Soda and Ice

Some times I feel like looking back at our 19th century (or earlier) ancestors with the kind of patronising air with which the wizard-world in Harry Potter looks upon Muggles. For instance, it had never struck me till fairly recently that ice was hard to come by. It's quite obvious when you think of it like that.

As I'm sure many are aware, one of the most famous stories surrounding the supply of ice in Bengal takes as its setting the town of Chinsurah. In The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Vol. 2) published in 1833, edited by James Prinsep, there appeared an article by T.A. Wise, Esq. M.D. titled “An Experimental Inquiry into the Means employed by the Natives of Bengal for making Ice”. The paper it seems was read the previous year at the Society on 3rd October.

Wise explains that while efforts to make ice at Serampore and Calcutta have failed, Chinsurah has successfully been producing ice at a reasonable rate. Why is this? He speculates that it may be “owing to the elevation, exposure, and distance of the latter from the sea. The soil of the field in which the ice is made is a black loam upon a substratum of sand; it is more elevated than the surrounding country, is liable to partial inundations in heavy rains and is skirted on the south, east, and north by trees, and on the western and northern directions has an open plain for some extent.”

Between November and February, he reports, “the natives” prepare a ground 120 ft in length and 20 ft broad. A hollow is made, allowed to dry, and later covered by a layer or two of straw. Shallow earthen dishes (about 9 inch in diameter at the top) are filled in with “soft pure water” towards evening. Each bed consists of 4590 plates. At a temperature of 50 degree Fahrenheit they cool over night with a steady NNW wind.

Wise notes that there are three kinds of ice that form: pakka baraf, when the whole of the water is frozen; paperí, when it is thinner; and phúl baraf when it is at its thinnest; depending on when it congeals. With blunt knives these are removed and conveyed to ice-pits. In the evening, they are conveyed in “bags of coarse country cloth, to boat” which take them to Calcutta, 40 miles away. The entire essay is worth a read, not least because it is an example of Wise's characteristic sincerity regarding collection of data.

Several pages later, the same issue of the Journal announces the first arrival of ice from America! “The arrival of the Tuscany, with a cargo of ice from America, forms an epoch in the history of Calcutta worthy of commemoration, as a facetious friend remarked, in a medal of frosted silver.” They go on to say, “In the month of May last, we received a present of some ice from Dr. Wise at Hugli…as a proof that the precious luxury might be preserved by careful husbandry until the season when its coolness was most grateful:—little did we then contemplate being able to return the compliment with a solid lump of the clearest crystal ice, at the conclusion of the rains!”

In A Short History of the Bengal Club (1827-1927), H.R. Panckridge, mentions the expert culinary performance of one Thomas Payne, Steward, who is seen as a potential "formidable rival to Messrs. Gunter and Hooper". Mr. Payne, it appears was permitted to conduct his business of ice manufacturing. A notice quoted in the book offers a glimpse into the trade:

“Ice—Thomas Payne (Bengal Club House) will continue to supply Families with Ice during the Hot Season and Rains at the following rates:—
Ice for cooling wine, etc., at 8 annals per seer, creams of all kind at 1-8-0 rupee mould (coolpee).
N.B.—The ice will be delivered from a Godown next to the Club House in Mission Row at from 6 to 7 o’clock in the morning and at the same hour in the evening.
It is requested that orders for the Ice may be sent the day previous.”

This was in May 1831, a couple of years before Wise's essay appeared. But, as Panckridge notes, Payne's business must not have been able to continue for long after. While it did, one hopes he made a good profit. The ice house in Calcutta was demolished in 1882.

Frederick Fiebig, The Ice House, Calcutta. 1851. Courtesy: British Library

The other interesting snippet I wanted to include under Junk Food is from a newspaper article on the Calcutta International Exhibition that appeared in The Indian Daily News on 15 December 1883. (But before that, it's also telling that glass and various things fashioned out of it were getting attention at the Exhibition. In fact, Osler's glass furniture was compared by the reporter to Empress Catherine of Russia's Ice Palace.) The reporter writes:

Messrs. Smith Stanistreet and Co. provide for thirsty Indians, who do not affect alcohol, or who desire to reduce their amount of spirit by something that is not mere water. In other words, they manufacture soda water, gingerale, tonic water, phosphozore [not sure what that is], lemonade and many other forms of aerated waters. How pleasant these waters are, either by themselves, or in combination with alcoholic spirits, needs no laboured explanation from me. I can only say that, as a consumer of such drinks, I always feel more secure from possible impurity or weakness when I find the name of so well-known a firm as Smith Stanistreet attached to these waters.