Iceboxes date back to the days of ice harvesting which in a growing America had hit an industrial high that ran from the mid-19th Century to the 1930s when the refrigerator was introduced into the home. Most municipally-consumed ice was harvested in winter from snow-packed areas or frozen lakes, stored in ice houses, and delivered domestically as iceboxes became more common.
With metropolitan growth, many sources of natural ice became contaminated from industrial pollution or sewer runoff. As early mechanical refrigerators became available, they were installed as large industrial plants producing ice for home delivery. Able to produce clean, sanitary ice year-round, their product gradually replaced ice harvested from ponds. With wide-spread electrification and safer refrigerants, mechanical refrigeration in the home became possible. With the development of the chlorofluorocarbons (along with the succeeding hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons), that came to replace the use of toxic ammonia gas, the refrigerator replaced the icebox. However, because of the prevalence of the icebox in recent human history, the name "icebox" is still used colloquially for the modern home refrigerator by older Americans in some regions.
The horse-drawn ice wagon and the daily occupation of the iceman, who made regular door-to-door deliveries of block ice for iceboxes, was as much a social institution as the milk man.
Apartment buildings had small doors that opened to the ice box from the back porch. The ice man would bring the block of ice and insert it into the ice box through this door. Ice was delivered on a regular basis to these buildings and the people would pay for the ice. Children would go on the ice wagon and take chips of fallen ice as treats during the summer
2009年1月18日星期日
[edit] Historical application
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