From: x@x.com   
      
   RichD wrote:   
   > How did they make ice, in the days before electricity?   
   >   
   > And, did the inventors manage it empirically, without   
   > education in thermodynamic theory?  I admit,   
   > without book learning, the compression/condensation/   
   > evaporation cycle would never occur to me, it’s   
   > far from intuitive.   
   >   
   > —   
   > Rich   
      
   Other posts here are good about making ice.   
      
   Then before electric or mechanical refrigerators   
   there was a matter of refrigeration in houses.   
      
   There was of course until the 1950s and 1960s   
   the ice man that delivered ice to people's ice   
   boxes in their homes on a nearly daily basis   
   and put ice into ice chests.   
      
   Then there were milk men that did the same for   
   milk.   
      
   If you start using the word 'ancient' however   
   and compare it with 'classical' it is not obvious   
   how far back that might go regardless of an official   
   invention of refrigeration.  There are other ways to   
   preserve food.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)