Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c18.5

c18.5

The ice-maker belonging to me at Allahabad (at which place I principally attended to this enquiry) made a sufficient quantity in the winter for the supply of the table during the summer season. The methods he pursued were as follows: on a large open plain, three or four excavations were made, each about thirty feet square and two deep; the bottoms of which were strewed about eight inches or a foot thick with sugar-cane, or the stems of the large Indian corn dried. Upon this bed were placed in rows, near to each other, a number of small, shallow, earthen pans, for containing the water intended to be frozen. These are unglazed, scarce a quarter of an inch thick, about inch and a quarter in depth, and made of an earth so porous, that it was visible, from the exterior part of the pans, the water had penetrated the whole substance. Towards the dusk of the evening, they were filled with soft water, which had been boiled, and then left in the afore-related situation. The ice-makers attended the pits usually before the sun was above the horizon, and collected in baskets what was frozen, by pouring the whole contents of the pans into them, and thereby retaining the ice, which was daily conveyed to the grand receptacle or place of preservation, prepared generally on some high dry situation, by sinking a pit of fourteen or fifteen feet deep, lined first with straw, and then with a coarse kind of blanketing, where it is beat down with rammers, till at length its own accumulated cold again freezes and forms one solid mass. The mouth of the pit is well secured from the exterior air with straw and blankets, in the manner of the lining, and a thatched roof is thrown over the whole. It is here necessary to remark, that the quantity of ice depends materially on the weather; and consequently, it has sometimes happened, that no congelation took place. At others, perhaps, half the quantity will be frozen; and I have often seen the whole contents formed into a perfect cake of ice: the lighter the atmosphere, and the more clear and serene the weather, the more favourable for congelation, as a frequent change of winds and clouds are certain preventives. For I have frequently remarked, that after a very sharp cold night, to the feel of the human body, scarce any ice has been formed; when at other times the night has been calm and serene, and sensibly warmer, the contents of the pans will be frozen through. The strongest proof of the influence of the weather appears by the water in one pit being more congealed than the same preparation for freezing will be in other situations, a mile or more distant.