Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1884 — Ice Made in the Tropics. [ARTICLE]

Ice Made in the Tropics.

In the tropical climate, far distant from high mountains, as neither natural •now nor ice ran be obtained, recourse is had to the cold generated by evaporation and the comparative coolness of the air a little before daybreak to manufacture ice in large quantities, and thus to supply a most grateful luxury at a moderate price. Ice is thus simply manufactured in a large way at Benares, Allahabad, and Calcutta, in the East Indies, where natural ice has never been seen. * On a large, open plain an excavation is made, about thirty feet square and two feet deep, on the bottom of which euear cane or naize stems are evenly strewed to the height of about eight inches. On this bed are set rows of small, shallow, unglazed earthen pans, so porous that when filled with water

the outsides are immediately covered with a thick dew oozing through them. Toward the dusk of the evening, the pans, previously smeared with butter, are filled with soft water, generally boiled, and let remain there during the night In the morning, before sunrise, the ice makers attend and collect from each pan a crust of ioe, more or less thick, that adheres to its inner side, and it is put into baskets and carried without loss of time to the common receptacle, which is a deep pit in a high, dry situation, lined first with straw and then with old blanketing, where it is beaten down and congeals into a solid mass. The crop of ice varies extremely, sometimes amounting to more than half the contents of the pan, at other times scarcely a pellicle. Clear and serene weather is the most favorable for its production, whatever may be the sensible heat of the atmosphere. The cold generated by the rapid evaporation round every part of the pan is the cause of this congelation. In this way ices are secured for the table, when the heat in the shade is very commonly above 103 degrees.