Now You See It, Now You Don't!

TellZall's object for January is the Icebox.
Prehistoric people discovered eons ago that keeping food cold would slow the rate at which it deteriorated. Caves and icy ponds perhaps provided the first places where humans purposefully stored perishable food. By at least 1000 b.c., the Chinese cut and stored natural ice and about 500 b.c. the Egyptians and probably some Native Americans made ice on cold nights by setting out water in pottery vessels.

In more recent times, harvesting and storing natural ice from ponds during the winter months was the only way to ensure its availability during warmer months. In 1799 New York City merchants shipped ice as far as Charleston, South Carolina. Ice harvesting became big business in New England, where companies hired workers to cut huge blocks of ice from "ice ponds." The ice was stored in insulated buildings and shipped far and wide. Much of this ice was used by commercial enterprises, including breweries, and large ice companies supplied it. By 1879, about thirty-five ice plants operated in the United States; the number grew to two thousand by 1900.

As ice became more available, its use spread to American homes. The icebox became common in kitchens. This insulated cabinet held a block of ice in a metal-lined compartment. The ice kept food cool. As the ice melted, the water drained into a pan below the ice box. Consumers bought thousands of iceboxes from local merchants and from mail-order catalogue firms such as Sears Roebuck and Company.

In cities, ice companies delivered ice directly to consumers. The ice man traveled the streets daily in a horse-drawn wagon, carrying and delivering ice to homes and businesses. A card in the window told him how much to deliver.

Attempts to develop a practical "refrigerator" — a machine that could cool without ice — met with little success until the 1920s. While large, commercial units sprang up, home refrigerators were too complicated and the chemicals that they used, called refrigerants, were too dangerous. The demand for home refrigeration was growing, however. By about 1920, home units were being sold, but they were very expensive and required a separate refrigeration unit that usually was located in the basement. In the 1920s such now-familiar names as General Electric, Kelvinator, and Frigidaire were being marketed. In the 1930s, the widespread use of Freon refrigerant, invented by Ohioan Charles Kettering, made the machines practical. Coupled with other improvements and by the more widespread availability of electricity in the home, the refrigerator became practical.

Still, the widespread adoption of the home refrigerator did not take place until after World War II ended in 1945. Then, the horse-drawn ice wagon and the ice box quickly disappeared from our streets and homes.