Icehouses

Often hidden away or incorporated into other architectural features, icehouses are a largely forgotten part of our heritage. As winters warmed through the nineteenth century, and supplies of natural ice declined, the development of artificial refrigeration made redundant these curious buildings – often status symbols in themselves – which had been designed to store winter snow and ice into the summer. Icehouses allowed perishables to be preserved, chilled delicacies to be enjoyed, and fevers to be relieved – and on a commercial scale they fed an international trade that carried snow from mountain peaks and ice from frozen lakes to supply the needs of industry, markets and householders. In this illustrated introduction, Tim Buxbaum explains how icehouses developed; how, when and where they were built; and how they operated, including a chapter on icehouses from around the world.

This fast-paced and fascinating story, originally published in 1983, covers a vital part of coastal Maine's history too long overlooked: the cultural history of the Penobscot, Kennebec, Saco, and Damariscotta Rivers. More than three hundred years are covered, from the days of pioneer settlers, sea captains, river men, and lumberjacks, to the shipbuilders, merchants, and lumber barons who made millions from Maine's vast natural and human resources.

Ice-Houses: Energy, Architecture and Sustainability presents new and novel technologies and approaches surrounding daily and seasonal ice storage, along with discussions on passive cooling and natural technologies using different methods, including heat pumps. The book covers different aspects of ice-houses and cold energy production, storage and utilization. By addressing various issues connected to the technology and structure of traditional ice-houses and natural and artificial ice making, this refences looks at new technological approaches for the reduction of electrical energy consumption in buildings. Users will find this to be a comprehensive overview of ice house storage that includes worked examples and global case studies. It is an essential resource for researchers and engineers looking to advance their understanding of this method of thermal storage. Includes worked examples which calculate and determine the amounts of different parameters to help better understand the problem-solving process Provides a comprehensive literature review on the history and architecture of ice-houses, along with different ice production and storage methods Contains recent developments related to cold energy production and storage through ice making to reduce electricity demand

A historical study of how increased access to ice—decades before refrigeration—transformed American life. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans depended upon ice to stay cool and to keep their perishable foods fresh. Jonathan Rees tells the fascinating story of how people got ice before mechanical refrigeration came to the household. Drawing on newspapers, trade journals, and household advice books, Before the Refrigerator explains how Americans built a complex system to harvest, store, and transport ice to everyone who wanted it, even the very poor. Rees traces the evolution of the natural ice industry from its mechanization in the 1880s through its gradual collapse, which started after World War I. Meatpackers began experimenting with ice refrigeration to ship their products as early as the 1860s. Starting around 1890, large, bulky ice machines the size of small houses appeared on the scene, becoming an important source for the American ice supply. As ice machines shrunk, more people had access to better ice for a wide variety of purposes. By the early twentieth century, Rees writes, ice had become an essential tool for preserving perishable foods of all kinds, transforming what most people ate and drank every day. Reviewing all the inventions that made the ice industry possible and the way they worked together to prevent ice from melting, Rees demonstrates how technological systems can operate without a central controlling force. Before the Refrigerator is ideal for history of technology classes, food studies classes, or anyone interested in what daily life in the United States was like between 1880 and 1930. “An in-depth portrayal of a once-indispensable, life-changing technology, the former existence of which is as unknown to most of us as that of the telegraph or canal is to today’s undergraduates. . . . Rees synthesizes considerable archival research and presents interpretations of importance to scholars. . . . Before the Refrigerator is as refreshing as ice water on a hot summer day.” —Journal of American History “This fact-filled book explains how ice became an American necessity by the early twentieth century. Students in business history and history of technology courses will be fascinated to learn how macrobreweries made lager into America’s favorite beer, how cocktails became commonplace, and how burly men used to lug giant blocks of ice into American kitchens.” —Shane Hamilton, author of Trucking Country: The Road to America’s Wal-Mart Economy

Cisterns: Sustainable Development, Architecture and Energy was written on beliefs that based on historical evidence and actual findings, Iran is most probably the country where cisterns, or Aub-anbars in Farsi, were first developed and built. Therefore, it is quite natural for the author to name cisterns in the text Aub-anbars, as it has been called for centuries in this country, the translation of the same name having been used in other countries too. Although in some books, journals and papers published out of Iran by foreign and Iranian scholars, the names Cistern or Water Reservoir have been used. The word Aub-anbar is a compound noun in Farsi; Aub means water and Anbar means tank/reservoir. Putting them together gives the noun Aub-anbarand it should be used as one word.People of the region wanting reserved cool water whether in cities or in different locations across the harsh desert during their travel. Queen Zubeida, the wife of Khalifa Haroon Al-Rasheed in 750 AD built one of these cistern closer to the town of Hiyal in Saudi Arabia so that the Pilgrims? Caravans going to Mecca will have cool, fresh water. This book consists of 11-chapters with full analysis, illustrations and photographs. It makes interesting readings to those interested into vernacular architecture, traditional buildings and creative thinking.