Before Refrigeration how was ice sawn/stored/mined ?

I am supposing that ice was hand sawn, at one time, and was non-existent, past June stored in sawdust packed 52 degree mines, there was NO refrigeration.

In California the railroads did a booming business shipping ice from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the cities and towns of the valley and coast. Ice boxes were in wide use and and ice was stored in large warehouses along the railroad right of way and distributed by icemen. Google Union Ice.

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:D
 
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Packed in straw lined box cars, as straw was a cheap and effective insulation material. Manufactured ice was also dumped into the top of insulated (again usually with straw) box cars loaded with beef at the meat works (at night in summer) for overnight delivery to major cities.
 
Back east many areas had ice ponds where the ice was harvested and then stored in nearby ice sheds from which it was distributed to customers. On old topo maps dating back to the early part of the last century or before, you can see sidings with buildings marked as an ice house which was located next to the ponds.

My parents remember the iceman delivering a block of ice for their parents' iceboxes throughout the year. My dad told me he used to line up with the other neighborhood kids and wait for the iceman to chip of chunks of ice for them to suck on.
 
Manufactured Ice

[h=2]Sydney's first ice
[/h]

Saturday 29 January 1855 was hot – the thermometer hit 112 °F (44 °C) [1] but in central Sydney the solution was at hand – ice.[2] The cooling natural ice had travelled from the winter's cold of Boston, USA, as part of the international 'frozen water' trade that had first reached Sydney in 1839.



For six years (1839 to 1840 and 1853 to 1856) it was natural ice that kept Sydneysiders and their food cool during the heat of summer; but the international frozen water trade[3] was finally the victim of a technological development from the Australian colonies – machine-made ice. From 1857 manufactured ice travelled to Sydney by ship from Melbourne, but from 1864 the Sydney Ice Company's works, located on West Street, Darlinghurst, [4] provided a local source, free from the vagaries of transport or weather.

Manufactured ice was developed about the same time Australian railways were getting started.
Of course in areas ice did not reach, Australia had the trusty Coolgardie Safe. A Ventilated box draped with wet canvas on 4 legs set in jam tins full of water to keep the ants out.
cheers
Graeme
 
As 32 degree ice melts very FAST in 52 degree Mines, ice was totally non-existent past June/July/August/Sept/Oct/Nov in the US and Canada, that had to be some miraculous ice that withstood such torid temperatures, as at 33 degrees it is no longer solid, and is now flowing water

If the ice was not to be used for drinking purposes, then adding impurities to the water before freezing it actually increased its melting point. Adding soot, for example, can increase its melting point from 0C to 7C (32F to 44.6F).
 
OK. Suit yourself. Let your meat spoil.

I'm going in there, chippin' off some of that ice and putting it in my straw lined ice box! :D
 
I think they are physically lying to ya !

Ice in summer, melts in winter, ya
Are you trolling again? Even when presented with some evidence you are skeptical.
Ice can exist above freezing temperature. Antarctica had a balmy 18 degrees celsius the other day and there's still some ice left there.
As my Dad would have told me "Get it through your bloody thick skull"
Graeme
 
There's a very interesting photo on-line of a wooden ice house that burned down and the blocks of ice are still stacked in rows looking like they were barely affected by the fire. If I find it I'll post a link, but it seems like ice in quantity can create its own micro climate which delays melting.
Plainly people back then knew a thing or two about handling, storing and transporting ice that we don't know about today.
 
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