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Winter Harvest in Buffalo Harbor The Buffalo Express It is safe to suppose that very few of the many who admire the beautifully chopped ice cakes which are to be found on the counters of soda fountains ever stop to consider all the work that the iceman has to go through each winter to harvest his crop. The early part of the winter is spent by most ice harvesters in worrying. Warm weather means much to iceman. If the ice isn't in shape to be cut by January, it is safe to bet that he is going to lose some money. A short winter means a short supply because no iceman can get ice any faster than his plant will work. That explains the chilly receptions which people often receive from icemen when the weather is at all moderate in the winter time. Weather Forecaster Cuthbertson is kept busy looking up weather statistics and making guesses on the prospect of a good freeze. The street-car manager is hoping for warm weather so that he may dodge the cost of sweeping snow from the tracks. The iceman on the contrary would be pleased if the weather were so cold that the motormen would all quit their jobs. Each day finds the iceman down on the lakeshore hoping against hope that the ice will begin to form. On mild days he can be seen wending his way toward the prospective ice field with his coat collar turned up and his earlaps pulled down, trying to make himself believe that it is some degrees below winter weather. When other men are wandering about with open coats the iceman feels that is it his duty to wear a heavy muffler just to encourage the ice. It is related that the wife of one Buffalo iceman found it necessary to buy a thermometer that registered 30 degrees below the correct mark, just to keep her husband in good humor. Any man who wants to get good grounds to have someone arrested for assault need only remark to an iceman that it is warm, when the iceman is waiting for his crop to form.
The iceman will begin to harvest when the ice is ten inches thick, although he prefers to have it twelve or thirteen inches thick. Alderman John P. Sullivan has the largest ice plant in the city of Buffalo. It is situated at the junction of the Hamburg Turnpike and the Buffalo Creek Railroad. He gets his ice from the lake in front of the icehouse. Under a system he has invented it is possible to harvest twenty cars an hour. In the operation of harvesting ice the field gang is the first on the scene. The field gang takes a plot acreas in area and first of all cleans the snow from it. Then the markers are drawn by horses. When the markers finish their work the field has been measureed off into pieces weighing 300 pounds each.
All along the channels men are stationed with long-pointed poles to keep the ice moving.Near the shore the narrow canal separates into two branches. One channel takes the ice intended for the icehouse, while the other takes the ice intended for the cars; the ice in each channel stops at the foot of an incline. Many men are kept busy with large nets at the foot of the inclines, removing the slush ice, which makes trouble here as at the waterworks. The system by which the ice is hauled up the inclines is a delicate one. If the apparatus gets out of order the iceman has the pleasure of seeing thousands of men standing about doing nothing and immune from worry because they get their pay whether they work or not. Two endless chains are used on each incline. Every ten feet a wooden bar is attached to the chains. Each one of these bars takes a 300-pound cake. About a mile of chain is used on the inclines. At the top of the incline the chains carry the ice along a level platform. A man is stationed at each icehouse door pulling the cakes in. Other men are inside stacking the ice in tiers. No broken or chipped pieces are put in the icehouse. They are allowed to run along the platform to the end where they fall off. That is all waste. Alderman Sullivan estimates that with his present system he can harvest 3,000 tons of ice a day. His icehouses have a capacity of 20,000 tons. But the icehouses take but a very small part of the ice that is harvested. Most of it goes One hundred cars are loaded daily at the Sullivan plant. A man is stationed at the door of each car. As the ice runs along on the chains the man at the door pulls a pipe from the chain and into the car. Inside of each car two men are kept busy piling the ice into tiers. By quick work a car with the capacity for twenty tons can be loaded in half an hour. That, however, would mean that cars further down the line would have to go without ice until the first car was loaded. Many railroads, packing-houses and dining-car systems get their supplies of ice at this point and all have inspectors on hand to see that there are no flaws in the supply. One day a cake of ice was thrown out because there was a dark spot in the center of it. One of Alderman Sullivan's men became curious and chopped the cake in two. When he got the object he found it to be a pocketbook. It contained a 25-cent piece and some calling cards with the name of a woman of Los Angeles, Cal., on them. Alderman Sullivan advised the finder to write to the address given on the card. He did so. Two weeks later an answer was received from Mrs. Bartlett saying that she dropped the pocketbook from the dock at Woodlawn Beach the summer before the pocketbook was found. She said she didn't care for the contents. Nevertheless, the 25 cents was sent to her as a memento. |
Location of the Sullivan Ice Company, Buffalo, from a 1902 map.
Between around 1850 and 1930, commercial ice harvesting was a big business in every temperate region
in the country and Buffalo was no exception. By 1894, Buffalo had six commercial icehouse companies that
sold their product to smaller ice distributors as well as to the meat-packering companies and breweries in
the city. And, as the above article indicates, Buffalo's position as a major rail center created demand from
the railroads as well.
In the winter of 1901, the year of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, ice companies planned to take
advantage of the event to make additional profits, as the two Buffalo Evening News articles below demonstrate.
March 25, 1901 Ice Is Plentiful Will the Dealers Take Advantage of the Exposition After a successful season the ice companies have stopped cutting ice, their houses being full. It is said all the local ice firms have harvested big crops and they will have plenty of the cooling substance on hand to supply the crowd of visitors expected at the Pan-American Exposition. It is intimated there is a possibility of the dealers raising prices. No definite information can be obtained on their plans as yet.
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April 2, 1901 Ice Combine Is Now Organized Increased Prices Are Expected as Soon as Hot Weather Begins A combination of the four principal ice companies in Buffalo and the purchase by them of all the ice within reasonable freight distance is a big game of "freeze out," which went on uninterrupted during the winter. Now there are 40 dealers who handle ice in a smaller way who say they will be obliged to abandon their business for this summer at least. They find there is no ice for sale within a distance to be handled profitably. Increased prices are expected and already the "big four" has sent out circular letters announcing increased prices to the larger consumers of ice. Consumers using two or more tons every two weeks will be charged 20 cents a 100 pounds while consumers using less will be charged 25 cents a 100. The advanced rates apply chiefly to butchers and saloon keepers and do not affect the family trade.
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The commercial "natural" ice businesses continued until the 1930's when electric refrigerators
replaced ice block cold storage. Homeowners especially adapted to the convenience of their
"Frigidaire" which eliminated the daily wait for the iceman with the
requested 10-, 20-, or 50-lb block
of ice, the frequent emptying of the drip-pan from beneath the icebox. They appreciated all this,
and persisted in calling it the "icebox."
The next step in the process is the opening of the canals. These canals are very wide at the beginning, but gradually become narrower until they reach the shore where they are only wide enough for 300-pound cakes to pass. The ice is first cut away in cakes about the size of an ordinary flat car. These are shoved shoreward and as the channel begins to narrow the cakes are separated into 300-pound cakes.
to the railroad cars. The ice for the cars is taken up another incline. at the end of this incline it is transferred to a similar chain system running along a platform, on each side of which are ten cars. Men with quick eyes are employed to watch both the incline and the platform chain. When the platform chain stops it is necessary to stop the incline chain immediately, else there is likely to be a blockade which it may take several days to clear away.