Before modern refrigeration, ice was made using nature and a bit of human ingenuity. In cold regions, during winter, lakes and ponds would freeze. People would cut large blocks of this natural ice using saws and store them in structures called “ice houses.” These ice houses were well-insulated, often with straw or sawdust, to keep the ice from melting as summer approached.
In places that weren’t cold enough for natural ice, people used a method called “ice harvesting” at night. They would fill shallow trays with water and leave them outside. At night, especially under a clear sky, the water would lose heat and freeze into ice by morning.
To understand how effective ice houses were, consider this: Ice harvested in the winter could last until the summer, even in hot weather. For example, in the 1800s, the U.S. shipped ice blocks cut from New England ponds all the way to tropical locations like India, a journey of several months, and still delivered it in solid form. This was possible due to the insulating properties of materials like sawdust, which can reduce melting by almost 75%.
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