Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, Mainers harvested ice to help keep food fresh longer all over the world. At its peak in the late 1800s, 25,000 men cut 1.5 million tons of ice by hand. While refrigeration was replacing iceboxes in the 1920s, the ice was still needed where electrification hadn’t occurred. As engines increasingly powered sawmills, workshops and factories, ice harvesters saw an opportunity to bring power on the ice by using lightweight car engines to…
Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, Mainers harvested ice to help keep food fresh longer all over the world. At its peak in the late 1800s, 25,000 men cut 1.5 million tons of ice by hand. While refrigeration was replacing iceboxes in the 1920s, the ice was still needed where electrification hadn’t occurred. As engines increasingly powered sawmills, workshops and factories, ice harvesters saw an opportunity to bring power on the ice by using lightweight car engines to power saws instead of cars. Now ice could be cut faster and by fewer workers than before.