bostwickenator t1_ism9fyf wrote on October 17, 2022 at 1:04 AM

Reply to comment by CruisinJo214 in TIL that before the invention of regfrigeration in 1851, ice had to be imported to Australia from Boston, Massachusetts. The ice blocks travelled through the tropics inside ships insulated with timber, straw, peat, and sawdust by stumcm

But the distance to Boston is unimaginably big as well, there was no Panama canal either. Both this and sailing for Antarctica seem like terrible ideas. What's really odd is they didn't use domestic sources of ice/snow or sail to New Zealand and source it from there. There are or were many glaciers less than a mile from the west coast of NZ.

southernwx t1_ismjwd0 wrote on October 17, 2022 at 2:24 AM

It’s much much much easier to harvest seasonal ice from a lake with dedicated infrastructure for that than it is to do so from a Glacier in most cases.

bostwickenator t1_ismtdj6 wrote on October 17, 2022 at 3:43 AM

Absolutely just thought it might have been worth the labor to avoid a 100 trip.

southernwx t1_ismw0n1 wrote on October 17, 2022 at 4:08 AM

Well, snow for one can be a poor choice as it takes a very long time for it to laminate and will never reach the density of “plain” frozen water in a season. Which while that may save you in transit time results in water that is still melted by mid “summer”.

I suppose it’s a similar argument to 100+ years from now, incredulous posters to whatever exists at that time can’t understand why McDonald’s bought billions of tiny plastic toys from China.