Importation of Ice from Boston.
(Appeared in the British-Raj List on October 19, 2012.)
From JASB Vol III 1834 p. 491.
The arrival of the Tuscany, with a cargo of ice from America, forms an epoch n
the history of Calcutta worthy of commemoration, as a facetious friend
remarked, is a medal of frosted silver. Iii the month of May last, we received
a present f some ice from Dr. Wise at Hugli, (whose efforts have so long been
directed to the extension of its manufacture by the native process) as a proof
that the precious luxury
might be preserved by careful husbandry until the season when its coolness was moat grateful :- Little did we then contemplate being able to return the compliment with a solid lump of the clearest crystal ice, at the conclusion of the rains! nor that we should be finally indebted to American enterprise for the realization of a pleasure for which we have so long envied our more fortunate countrymen in the upper provinces; nay even the beggars of Bokhara, who, in a climate at time more sultry than ours, according to Lieut. Burns, “purchase ice for their water even while entreating the bounty of the passenger!" Professor LESLIE with his thousand glass exhausters, and his beautiful steam air-pump., tantalised us with the hopes of a costly treat, and ruined poor TAYLOR the bold adopter of his theory:— but science must in this new instance, as on so many former occasions, confess herself vanquished or forestalled by the simple practical discovery that a body of ice may be easily conveyed from one side of the globe to the other, crossing the line twice, with a very moderate loss from liquefaction.
We are indebted to Mr. J. J. DIXWELL, the agent for the proprietors, for the following Interesting particulars relative to the Tuscany’s novel cargo, and the mode of shipping ice from America for foreign consumption.
The supplying of ice to the West Indies and to the Southern States of the Union, New Orleans, &c. has become within these few years, an extensive branch of trade, under the successful exertions of its originator FREDERICK TUDOR, Esq. of Boston, with whom S. AUSTIN, Esq. and Mr.W.C. ROGERS are associated in the present speculation.
The ponds from which the Boston ice is cut are situated within ten miles of the city. It is also procured from the Kennebee and Penobecot rivers in the State of Maine, where it is deposited in ice houses upon the banks, and shipped from thence to the Capital. A peculiar machine is used to cut it from the ponds in blocks of two feet square, and from one foot to eighteen inches thick, varying according to the intensity of the season. If the winter does not prove severe enough to freeze the water to a convenient thickness, the square slabs are laid again over the sheet ice, until consolidated, and so recut. The ice ¡s stored in ware-houses constructed for the purpose at Boston.
In shipping it to the West Indies, a voyage of 10 or 15 days, little precaution is used. The whole hold of the vessel is filled with it, having a lining of tan about four inches thick upon the bottom and sides of the bold, and the top Lifts covered with a layer of hay. The hatches are then closed, and are not allowed to be opened till the ice is ready to be discharged. It is usually measured for shipping, and cord reckoned at three tons: a cubic foot weighs 58 1/2 lbs.
For the voyage to India, a much longer one than had been hitherto attempted, some additional precautions were deemed necessary for the preservation of the ice.
The ice-hold was an insulated house extending from the after part of the forward hatch to the forward part of the after hatch, about 50 feet in length. It was constructed as follows:
A floor of one-Inch deal planks was first laid down upon the dunnage at the bottom of the vessel: over this was strewed a layer one foot thick of tan, that is, the refuse bark from the tanners’ pits, thoroughly dried, which is found to be a very good and cheap non-conductor; over this was laid another deal planking, and the four sides of the ice-bold were built ap in exactly the same manner, insulated from the sides of the vessel. The pump, well, and main mast were boxed round in the same manner.
The cubes of ice were then packed or built together so close as to leave no space between them, and to make the whole one solid mass: about 180 tons were thus stowed. On the top was pressed down closely a foot of hay, and the whole was shut up from access of air, with a deal planking one inch thick, nailed upon the lower surface of the lower deck timbers; the space between the planks and the deck being stuffed with tan.
On the surface of the ice, at two places, was introduced a kind of float, having a guage rod passing through a stuffing box in the cover, the object of which was to note the gradual decrease of the ice as it melted and subsided bodily.
The ice was shipped on the 6th and 7th of May, 1833, and discharged in Calcutta, on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th September, making the voyage in four months and seven days.
The amount of wastage could not be exactly ascertained from the sinking of the guages, because on opening the chamber it was found that the ice had melted between each block, and not from the exterior only in the manner of one solid mass as was anticipated. Calculating from the rods and from the diminished draught of the ship, Mr. DIXWELL estimated the loss on arrival at Diamond Harbour to be fifty-five tons. Six or eight tons more were lost during the passage up the river, and probably twenty in landing. About one hundred tons, say three thousand maunds, were finally deposited in the ice house on shore, a lower room in a house at Brightman’s ghaut, rapidly floored and lined with planks for the occasion.
The sale has not, we believe, been so rapid as might have been expected, amounting to no more than ten maunds per diem, although Mr. ROGERS has fixed the price at the low rate of 4 annas per seer, one half the price estimated for the Hugli ice, which was still calculated to be somewhat cheaper in proportion than saltpetre. The public requires to be habituated to it, and to be satisfied of the economy of its substitution for the long established process of cooling. There may also be some doubts of the best mode of preserving so fleeting a commodity, but on this head we cannot but advise an imitation of the methods pursued on a large scale on board of the Tuscany. For the application of the ice to the purposes of cooling ample directions hare been given in the Gleanings of Science, vol. iii. p. 120. A box, or basket, or tin case, with several folds of blankets, or having a double case lined with paddy chaff or any non-conducting substance, will preserve the ice until wanted, and for cooling water or wine the most effectual method of all is to put a lump of the clear crystal into the liquid: the next best is to spread fragments upon the bottles laid horizontally, and leave them wrapped in flannel for a couple of hours.
So effectual was the non-conducting power of the ice-house on board, that a thermometer placed on it did not differ perceptibly from one in the cabin. From the temperature of the water pumped out, and that of the air in the run of the vessel, Mr. DIXWELL ascertained that the tetnperature of the hold was not sensibly affected by the ice. Upon leaving the tropic and running rapidly into the higher latitudes,
it retained its heat for some time, but after being several weeks in high latitudes, and becoming cooled to the temperature of the external air and sea, it took more than ten days in the tropics before the bold was heated again to the tropical standard.
Mr. DIXWELL has favoured us with a sight of the daily register kept by himself on board, which we regret we have not space to insert at length :— The following extract however will serve to impart some of the useful information gleaned in this first experimental passage from Boston: we sincerely hope and believe that it will afford ample encouragement for a repetition of the speculation, and eventually for a regular consignment of this new staple produce of the northern continents! A scheme is now in circulation for supplying ice all the year round at 2 annas per seer.
might be preserved by careful husbandry until the season when its coolness was moat grateful :- Little did we then contemplate being able to return the compliment with a solid lump of the clearest crystal ice, at the conclusion of the rains! nor that we should be finally indebted to American enterprise for the realization of a pleasure for which we have so long envied our more fortunate countrymen in the upper provinces; nay even the beggars of Bokhara, who, in a climate at time more sultry than ours, according to Lieut. Burns, “purchase ice for their water even while entreating the bounty of the passenger!" Professor LESLIE with his thousand glass exhausters, and his beautiful steam air-pump., tantalised us with the hopes of a costly treat, and ruined poor TAYLOR the bold adopter of his theory:— but science must in this new instance, as on so many former occasions, confess herself vanquished or forestalled by the simple practical discovery that a body of ice may be easily conveyed from one side of the globe to the other, crossing the line twice, with a very moderate loss from liquefaction.
We are indebted to Mr. J. J. DIXWELL, the agent for the proprietors, for the following Interesting particulars relative to the Tuscany’s novel cargo, and the mode of shipping ice from America for foreign consumption.
The supplying of ice to the West Indies and to the Southern States of the Union, New Orleans, &c. has become within these few years, an extensive branch of trade, under the successful exertions of its originator FREDERICK TUDOR, Esq. of Boston, with whom S. AUSTIN, Esq. and Mr.W.C. ROGERS are associated in the present speculation.
The ponds from which the Boston ice is cut are situated within ten miles of the city. It is also procured from the Kennebee and Penobecot rivers in the State of Maine, where it is deposited in ice houses upon the banks, and shipped from thence to the Capital. A peculiar machine is used to cut it from the ponds in blocks of two feet square, and from one foot to eighteen inches thick, varying according to the intensity of the season. If the winter does not prove severe enough to freeze the water to a convenient thickness, the square slabs are laid again over the sheet ice, until consolidated, and so recut. The ice ¡s stored in ware-houses constructed for the purpose at Boston.
In shipping it to the West Indies, a voyage of 10 or 15 days, little precaution is used. The whole hold of the vessel is filled with it, having a lining of tan about four inches thick upon the bottom and sides of the bold, and the top Lifts covered with a layer of hay. The hatches are then closed, and are not allowed to be opened till the ice is ready to be discharged. It is usually measured for shipping, and cord reckoned at three tons: a cubic foot weighs 58 1/2 lbs.
For the voyage to India, a much longer one than had been hitherto attempted, some additional precautions were deemed necessary for the preservation of the ice.
The ice-hold was an insulated house extending from the after part of the forward hatch to the forward part of the after hatch, about 50 feet in length. It was constructed as follows:
A floor of one-Inch deal planks was first laid down upon the dunnage at the bottom of the vessel: over this was strewed a layer one foot thick of tan, that is, the refuse bark from the tanners’ pits, thoroughly dried, which is found to be a very good and cheap non-conductor; over this was laid another deal planking, and the four sides of the ice-bold were built ap in exactly the same manner, insulated from the sides of the vessel. The pump, well, and main mast were boxed round in the same manner.
The cubes of ice were then packed or built together so close as to leave no space between them, and to make the whole one solid mass: about 180 tons were thus stowed. On the top was pressed down closely a foot of hay, and the whole was shut up from access of air, with a deal planking one inch thick, nailed upon the lower surface of the lower deck timbers; the space between the planks and the deck being stuffed with tan.
On the surface of the ice, at two places, was introduced a kind of float, having a guage rod passing through a stuffing box in the cover, the object of which was to note the gradual decrease of the ice as it melted and subsided bodily.
The ice was shipped on the 6th and 7th of May, 1833, and discharged in Calcutta, on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th September, making the voyage in four months and seven days.
The amount of wastage could not be exactly ascertained from the sinking of the guages, because on opening the chamber it was found that the ice had melted between each block, and not from the exterior only in the manner of one solid mass as was anticipated. Calculating from the rods and from the diminished draught of the ship, Mr. DIXWELL estimated the loss on arrival at Diamond Harbour to be fifty-five tons. Six or eight tons more were lost during the passage up the river, and probably twenty in landing. About one hundred tons, say three thousand maunds, were finally deposited in the ice house on shore, a lower room in a house at Brightman’s ghaut, rapidly floored and lined with planks for the occasion.
The sale has not, we believe, been so rapid as might have been expected, amounting to no more than ten maunds per diem, although Mr. ROGERS has fixed the price at the low rate of 4 annas per seer, one half the price estimated for the Hugli ice, which was still calculated to be somewhat cheaper in proportion than saltpetre. The public requires to be habituated to it, and to be satisfied of the economy of its substitution for the long established process of cooling. There may also be some doubts of the best mode of preserving so fleeting a commodity, but on this head we cannot but advise an imitation of the methods pursued on a large scale on board of the Tuscany. For the application of the ice to the purposes of cooling ample directions hare been given in the Gleanings of Science, vol. iii. p. 120. A box, or basket, or tin case, with several folds of blankets, or having a double case lined with paddy chaff or any non-conducting substance, will preserve the ice until wanted, and for cooling water or wine the most effectual method of all is to put a lump of the clear crystal into the liquid: the next best is to spread fragments upon the bottles laid horizontally, and leave them wrapped in flannel for a couple of hours.
So effectual was the non-conducting power of the ice-house on board, that a thermometer placed on it did not differ perceptibly from one in the cabin. From the temperature of the water pumped out, and that of the air in the run of the vessel, Mr. DIXWELL ascertained that the tetnperature of the hold was not sensibly affected by the ice. Upon leaving the tropic and running rapidly into the higher latitudes,
it retained its heat for some time, but after being several weeks in high latitudes, and becoming cooled to the temperature of the external air and sea, it took more than ten days in the tropics before the bold was heated again to the tropical standard.
Mr. DIXWELL has favoured us with a sight of the daily register kept by himself on board, which we regret we have not space to insert at length :— The following extract however will serve to impart some of the useful information gleaned in this first experimental passage from Boston: we sincerely hope and believe that it will afford ample encouragement for a repetition of the speculation, and eventually for a regular consignment of this new staple produce of the northern continents! A scheme is now in circulation for supplying ice all the year round at 2 annas per seer.
