Photo: Kyle May

Not so long ago, ice was a real luxury. In the early 1800’s only the extremely wealthy had ice to cool their drinks. It was harvested by hand during the winter and stored throughout the summer in a covered well. Someone’s miserable job was to harvest ice from a frozen lake! Even more shocking: some parts of the world never had ice. If you lived in an area that didn’t get snow during the winter, you certainly weren’t going to have ice to use during the summer.

In one of the most interesting business ventures I have heard about, ice became a major export of Boston. During the winter ice harvesting season, ice was cut from the top of Boston ponds and stored in insulated ice houses throughout the rest of the year. These ice houses were constructed in many areas that were blessed with warm weather year-round such as the American South, the Caribbean, and India. The ice harvesting companies would then deliver tons of ice by ship or train as quickly as possible, with much of it melting on the way. One huge 180 ton shipment of ice made the journey from Boston to Calcutta, arriving nearly 4 months later with only 100 tons of ice!

Another interesting part about this ice trade is that ice was not a commodity like it is today. Not only did it matter what city your ice came from, but even the individual pond that it was harvested from. From Wikipedia:

Wenham Lake ice in particular became world-famous for its clarity, and graced the tables of the aristocracy of plush London society. It is said without undue exaggeration that no dinner party in London was considered complete without ice from Wenham Lake.

It wasn’t until later in the century that ice boxes were introduced into homes and ice was delivered daily to the doorstep. Suddenly ice was available to the middle class and used for an assortment of new uses such as food preservation. And today it is easier than ever – everyone has a freezer where they can create their own ice and store it indefinitely, even when it is 100 degrees outside.

These were monumental changes in the world of ice over a tiny amount of time. It was only two hundred years ago that ice cubes in your drink during summer was exclusive to only the richest individuals. Now it’s not a problem. In fact, it has been a non-issue for so long, no one appreciates what a luxury it is. What are other examples of things that we take completely for granted, but in the past were incredibly difficult? And looking into the future, what are some things that are somewhat difficult now, but in 100 years will be completely taken for granted?

I’ll leave you with a little comedy about when the wireless internet breaks on a plane:

• Wikipedia article for the “Ice King.” He was the guy that created the global ice export business out of Boston. People thought exporting ice was a joke, but he made a ton of money from it.
• Interesting article on the history of ice harvesting from a pond in Boston.
• Some company is actually in the luxury ice market. $8 for a hand carved ice sphere from Canada, shipped in dry ice…
• Shout out to Doug Allen for posting the hilarious Louis C.K. video. Doug’s also a recent Stanford grad new to blogging and provides some great insights into the world of politics. Check it out.