BOMBAY-The first artificial ice came about 1877.;AND FIRST ICE HOUSE OF BOMBAY (PHOTO-ROUNDED WHITE WASHED STRUCTURE WITH A GLOBULAR TOP) NEXT TO THE COURT HOUSE

Scotch Church, Court-House, and entrance to the Dock-Yard [Bombay].--Photographer: Scott, Charles Medium: Photographic print Date: 1850--THE ICE HOUSE NEXT TO THE CHURCH (DOMED STRUCTURE);WHERE ICE IMPORTED BY SHIP WAS STORED;TILL ICE MAKING WAS DISCOVERED ;NEXT BUILDING IS LAW COURT
Photograph from 'Views in the island of Bombay' by Charles Scott,1850s. This is a view looking north along Apollo Street from the Apollo Gate towards the dockyards entrance on the right. The Scotch Church stands in the left foreground, with Hornby House beyond. The classic Georgian style Saint Andrew's or Scotch Kirk was completed in 1819. Hornby House, which initially began as a residence to the Governor Hornby, served as the Law Court until the late 1870s when it became the Great Western Hotel. Between this building and the church, stands the domed Ice-House, erected by subscription in 1843 for the consignments of ice which were imported regularly and sold to the public. When ice began to be manufactured in Bombay the Ice-House lost its purpose and was used as a godown until it was demolished years later.
A PALKHI WALA (PALANQUIN CARRIER)CAN BE SEEN SITTING NEXT TO THE PALKHI ;NEAR CHURCH STEPS.THE ROAD LEADS TO THE 'APOLLO GATE' OF THE BOMBAY FORT WALL

ICE TOOLS-ICE BARGES

The principal tools are the following:

Scrapers for clearing away the snow; 2 styles.

Ice-plane.

Ice-saw, for opening channels and separating the rafts and sheets from the field; also used by small firms who cut without the aid of a plow.

Grapple, for towing rafts and sheets by horse power along the channels, and also Used for hauling blocks up the inclined plane by horse-power when no endless chain is used.

Jack-grapple, used for the same purposes as the last.

Breaking-off bar, the ice-cutter's handy tool; the broad blade is for detaching large sheets, the small blade for splitting off the smaller blocks.

Calking-bar, for filling the grooves in the ice with snow or chips to prevent the flooding and freezing np of the grooves.

Snow-shovel, for handling sawdust, snow, broken ice, etc.

 ICE HARVESTING FROM PONDS






ICE HARVESTING -1854


 BELOW-AN ICE WAGON









In 1805, an American inventor, Oliver Evans, designed the first refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid.  Evans never constructed his machine, but one similar to it was built by an American physician, John Gorrie.to cool sickrooms in a Florida hospital, designed and built an air-cooling apparatus for treating yellow-fever patients.  His basic principle--that of compressing a gas, cooling it by sending it through radiating coils, and then expanding it to lower the temperature further--is the one most often used in refrigerators today.  Giving up his medical practice to engage in time-consuming experimentation with ice making, he was granted the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration in 1851.

Commercial refrigeration is believed to have been initiated by an American businessperson, Alexander C. Twinning, in 1856.  Shortly afterward, an Australian, James Harrison, examined the refrigerators used by Gorrie and Twinning and introduced vapor-compression refrigeration to the brewing and meatpacking industries.

Ferdinand Carré of France developed a somewhat more complex system in 1859.  Unlike earlier compression-compression machines, which used air as a coolant, Carré's equipment contained rapidly expanding ammonia.  (Ammonia liquefies at a much lower temperature than water and is thus able to absorb more heat.) 

 Carré's refrigerators 

were widely used, and vapor compression refrigeration became, and still is, the most widely used method of cooling. However, the cost, size, and complexity of refrigeration systems of the time, coupled with the toxicity of their ammonia coolants, prevented the general use of mechanical refrigerators in the home.  Most households used iceboxes that were supplied almost daily with blocks of ice from a local refrigeration plant.