Ice works
Ice factories harvested natural ice in winter , stored it and - before the invention of refrigeration machines - supplied breweries , restaurants , households, dairies and similar customers with ice sticks for cooling purposes.
history
Natural ice was already used in ancient times. For example, it was extracted from year-round glaciers in the mountains at high costs and then transported to the appropriate location. This was not an option for the overwhelming majority of the population due to the high cost. With industrialization, the need for ice began to increase enormously (see refrigerator ). In addition, the introduction of bottom-fermented brewing by numerous breweries in the second half of the 19th century resulted in a sharp rise in demand for ice cream. Around 1800 people in Germany began to store ice from lakes and ponds in winter in order to use it for the transport and storage of food.
Ice making technique
Rivers were partially dammed and tributaries were created to extract ice in winter. Large quantities of ice could be harvested on lakes. Lakes were often acquired through ice works, such as the Orankesee , or flat, square ice ponds were created, as for the Mudrack ice works in Berlin-Reinickendorf. An ice plow first cut furrows in the ice. Then it was completely cut up by workers, then pulled out of the water with hooks and transported to the camps. Since the beginning of the 20th century, motorized ice saws, which were often in-house designs, were increasingly used in American and Norwegian natural ice extraction.
storage
The ice was initially stored locally in ice cellars or caves. For the ice works, large halls were built based on the American model, such as B. in Berlin-Rummelsburg and -Köpenick in the North German ice works founded by Carl Bolle . In the literature, the amount of three million cubic meters of natural ice for the warehouse in Köpenick is given. Rummelsburg delivered 6,000 quintals of ice a day.
The huge warehouses were generally built with multiple walls made of wood, as this insulated the ice better than brick buildings. The walls of the warehouses were insulated with peat waste , wood wool or tar cork . The ice itself was then covered again with wood wool. However, this technique led to frequent fires; the warehouses in Köpenick burned down almost completely in 1901. The natural ice was loaded onto the transport trolleys in the evening to avoid exposure to the sun. Due to their large buildings, ice works were often very well known and shaped the town.
Theodor Fontane described the Köpenick ice works on walks through the Mark Brandenburg : “Between the wooden piles, and alternating with them for a long distance, the colossal buildings of the Berlin ice works rose up, looking half like the giant sheds of a factory, half like the graduation walls of a salt works . To my surprise I learned that fires break out in them from time to time. "
Difficulties in using natural ice, end of the ice works
The harvested natural ice was not necessarily clean; it could contain microorganisms and air pollutants such as soot from the ovens. Direct contact with food therefore had to be ruled out. In addition, the needs of growing cities at the beginning of the 20th century could not always be adequately met by ice works. Attempts to introduce polar ice failed because of the high costs.
The natural ice production was heavily dependent on the weather. After the winter of 1898 z. B. The supply of natural ice was not possible all year round. In such cases, the ice had to be transported from distant areas. One of the largest ice exporters at the time was Norway , but ice was also extracted from the glaciers in the Alps. The ice works were therefore replaced by ice factories with technical progress - and these in turn later by refrigerators .
literature
- Stephan A. Lütgert: Ice cellars, ice works and cold stores in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Husum 2000, ISBN 3-88042-962-6 .
- Wilhelm Rohrbeck: The importance of the German ice cream industry. In: The refrigeration industry. Issue 7, year 1928, pages 81–83.
- Arne Hengsbach: Nature ice works in the area around Berlin. In: Yearbook for Brandenburg State History. Year 1970, pages 88–99.
- Without author: The harmfulness of natural ice. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung. Issue 15, year 1892, pages 159–160
Web links
- Ice harvest in Labertal
- North German ice works
- Ice works in Berlin
- Harvesting natural ice (accessed on July 21, 2014)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Per G. Norseng: fersk fisk og kald pils i «the siste istid" . In: Heimen . tape 56 , no. 03 , 2019, ISSN 1894-3195 , p. 214–237 , doi : 10.18261 / issn.1894-3195-2019-03-07 ( idunn.no [accessed July 9, 2020]).
- ↑ W. Pohlmamm: 75 years ice factory Hermann E. Mudrack, Berlin-Reinickendorf-Ost, four generations in the ice cream industry. In: refrigeration industry. 1931, pages 54-56
- ↑ Hearst Magazines: Popular Mechanics . Hearst Magazines, February 1935 ( google.no [accessed July 9, 2020]).
- ↑ Techniques of cooling | Monuments online. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .
- Jump up ↑ Iron Harvest in America until circa 1880. Accessed July 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Theodor Fontane: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg, IV. Spreeland, The Wendish Spree, On board the "Sphinx", From Köpenick to Dolgenbrod, (first day of travel)
- ^ P. Trier: Germany's import and export of ice 1889 to 1903. In: Ice and cold industry. 1904, volume 5, pages 121-124
- ^ Täubrich, Hans-Christian [Ed.]: Below zero: artificial ice, cold and culture. Munich, 1991. Pages 50 to 67. ISBN 3-406-35244-8