Ice cellar

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Entrance to an ice cellar in Wustrau with Glume - Hermen
Ice breaking and transport on an Austrian lake, December 1899
Access in the shade
Entrance lock
Ice room, right and left the storage rooms for food
Brodley's Ice Pit (1904)
Ice cellar in Potsdam (1904)

Ice cellars are completely or partially underground structures that used to be used to store and store natural ice , which was used over the year to cool products or for manufacturing processes. With the introduction of cooling machines at the end of the 19th century, the conversion of cooling began in large companies and breweries ; Smaller ice cellars continued to be built until the beginning of the 20th century and occasionally were used until the 1950s. Most of the ice cellars have now been torn down, filled in or in ruins. Only a few ice cellars have been restored or are still in use; they are prepared , for example, as wintering quarters for bats or for growing mushrooms .

use

Until the beginning of the 18th century, the use of the ice cellar was limited to the wealthy population. Ice cellars from this time were therefore mostly located near manor houses or castles . The need for cold rooms only grew with the beginning of industrialization .

"Ice is used in many ways in technology, especially in beer brewing , in the presentation of alcohol and paraffin , in the production of Glauber's salt , in alpine dairies and dairy farms , in confectioneries for the presentation of frozen foods , for cooling drinks , for cold mixtures , in the household , for the preservation of meat and meat products during transport and in slaughterhouses , to cool the rail cars in the summer and the apartments in the tropics, etc. [...] in the surgery , the ice is a very effective remedy for bleeding [...]. "

- Article "Ice (technical use of ice)" . Meyers Konversationslexikon , Fourth Edition, 1885-1892

Requirements for an ice cellar

The ice cellar receives a cool, protected and dry location not too far away from the point of use. Its south side is protected from the sun's rays either by the shade of a neighboring building or by the planting of shade-giving, fast-growing trees and shrubs. The entrance is to the north, and the opening used to remove the ice should be as small as possible and as high as possible. The ice container must be secured against the heat from the floor and the warm air from the top. Ice cellar walls are best made solid. Brick walls with a thickness of about 0.75 m to 1 m and more with one, two, preferably three air layers of 7 to 8 cm thick are suitable for this. The layers of air can also, if the masonry is made completely watertight, be filled with peat waste, porous slag or slag wool.

The temperature of the ground corresponds - neglecting the seasonal fluctuations - to the average annual temperature and in Germany is 8 to 10 ° C.

The ice room is designed in a cylindrical or hemispherical shape, as there is a better ratio of surface area to content than in a rectangular room. At the same time, the round floor plan offers better resistance to lateral earth pressure . Groundwater and day water are to be kept away. When the groundwater level is high , the ice cellars are usually not completely underground. The above-ground area is then covered with a mound of earth. The melt water must be easy to drain off, if possible using a water seal (gooseneck) to prevent warm air from entering through the drain. If the subsoil is very permeable, i.e. gravel or sand, the meltwater can seep into it by itself. The condensation water, which is formed by the fact that the melt water humidifies the air in the ice room and that it is chipped off the walls and ceiling, has a particularly disadvantageous effect when it drips off the stone ceiling, in that it promotes the melting of the ice again. In the case of solid, vaulted ceilings, it is therefore advantageously caught by welding channels and led from these to the side of the wall. Ice cellars with a volume of less than 30 m³ are not appropriate as the surrounding area is too large compared to the content. The ice room had to be big enough to hold a supply of ice until next winter. In order to have enough ice even after a warm winter, it was recommended to store an ice supply for two years. Otherwise, it was necessary to import ice after warm winters. One of the largest ice exporters at the time was Norway .

Before the ice is brought in in winter, all the doors of the ice room must be opened in case of frost so that the ice room can evaporate and cool down. The pieces of ice must be stored tightly. A firm freezing of the individual pieces is achieved by pouring salt on each layer. Meat must not be placed in the ice rooms immediately or placed on the ice, because it can fog up easily, as a gelatinous layer of mold forms as a result of the damp air, which gives the meat an unsightly appearance and causes it to spoil soon.

History (mediterranean)

Ice cellars ( Spanish nevería or Catalan pou de glaç = "ice fountain", "cold store", "snow house", "snow fountain" or "well cave") have been used in Spain since the 16th century, in the mountains, where it is in winter snowed, was created by excavating a mostly deepened well space. This was filled with snow or ice, which served as a coolant for the rest of the year. In general, neverías or pous de glaç are round buildings, the upper part of which was closed with a vaulted ceiling that had smaller openings to allow the filling and removal of snow and ice.

Before ice cream factories existed, ice storage and distribution became an important business involving a significant part of the rural population in the Mediterranean. There are examples from all over the Mediterranean. It is unclear when the use of ice for cooling began. Around 3000 BC BC Egyptians and Mesopotamians are said to have used natural ice to preserve food longer. The Romans are known to have eaten a lot of ice cream from the mountains. A report by the Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis says that ice cream was often more expensive than the fine wine it cooled. Emperor Nero (37 to 68 AD) is said to have set up a chain of runners between Rome and the Alban Mountains to get fresh ice. For centuries there was a flourishing trade in ice in the Mediterranean region, but this was later forgotten. In the Middle Ages, niches in wooden walls kept things cool. Holes in the ground or in bodies of water were also used for cooling. The cellar was a way to keep food in wooden barrels or in clay pots. The use of ice on a large scale did not take place again until between the 16th and 19th centuries and lasted until the middle of the 20th century, when it was gradually forgotten with the appearance of refrigerators . Until then, food could only be preserved by salting, smoking, drying or using snow. The latter was the basis for a profession that existed until around 1931.

In Mallorca, the snow houses are located in the mountains of the Serra de Tramuntana , such as Puig Major , Puig des Teix and Massanella .

Ice cellar of the breweries

Ice cellar in Etterbeek, Belgium
Glance into the Altenberge ice cellar

When brewing bottom-fermented beer , breweries depend on effective cooling. In addition to the rapid cooling of the hot wort to a temperature of 4 ° C to 6 ° C and the cooling of the fermentation cellar to these temperatures, the storage cellar must be kept at a maximum temperature of 2 ° C. For a brewery with an annual production of 20,000 hl , an ice consumption of 2500 tons of ice was calculated. The fermentation and storage cellars of the large breweries extended over several 100 m² and were partly on top of each other on two floors. Effective air circulation was therefore required to keep the extensive storage rooms evenly cool. For this purpose, the ice room was placed higher than the room to be cooled. The cold, heavy air from the ice room sinks to the floor and displaces the warmed air from the cellar. Empty storage rooms had to be separated from the cooling system so that ice consumption could be kept as low as possible. Sufficient ventilation was also necessary to prevent mold growth and to remove the carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process . If the outside temperature in winter was below the temperature in the storage basement, the basement should be ventilated with outside air to reduce ice consumption. The first large breweries had been using refrigeration machines since the 1870s in order to become independent of ice formation in winter. As a result, the existing ice rooms could also be used as additional storage space.

For example, Zell am See supplied ice cream for German breweries. In the winter of 1883/84, 1905 wagon loads of ice were shipped to Germany. In 1930 the Kaltenhausen brewery in Hallein is said to have been the main purchaser of Zeller ice cream (180 wagons).

Examples

See also

literature

historical
  • E. Brückner, E. Spillner: Ice containers and cooling systems with artificial cold generation. In: E. Schmitt, J. Durm, H. Ende (eds.): Handbuch der Architektur. Third part. The building structures. 6th volume, Stuttgart, 1904, 247 ff.
  • Heide, Karen: Ice works on the Schreventeich in Kiel . In: TOP 44 (22nd year, December 2012) p. 48
  • F. Hellwig: The ice cellar. Description and practical implementation . 1st (last) edition. Hachmeister & Thal, Leipzig 1921 (Lehrmeister-Bücherei, Volume 600) New edition 2006, Survival Press ISBN 3-937933-16-6 .
  • Friedrich Harzer: The creation of the ice cellar. 2nd edition, Bernhard Friedrich Voigt , Weimar 1864.
  • CA Menzel: The construction of the ice cellar both in and above the ground and the storage of the ice in them together with an appendix: The manufacture of artificial ice. A guide for builders, farmers, confectioners, manufacturers, brewery owners, innkeepers etc. G. Knapp, Leipzig 1883.
  • Ernst Nöthling (Ed.): The ice cellars, ice houses and ice boxes, their construction and use. For construction technicians, brewery owners, farmers, butchers, confectioners, innkeepers, etc. 5th edition. Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1896.
  • Schattenburg: The ice cellars, ice houses, cold rooms and storage cellars . Ludwig Hofstetter, Halle 1893.
  • J. Schlesinger: The ice cellar in solid and wooden construction . Ernst & Son, Berlin 1918.
  • Swoboda: The creation and use of portable and stable ice cellars . Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1874.
  • Rudolf WA Wörmann: The water and its use in gardening. Complete instructions for drainage and irrigation, the installation of ice cellars, ponds, fountains, bridges, ferries, bathing houses, duck houses and swan houses, fish tanks and fish boxes. Based on our own experiences and drafts . E. Schotte & Co., Berlin 1866-1867.
  • Ice and refrigeration industry: Monthly for the natural ice industry, ice production, refrigeration machine construction, refrigeration use . Wittenberg / Ziemsen 1899 / 1900-1919
  • The refrigeration industry . Hamburg-Altona: Hanseatische Verlagsanst. 1903-1943
  • Magazine for the entire refrigeration industry . German Cold Association; Association for chillers. Berlin 1894–1944
current
  • Norbert Heintze: Ice cellar and ice works in Berlin and Brandenburg . 3. Edition. Berlin 2014 ( online in the holdings of the Central and State Library Berlin )
  • Dietrich Lohse: Ice cellar in Moritzburg. In: Preview & Review, monthly magazine for Radebeul and the surrounding area. Radebeul, 12/2014 ( online ).
  • Stephan A. Lütgert: Ice cellars, ice works and cold stores in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg . Husum 2000, ISBN 978-3-88042-962-8 .
  • Wessel Reinink, Johan Gerard Vermeulen, Manfred Wehdorn: Eiskeller, cultural history of old cooling techniques . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-205-98405-6 .
  • MONUMENTS - Magazine of the German Foundation for Monument Protection , Vol. 24, No. 5, October 2014, pp. 66–73, ISSN  0941-7125 ( online )

Web links

Commons : Eiskeller  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ice cellar in the Fledermaus-Museum Julianenhof , Brandenburg
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g J. Schlesinger: The Eiskellerbau . Third edition 1918
  3. ↑ a b c Menzel, Karl August u. Schubert, Alfred: The construction of the ice cellar, ice houses, storage cellars and ice boxes… . 6th edition 1902.
  4. ↑ Schatteburg, JH: The ice cellars, ice houses and storage cellars and d. Installation of cold rooms f. Slaughterhouses, margarine factories, etc. Halle aS: L. Hofstetter, 1901, 2nd edition.
  5. ↑ Gottlieb Behrend: The Eiskellerbau with a number of implemented systems of the latest type . Hall a. S .: Knapp, 1900
  6. ↑ P. Trier: "Germany's import and export of ice 1889 to 1903". In Eis- und Kälte-Industrie 1904, Volume 5, Pages 121-124
  7. ↑ Schatteburg, JH: The ice cellars, ice houses, cold rooms and storage cellars . Hall aS: L. Hofstetter, 1893, 1st edition.
  8. ^ "Brewery cooling through ice". In: Journal for the entire refrigeration industry , 1894, issue 2, pages 31–34
  9. ↑ The main buyers of the Zeller ice cream ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , private website  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brgzell.salzburg.at