Joe Michaels
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Location
- Shandaken, NY, USA
As some of you know, I am involved in the operations and maintenance of the steam plant at Hanford Mills Museum in NY State. Yesterday, on the 4th of July, the Mill did its usual activities with the public. This includes making ice cream with the freezer belted up to a small steam engine. Ice that was cut on the mill's pond this past February is brought up from the ice-house and used to chill the freezer.
The problem or bottleneck seems to be getting enough ice chipped or crushed for each batch of ice cream. The museum staff and volunteers attack the ice blocks with what look like curry combs and ice picks to get the ice into smaller chunks. These are then fed into a small hand cranked ice grinder. This is a bottleneck as the hand cranked ice grinder cannot produce enough crushed ice fast enough to keep up with what each batch in the freezer needs. This is why I am posting here.
When I was a kid in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1950's-60's, there were still ice trucks. These trucks carried large blocks of ice, and had engine driven ice crushers or ice grinders mounted on the body of the truck. The grinders were driven by about a 5 HP Briggs and Stratton engine, and could handle a half block (about 25 lb) or ice in nothing flat. The ice grinders or chippers were all made by a firm called
Stimmel Brothers, in Long Island City (Queens), NY. Stimmel's main line was making winches for tow trucks, but they had a steady production of the ice grinders going as well. Stimmel ice grinders were found on docks serving fishing boats, as well as on the ice trucks. I remember the ice trucks and the grinders on them quite well. Unfortunately, Stimmel Brothers as a company is long gone, and searches on ebay, "Enginads" and similar have failed to turn up anything remotely like one of the old ice grinders used on the ice trucks.
There was nothing fancy about these ice grinders. The housings were cast iron with the Stimmel Brother name and address on the end plates of the cast iron bodies. The body of each grinder incorporated a hopper to hold the ice blocks. I suspect there was some sort of toothed drum and possibly some stationary teeth inside the grinder or chipper. When I was a kid, on some summer weekends, my parents would hold a barbecue in the backyard. Relatives and neighbors arrived, and ice was needed to cool the beer, soda, and wine and a watermelon. I was stationed at the curb with a galvanized steel washtub and orders to flag down an ice truck. The ice trucks normally served businesses during the weekdays, supplying crushed ice to places like fish markets and butcher shops and some restaurants. On weekends, the ice trucks cruised the quiet residential streets, knowing there'd be parties and barbecues. I'd flag the ice truck and ask the drive to sell us a 50 lb cake, cutting the cake in half and chipping one half and leaving the other half intact. The drivers were aces with the ice picks and tongs, quickly getting a 50 lb cake out from under tarps, cleaving it in half. The driver would then take my washtub and fire up the B & S engine. Seeing a small gasoline engine was not real common in Brooklyn and I was a kid who loved machinery anyway. The driver would stuff a 25 lb chunk of ice into the hopper of the grinder and out came crushed ice into the wash tub. He'd put the other 25 lb chunk on top of the crushed ice. I'd run up the driveway and get my father, who would get another relative. They'd come down the driveway to pay for the ice and carry the washtub and the ice in it back to our yard.
It seemed like ice trucks were a common thing, and then one day, they were gone. I suspect that ice making machines producing loads of ice cubes killed off the ice trucks. When I was a kid, buying a bag of ice cubes at the supermarket was unknown, and convenience stores selling bags of ice cubes were years in the future.
Now, we are looking around for one of the old ice grinders as was used on the ice trucks and on some of the fish docks. It does not have to be a Stimmel Brothers ice grinder, but something of the same size/type. We'll belt it off one of the steam engines or maybe a hit and miss engine and put it to good use. If anyone has a lead on this sort of ice crusher or ice grinder, please let me know.
As I wrote, these were compact but solidly built machines. They were driven by about a 5 HP B & S engine thru a vee belt or sprocket chain (depending on whose ice truck you were looking at). About all I seem to find are modern ice crushers for restaurants, which bear no resemblance to the old Stimmel Brothers crushers, or hand crushers made for kitchen countertops. The few old time ice crushers I've seen are too small or too light. I doubt there are any of the old ice trucks sitting at the back of some storage yard or junkyard by this point in time, but maybe in an ice house or fish dock there might still be one of the crushers. Any help is appreciated.
The problem or bottleneck seems to be getting enough ice chipped or crushed for each batch of ice cream. The museum staff and volunteers attack the ice blocks with what look like curry combs and ice picks to get the ice into smaller chunks. These are then fed into a small hand cranked ice grinder. This is a bottleneck as the hand cranked ice grinder cannot produce enough crushed ice fast enough to keep up with what each batch in the freezer needs. This is why I am posting here.
When I was a kid in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1950's-60's, there were still ice trucks. These trucks carried large blocks of ice, and had engine driven ice crushers or ice grinders mounted on the body of the truck. The grinders were driven by about a 5 HP Briggs and Stratton engine, and could handle a half block (about 25 lb) or ice in nothing flat. The ice grinders or chippers were all made by a firm called
Stimmel Brothers, in Long Island City (Queens), NY. Stimmel's main line was making winches for tow trucks, but they had a steady production of the ice grinders going as well. Stimmel ice grinders were found on docks serving fishing boats, as well as on the ice trucks. I remember the ice trucks and the grinders on them quite well. Unfortunately, Stimmel Brothers as a company is long gone, and searches on ebay, "Enginads" and similar have failed to turn up anything remotely like one of the old ice grinders used on the ice trucks.
There was nothing fancy about these ice grinders. The housings were cast iron with the Stimmel Brother name and address on the end plates of the cast iron bodies. The body of each grinder incorporated a hopper to hold the ice blocks. I suspect there was some sort of toothed drum and possibly some stationary teeth inside the grinder or chipper. When I was a kid, on some summer weekends, my parents would hold a barbecue in the backyard. Relatives and neighbors arrived, and ice was needed to cool the beer, soda, and wine and a watermelon. I was stationed at the curb with a galvanized steel washtub and orders to flag down an ice truck. The ice trucks normally served businesses during the weekdays, supplying crushed ice to places like fish markets and butcher shops and some restaurants. On weekends, the ice trucks cruised the quiet residential streets, knowing there'd be parties and barbecues. I'd flag the ice truck and ask the drive to sell us a 50 lb cake, cutting the cake in half and chipping one half and leaving the other half intact. The drivers were aces with the ice picks and tongs, quickly getting a 50 lb cake out from under tarps, cleaving it in half. The driver would then take my washtub and fire up the B & S engine. Seeing a small gasoline engine was not real common in Brooklyn and I was a kid who loved machinery anyway. The driver would stuff a 25 lb chunk of ice into the hopper of the grinder and out came crushed ice into the wash tub. He'd put the other 25 lb chunk on top of the crushed ice. I'd run up the driveway and get my father, who would get another relative. They'd come down the driveway to pay for the ice and carry the washtub and the ice in it back to our yard.
It seemed like ice trucks were a common thing, and then one day, they were gone. I suspect that ice making machines producing loads of ice cubes killed off the ice trucks. When I was a kid, buying a bag of ice cubes at the supermarket was unknown, and convenience stores selling bags of ice cubes were years in the future.
Now, we are looking around for one of the old ice grinders as was used on the ice trucks and on some of the fish docks. It does not have to be a Stimmel Brothers ice grinder, but something of the same size/type. We'll belt it off one of the steam engines or maybe a hit and miss engine and put it to good use. If anyone has a lead on this sort of ice crusher or ice grinder, please let me know.
As I wrote, these were compact but solidly built machines. They were driven by about a 5 HP B & S engine thru a vee belt or sprocket chain (depending on whose ice truck you were looking at). About all I seem to find are modern ice crushers for restaurants, which bear no resemblance to the old Stimmel Brothers crushers, or hand crushers made for kitchen countertops. The few old time ice crushers I've seen are too small or too light. I doubt there are any of the old ice trucks sitting at the back of some storage yard or junkyard by this point in time, but maybe in an ice house or fish dock there might still be one of the crushers. Any help is appreciated.
I needed a chuckle this morning.
