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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1916)
The Omaha Sunday Bee PAST IHB.EE EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO SIX FART THRKF. MAGAZINE PAOES ONE TO SIX VOL. XLV NO. 34. OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKXIXU, KKHRl7ARY (i, 101(5 SIN (ILK COPY 1'IYK CUNTS Harvestm the r 4 1" :!! it- Ice Cutting and Packing Has Proceeded Almost Without Interruption for a Month and the Ice Houses from which Our Next Sum- mer's Supply Will Be Drawn Are Now Practic ally Filled to Capacity By A." R. GROH. ' D O YOU believe in preparedne mer'a heat? , - '. . The Ice man' does. He while the cold holds" as- .the ... farmer 'makes hay while the sun shines."' Ice thousands and thousands and : thousands vicinity these cold days. ' A great army of men and horses and machinery Ik occupied In the big midwinter Job. into the ice houses are sliding the big cakes to take their places and He in those cool retreats while spring breaks and until the' summer's heal comes. r Then they'll be brought out and hauled away in bor cars and in wagons to keep the butter in your refrigerator hard, to keep that meat from spoiling so you can make hash with it tomorrow, to keep the lettuce and celery crisp, to cool the grape Juice and g'.nger ale, to make the pudding nice and hard o it will take the shape of the "mould," to make Ice cream and Ices, to cool the drinking water and keep the milk and cream lri a well-chilled condi tion, and to perform many other services for your comfort. Including the concoction and. pleasing preparation of all (he delectables at the soda foun tain and eh other places. It Is said that the Ice harvest employs between . 4.000 and 5,000 men in the district or Omaha and vicinity. And It comes J nut at a time of the year when employment Is needed by men of many occu pations who. are Idle during cold weather. Th ice men watch the advance of cold weather and keep a close lookout on the thickening ice. When it has reached ten to twelve inches the cut ting la likely to start. For, while still thicker ice would be more desirable, the weather is never cer tain. But this year ice In this part of the country urder the influence of the long continued' cold has reached a thickness of twenty Inches even on the Missouri river, and the harvest la now pretty nearly finished and the Ice houses win soon be packed to the roofs. The principal places where Ice 'is cut around Omaha are Carter lake, the city reservoirs, the Missouri river, Seymour lake, Memphis, Neb., and Ashland, Neb. At the last three places named Cudahys, Armours and Sw'fts. respectively, have big Ice houses. The Rock Island railroad has a big Ice house at Meadow, Neb., which It has abot filled. Two characteristics of ice make the filling of an Ice house a comparatively easy thing. These are lie. buoyancy and its small friction. Because " " 1 -jfSsssnjWWBMMBSMWIBIIMBHHI rLnrJ mnLAL11 ' """ft . 1 . . . . " J ff , V ' ' . , r V ; " l1nii .-.j ; II -w . liJ J ) Yv-Vii Nw ' ' - v.- ft o - 'A h. v' ; i .wL i . 1 1 1 mi .-,. t ..... -t fl:''!; -vV. . ;.; v"?'a T" '.I ' ........ i- ' ;:r rv" .rrf:,v . - i , . I V' ii ' - - - " - i?,. ss? V fc . X - If ;V..,r-js " , .1 i"; , ... . z I r - ..,. If ' r 4-' 1; v-u. , . if.- IK "f xej& : - u vJ . g- ' "i , ' y -f ICS J2TTO X':-. "A -A:, 1 ' .WV SPLITTER VjO TE ; (HCSvJ -tor sum- o( the first characteristic it floats and can be trans ported easily through tle water. Because of the second it can be "slid" easily, to the place where 1 makea ice .' I? wanted. Let's go out to the ice fields of Carter lake. Far out in the middle of the lake men are driving horses and, coming nearer, we find the horses are of tons of ice are being .'"harvested" "ffom'-the -drawing ice plows which are simply steel cutters thickly frozen streams and lakes U Omftha and' that cut down Into the Ice a couple of inches. By this means the Ice field is marked off into rectan gular spaces, each the size of a cake of ice. . .. . . Then come men with long saws and they saw loose big areas consisting of many of these rectan gular spaces. These ice floes are then taken in charge by men with long; steel-pointed poles, and they push them along slowly through the water until they arrive at the end of a long, open space about twelve feet wide leading up to the Ice bouse entrance. Here the ice floes are further subdi vided before being steered into this' long lane. Men with ice poles are stationed along the. sides of this Inne and keep pushing the chunks along. When they arrive at the inner end of the lane ether men with crowbar-like Instrument! separate them into the flnsl sizes, which are cakes of ko about Sx24 feet, and of whatever thickness the Ice happens to be. The cakes are now at the foot of a chute on which runs an endless chain with blocks about every ten' feet. As these blocks come along under neath the chute and around a wheel under the water .at the bottom of the chute they grab the cakes of Ice art hustle them up the chute. Arriv ing at the top, they are released and go sliding down into the dark Interior, where more men are busy packing them away. When there If snow, as there has been this tesson, it is removed with big scoopt drawn by horses. And when the snow and sleet freeze into hardness on the Ice it is loosened up by means of a disk harrow before being scooped off. It's a cold Job, and the men are bundled up in overcoats, caps, mufflers, felt-lined boots, over rhoea anything that will shut out cold. Old Mother Nature Is still the best ice-maker. Phe can make it In a few days by the millions ot tons. There are several artificial Ice plants In Omaha, but these operate principally as auxiliaries. Natural Ice 1 the cheapest and easiest to get Just at natural sunshine Is better than the best artificial Light; the soft breezes of the south wind are better than the spasmodic roaring of an electric fan. and rata U better than Irrigation. Oh, it'll be nice, when summer comes, to hare that Ice. And let us hope for the best regarding the rrlce "V J '.'v '" '- v tip': '. """" "C Scrapucc caw tick frvw
