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    Ice trade and ice machines to be next historical program


    Kevin Bair will speak on the impact of ice trade and ice machines at the public library on Nov. 14.

    Special to The Sun

    The Wakulla County Historical Society welcomes back Kevin Bair, who will present a program on “The Civil War Blockade, Smuggled Ice Machines, and the End of the Natural Ice Trade” at our monthly program at 4:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov.14, at the Wakulla County Public Library.
    The public is invited and there is no charge for this event.
    Have you ever wondered what life in the South was like before the ice-making machine? Ice in the South was supplied by the natural ice trade. Frederick Tudor of Boston started the natural ice trade in 1805. Tudor built an ice empire. He was coined the “Ice King”. Tudor shipped ice to Calcutta, the Caribbean, and Southern United States ports.
    In 1850, Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola patented an early ice-making machine. The future of mechanical ice-making machines threatened the natural ice trade and the “Ice King” by having the capability to produce ice year-round and it was less expensive to produce than shipping ice to the South. In retaliation, the natural ice trade created fake news against Gorrie and others who lobbied for mechanical ice-making machines thus stifling the developing new technology.
    It took the Civil War and the Union blockade of Confederate ports that prompted enterprising men in New Orleans desperate for ice in the beer-making businesses to smuggle two ice-making machines from France through the blockade. These machines were reverse-engineered and duplicated and slowly distributed in the South, cutting the South’s dependence on Yankee ice.
    For more information, please call the Museum at 850-966-1110.