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Indlæser... The Frozen Water Trade: A True Story (2002)af Gavin Weightman
Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. A fascinating account of the commercialisation of natural ice - including the fantastical shipment of ice to British India in 1833. Still, the essential elements of this history would have been perfectly well told in a feature length magazine article - as much of this book is a pretty pedestrian re-telling of the frozen water trade's history. ( ) An interesting book about a fairly obscure industry, one that was so omnipresent a hundred years and more ago that it would be hard to find a community of any size that wasn't somehow affected by it. The book focuses on Frederic Tudor, the most successful of the frozen water trade entrepreneurs and the originator of many of the practices of the business. Overall it's a pretty good book, although at times it does bog down a bit by focusing on the Tudor family issues. Also, due (according to the author) to a lack of sources, I felt there was a lack of breadth in the narrative, the book being more of a biography than an overview of an industry. These however are minor issues and the book is still worth the reading.
Weightman takes a relatively unknown part of history (and the figure at its center), and creates a funny, rollicking human adventure.
The story of the 19th-century ice trade, in which ice from the lakes of New England - valued for its incredible purity - revolutionised domestic life around the world. In the days before artificial refrigeration, it was thought impossible to transport ice for long distances. But one man, Frederic Tudor, was convinced it could be done. This is the story of how, almost single-handedly, and in the face of near-universal mockery, he established a vast industry that would introduce the benefits of fresh ice to large parts of the globe. Thanks to Tudor, the American fashion for drinks 'on the rocks' spread to tropical areas such as the West Indies and British India. By the 1830s fleets of schooners carried the frozen cargo, packed with sawdust and tarpaulins for insulation, to all corners of the world. The harvesting of the ice from New England's lakes employed thousands of men. The frozen water trade had a profound influence on the tastes of a large part of the world, but with the development of artificial cooling systems in the first quarter of the 20th century, the huge industry established by Frederic Tudor vanished as if it had never been. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)380.1Social sciences Commerce, Communications, Transportation Commerce; CommunicationLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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