Ice plow
An ice plow is a mechanical device used to break up a layer of ice on bodies of water.
The inventor is the American engineer Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth , who also developed other tools for "harvesting" natural ice from freshwater lakes. It was mainly extracted in the 19th century for the production of ice for various cooling purposes. The increasing demand for ice available all year round in the course of industrialization later led to the development of refrigeration machines and justified the decline of the natural ice harvest for ice plants in favor of ice factories .
functionality
Before the ice is recovered , the ice cover of the river or lake is worked on after clearing the snow with the ice plane , a wagon-like frame that rests on a sledge at the front, on wheels at the back and in the middle of the frame an entire width of the same , has an inclined plane blade against the long sides, which completely levels the surface of the ice. Then the Eispflug is used, which consists of a number of the Grindelstrasse fixed steel sheets is intersecting with its chisel-shaped edges of grooves in the ice. The marker can be swung to the left and right around the leg, which, running in the furrow that has already been drawn, makes it possible to keep straight lines with the plow. The ice cutting work begins when the ice is 22-25 cm thick. With a light plow, furrows 25 to 30 mm deep are first torn so that panels of 60 × 90 cm are created.
Then follow Eispflüge with lower steel sheets which will deepen the furrow so far just that enough ice is left to a "raft" ( raft hold) of about 110 boards. Now such an ice raft is separated from the ice cover with the help of a heavy iron rod, the lower end of which is shaped into a sharp chisel ( ice chisel ) and pulled to the bank with the help of hooks, where the individual panels are then separated with three-pronged forks. The steam is used to cut the Eistafeln.
The ice plow, moved by steam power, consists of a two-wheeled cart that is guided by a worker and whose axis carries a large circular saw blade which cuts through the ice as it rotates . The axis of the saw rotates loosely in the hubs of the wheels and carries a pulley over which a rapidly moving rope loops that sets the saw in motion. In order to increase the friction of the rope on the pulley, a second pulley is placed over the mentioned pulley and the rope is looped over it in such a way that the direction of advancement of the ice plow coincides with the direction of movement of the rope. The endless rope is set in motion by a locomobile and guided over four guide pulleys so that it forms a rectangle. The four guide rollers form the corner points of the rectangle and lie in stands, which can be easily moved on the ice and fixed by loading with pieces of ice. If the plow is switched on at any point, it is not only activated by the rope, but also guided in a straight line. By shifting the corner points of the rectangle, you can always create new rectangles whose sides are parallel to the previous ones, and whose mutually perpendicular sides represent the longitudinal and cross-sections according to which the ice is divided into plates. The ice tablets are transported on inclined levels with steam power from the bank to the ice houses , where they are regularly piled up and, when the warehouse is full, kept under hermetically sealed doors until they are shipped .
