Ice House Essay

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Ice house; Ice houses are buildings used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice house and packed with insulation, often straw or sawdust. It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of perishable foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared. During its heyday a typical commercial ice house would store 30,000 tons in a 30 feet by 100 feet by 45 feet high building. How an ice house works The timber floor or grid, which covered the drainage sump of the ice well, was first covered with a bed of clean straw or reed. Ice or hard-tampered snow was then laid on the straw to a depth of about a foot. Successive layers of straw or reed and ice or snow followed, up to the level of the entrance door or passage. As the contents were used up, it must have been an unpopular task to go down by ladder into the bitterly cold well to hack out ice and bring it to the surface. A ring in the dome of this house suggests that some form of hoisting tackle was used in filling and emptying the well. IRAN: Yakhchāl is an ancient type of evaporative cooler. Above ground, the structure had a domed shape, but had a subterranean storage space; it was often used to store ice, but sometimes was used to store food as well. The subterranean space coupled with the thick heat-resistant construction material insulated the storage space year round. These structures were mainly built and used in Persia. Many that were

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