled by harvested freshwater ice, or indeed a world of two centuries ago when NOTHING was refrigerated. Were it not for the entreprenurial genius of a man named Fredric Tudor, Weightman's man protagonist, we all might be drinking warm drinks to this very day becuase the very idea of cold beverages might never have caught on.

Tudor's classic story is that of a vsionary who had difficulty convincing his contemporaries of the wisdom of his ideas, and who risked everything he had to make that vision a reality. He eventually succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, and in the process changed the habits of first America and then of the world. Starting in 1806, Tudor hatched upon a scheme to deliver New England ice to the tropics for sale. He was beset by all kinds of difficulties: bureaucratic red tape, unreliable underlings, shipwrecks, disease, debtors prison, embargoes and even a war or two. By midcentury, however, his trade in ice had become New England's leading export and had become a commodity no American could do without.

All of this Weightman dutifully recounts in the narrative history style that has become so popular these days. It was appeal most to those who enjoy business success stoires. The one drawback of the book is that Tudor as a character is relatively colorless. He was a driven businessman who had few other interests. Because he is forgotten today, the accounts of his personal life don't carry much interest. Nevertheless, the story of the forgotten industry he pioneered has been well preserved by this enjoyable book.

Weightman presents the story of refrigeration from the first ice houses to the development of the home refrigerator. The proponent behind this business was Frederic Tudor of Boston. Although the wealthy of Europe had had small ice houses for the storage of ice harvested from lakes and pond, those structures were small and relatively costly. Tradition required that the ice house be below grade or at least have one wall below grade.

In about 1805, Tudor decided that a profitable business could be created by harvesting ice from lakes and rivers in New England and shipping it to tropical climates for sale. He began in the West Indies, expanded to Havana, and eventually Southern US and India. Along the way he developed inexpensive ice house designs, techniques to pack the ice for shipment at sea, and marketing techniques to educate customers on uses like cooled beverages and ice cream. One of his associates, one Nathaniel Wythe, developed a horse-drawn ice plow that automatically marked off the width of the blocks. This made ice harvesting much more efficient and facilitated uniform blocks that made it easy to store the ice efficiently.

It spite of the accuracy of Tudor's vision, the path to success was not an easy one. Ships were lost or delayed. Ice houses were not ready. His early ventures were only marginally successful. He was frequently in debtors prison or fearful of being caught by his creditors. Tudor succeeded only by sheer determination in the face of opposition.

Techniques were also developed to thicken the ice. Once ice was thick enough to support weight, holes were bored to allow water from below to cover its surface. This made it possible to freeze ice up to 12 inches thick.

The ice business fit nicely in Boston. Many business men there participated in international trading. Ships brought trade goods to Boston, but finding goods to fill the holds for the return voyages was difficult. Often rocks were loaded as ballast. Ice was an ideal cargo, once the packing techniques were perfected. The ice had to be insulated on all sides and water from melting had to be pumped out.

The manpower required also fit well in New England. Ice was harvested by day laborers in the middle of winter. At that time, farm and construction workers were unoccupied. Ice harvesting provided extra income during otherwise idle periods. Smaller crews worked throughout the year to transport ice to ships and help in loading them.

Once Tudor developed the techniques, they were widely copied. Others brought ice to Northern cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Often the ice was harvested from nearby lakes or rivers. Services that delivered ice to your door began about 1840. The first ice boxes for keeping food began to appear at the same time. Periodically a warm winter would produce an ice famine. In those cases, ice was typically harvested in Maine and shipped in. The same situation prevailed in Armour's shipment of meat in refrigerated railcars from Chicago to New York, New Orleans and California. Ice harvested locally was stored in huge ice houses next to the tracks.

The technology to manufacture ice by refrigeration using ammonia as refrigerant began to appear in patent literature around the Civil War. The initial machines were expensive to operate (usually powered by steam engines), unreliable and had inadequate capacity compared to the need, which continued to grow, especially in the South. Natural ice continued in use for many years. Only after turn of the century did concerns about pollution in rivers cause the acceptance of manufactured ice on a large scale. However, some harvesting continued as late as 1950.

Technology for electric home refrigerators using toxic sulfur dioxide as refrigerant was invented by Marcel Audiffren in France in 1895. General Electric offered a refined model after World War I when small electric motors began to be made in quantity. In 1926, 2000 units were sold.

Missing is the story of the development of non-toxic, non-flammable Freon for use as refrigerant in Dupont laboratories in about 1930. Missing is the story of rental lockers in locker plants that allowed personal storage of frozen foods long before such storage became available in the home in deep freezes and in freezer compartments in refrigerators (beginning about 1950). Missing is the story of air conditioning, all additional stories in the development of refrigeration technology. Excellent index. No references.