CHAPTER IV.

ON ICE-HOUSES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL.

THE custom of preserving the ice and snow of winter, in order to prepare refreshing drinks in summer, is very ancient. Beckmann,* who has collected a number of historical facts on the subject, is of opinion that the expression of Solomon, in Proverbs xxv. 13, refers to the practice of cooling drinks by the use of snow"As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him; for he refresheth the soul of his masters." We are told also, that while Alexander the Great was besieging the city of Petra, he caused snow to be preserved in trenches, and covered them with oak-branches, and in this way the snow could be kept for a long time. Plutarch says that a covering of chaff and coarse cloth is sufficient. The ancients were accustomed either to drink melted snow water, or to put snow into their wine, or, still better, to place the winejars in the snow. The ancients do not seem to have had the art of preserving ice in ice-houses. In comparatively modern times, the practice of the

* "History of Inventions." See the chapter on "Artificial Ice and Cooling Liquors."

ancients appears to have been followed; but a contrivance somewhat similar to the modern ice-house, was in use at Constantinople in 1553, when the traveller Bellon describes how snow and ice were preserved in that city through the whole summer, for the purpose of cooling sherbet; and he advises his countrymen to adopt the same method, because he had found ice-cellars in countries warmer than France. Beckmann states that the earliest dictionary in which he has found the word glacière, or ice-house, is in that by Richelet, published at Geneva in 1680. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, under the reign of Henry III. of France, the practice had become common of storing up ice and snow for summer use. By the end of that century the dealers in ice and snow were numerous, and the Crown assumed the monopoly of the trade, and farmed it out to persons who paid for the privilege of carrying it on. This led to such an increase in the price that the demand for ice ceased, and the monopoly was ruined. The trade was then made free, and the price fell, and did not rise again, except in mild winters or hot summers.

The method of producing cold by a mixture of pounded ice or snow and salt, or by a solution of saltpetre, is said to have been first practised by the Italians, about the year 1550, when all the water, as well as the wine, drunk at the tables of the rich families at Rome, was cooled in this manner.

Early in the seventeenth century, drinking cups made of ice, as well as iced fruits, were first brought

to the table. Towards the end of that century, the French began to congeal the juices of fruits, &c., which were served up at the tables of the great and wealthy. These ices, as they are now called, long remained an expensive luxury. In a romance written by Barclay, in 1621, fresh apples, encrusted with transparent ice, are described as being brought to table in the middle of summer. A basin made of ice and filled with wine, and the preparation of these things in summer, was described as a new art. Snow was preserved throughout the year in pits, lined with straw: two copper cups were placed the one within the other, so as to leave a small space between them, which was filled with water; the cups were then put into a mixture of snow and salt, when the water was converted into a cup of solid ice, as well formed as if it had come from the hands of a pewterer." In like manner, apples were covered with a coat of ice.

The Italians invented the drinks known as liquori, which being adopted by the French about the time of the marriage of Henry II., when Duke of Orleans, with Catharine de Medici, in 1533, came into general use as liqueurs. About 1630, or 1633, the French invented the beverage known as lemonade, which soon came into high repute as a summer drink. The limonadiers, or vendors of lemonade, introduced ice into their beverage, and one Procope Couteaux, an Italian from Florence, about 1660, "conceived the happy idea of converting such beverage entirely into ice, by a process which had been before

employed only by jugglers. The ready sale which he found for his invention induced others to make articles of the like kind. His example was followed by Le Fèvre and Foi, and these three, for some years, enjoyed a monopoly of this new fashion of commodity." About 1676, these ices were commonly sold by the limonadiers, who were about that time formed into a company, and their patent enumerates "ices of fruits and of flowers of anise, and of cinnamon, cream, sherbet, &c." There were at that time in Paris 250 masters in this employment. Iced butter is said to have been first known in Paris in 1774, and the Duke de Chartres is said to have expressed great satisfaction and surprise on having presented to him his arms formed of eatable ice. Articles of a similar kind immediately became fashionable.

In our own day, the trade in ice has become one of great extent and importance, and some details respecting it will be given presently. But first, as to the preservation of ice, when the season in which it is formed is gone by. There are two modes in which it may be preserved; the one natural, and the other artificial. Of course, if we ascend above the snow line, ice and snow may be preserved throughout the year in any part of the world, even in the tropics. There are, however, considerably below this level, natural ice-caverns in various parts of the temperate zone, a notice of which will lead us into some interesting details.

In the parched and undulating steppes of the