Ice!: The Amazing History of the Ice Business (review)

Sometimes the unlikeliest topics prove unexpectedly fascinating. Kids who embrace that truism will want to take a look at this slice of American commercial history that examines how people coped before the days of electric food refrigeration, and how a population that became hooked on cool drinks, ice cream, and convenience demanded a commodity that Nature alone couldn't fully supply. The focus here is on Rockland Lake in New York state, the first large-scale supplier of ice to a massive urban area. Science and engineering shake hands with geography and history in the details of how water freezes and melts; how the tools of ice harvesting were developed; how harvested ice was transported over hills and down rivers in a relatively low-tech environment; how ice was priced and distributed to an ever more dependent populace; and how high demand following a mild winter or a local fire could result in riots. Sidebar information and period illustrations are engrossing, from the 1862 ad for Bunn's Corpse Preserver, to the 1901 Cochichewick Lake Ice Company schedule of prices that allows modern readers to calculate the best delivery deal. A bibliography and index will assist students who would like to develop this topic into a research project, but most readers will be content to thank their stars that the ice in their soft drink didn't have to be scraped clean of horse urine on the way to the glass.