The Frozen Water Trade - 06/22/21

 Hello cool people, 

Book 33: The Frozen Water Trade: A True Story (6/10)

Premise: Frederic Tudor starts a business that introduces ice as a year long consumable commodity to much of the world before the invention of refrigeration.

A good chunk of this book talks about Tudor, his family, and business partners. It also specifies many tons of ice in certain years shipped to specific cities. While it is interesting that data is still around 200 years later, it felt dry rather quickly. I almost felt this would have been better presented in a 10 minute youtube video then a 300 page book. 

Tudor had a hard time starting the ice trade nearly going bankrupt several times. It seems the first big break he truly had was buying coffee futures which allowed him to fund his ice business without worrying about investors. At the time what he was doing, shipping ice across the world (as far as from America to India) had never been done before. 

Tudor invented much of the technology used to insulate and ship ice, and later to even harvest it in larger quantities. However when he started he lost as much as 90% of the ice he shipped due to melting on the long voyages. Eventually business was booming both in the Southern United States and throughout many other countries.

About a century after Tudor started his ice business artificial ice and refrigeration became much bigger things and by the 1950's, at least most of the United States had in home refrigeration and natural ice was no longer needed.   

 

so enjoy the ice in your drinks and meat that doesn't spoil, 

and remember dear readers, Stay Vivid.