Adventures in Research 43-02-16 The Electric Smoke-Eater

Summary

Podcast Summary: Adventures in Research 43-02-16 The Electric Smoke-Eater

Podcast Information:

• Title: Harold's Old Time Radio
• Host/Author: Harolds Old Time Radio
• Episode: Adventures in Research 43-02-16 The Electric Smoke-Eater
• Release Date: July 4, 2025
• Description: Radio shows from the Golden Age of Radio. The time before television and the family all sat around the radio and listened to the shows of the time like The Shadow, Abbott & Costello, Amos & Andy, Dragnet, and many more.

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Introduction: The Tale of the Ice King

The episode opens with Paul Shannon introducing the intriguing story of Frederick Tudor, colloquially known as the "Ice King." Paul sets the stage by highlighting the commonplace yet often taken-for-granted elements of daily life such as water, air, earth, sun, and notably, ice.

"We do take a lot of things for granted. Water, air, earth, sun. Ice." [00:11]

Early Struggles and Aspirations

The narrative shifts to depict the harsh winters of New England in the early 19th century. Frederick Tudor, a Bostonian, prefers the warmth of the West Indies over the freezing climate of his hometown. Through dialogues between Tudor and his friend, listeners gain insight into Tudor's dissatisfaction with the relentless cold and his longing for a different life.

"It's like a different world when I think of the poor souls up in Boston and New England." [01:57]

Tudor explains his dedication to his work in a Boston shipping firm, which he has been a part of since he was thirteen. His desire to escape the bitter winters sets the foundation for his future endeavors.

The Bold Idea: Exporting Ice to the Tropics

Upon returning to Boston, Tudor approaches his father with a groundbreaking idea: exporting ice to the equatorial regions. Initially met with skepticism, his father ultimately supports his son's unconventional plan.

"I'm going to take the ice down to the West Indies." [04:03]

Despite limited financial resources, Tudor successfully charters a ship and, in the winter of 1805, sends two assistants to Martinique to prepare for his ice shipment.

Arrival in Martinique: First Attempt

Frederick Tudor arrives in Martinique in March 1806 with 130 tons of ice packed in hay. His unfamiliarity with the local language and customs leads to humorous yet frustrating interactions with the locals, who have never encountered ice before.

"Oh, ice. I c E. Ice." [07:34]

Tudor attempts to market his ice by introducing the concept of ice cream to the Martinique populace, a novel idea that captivates the local customers. The venture proves socially successful, with Tivoli Gardens selling over $300 worth of ice cream on the first night.

"This remarkable epic in the history of luxury and enterprise began March 6, 1806, when ice creams were eaten for the first time in the settlement..." [10:09]

However, the financial outcome is dire as Tudor loses almost $3,500 due to the rapid melting of the ice in the tropical heat.

Second Attempt in Havana: Innovation Through Necessity

Undeterred by his initial failure, Tudor embarks on a second attempt in Havana in 1815. Here, he constructs an innovative ice house designed to better preserve the ice. The structure features double partitions, dead space between walls, and heavy plank flooring with embedded gutters to channel melted ice efficiently.

"It is an ice house it was, with double partitions and dead space between the walls." [10:47]

Despite these improvements, Tudor continues to grapple with the challenges of maintaining ice in a warm climate. He meticulously records the loss of ice and explores various insulation materials, including tan bark, chaff, wheat, pulverized cork, and coal dust.

"Hours up, runoff amounts to £56. That's too much." [11:08]

Breakthrough: Pine Sawdust and Increased Exports

Tudor's persistence pays off when he discovers that pine sawdust, a waste product from New England, provides superior insulation for his ice shipments. By utilizing pine sawdust along with specialized tools such as augers, tongs, and picaroons, Tudor drastically enhances his ice preservation capabilities.

"With the help of that and new special tools... his ice exports jumped from 4,000 tons a year to 65,000 tons." [11:36]

This innovation not only stabilizes his business but also expands his reach. Tudor begins exporting ice to 53 ports worldwide, establishing himself as the "Ice King of the World."

Legacy and Reflection

Four years before his death in 1864, Frederick Tudor witnesses the culmination of his life's work. At eighty years old, he stands by a frosted window, reflecting on his journey and the global impact of his ice trade.

"The frost covers the window... $50,000 worth of ice floats for me on fresh pond ice to cool the pallets of the world that I might be warm." [12:35]

Conclusion: From Ice to Electric Refrigeration

Paul Shannon concludes the episode by contrasting Tudor's manual ice-breaking and preservation methods with modern electric refrigeration. While Tudor's methods eventually became obsolete, his innovations in insulation paved the way for future advancements in the refrigeration industry.

"His discovery of better insulation to protect his ice helped push forward the day when the ice itself would be unnecessary." [13:05]

Final Thoughts

"Adventures in Research" successfully weaves a compelling narrative around Frederick Tudor's entrepreneurial spirit and his pivotal role in the global ice trade. By highlighting both his successes and setbacks, the episode offers valuable insights into early refrigeration efforts and the ingenuity required to overcome environmental challenges.

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Notable Quotes:

• "We do take a lot of things for granted. Water, air, earth, sun. Ice." – Paul Shannon [00:11]
• "It's like a different world when I think of the poor souls up in Boston and New England." – Frederick Tudor [01:57]
• "I'm going to take the ice down to the West Indies." – Frederick Tudor [04:03]
• "This remarkable epic in the history of luxury and enterprise began March 6, 1806..." – Tudor's Friend [10:09]
• "With the help of that and new special tools... his ice exports jumped from 4,000 tons a year to 65,000 tons." – Paul Shannon [11:36]
• "The frost covers the window... $50,000 worth of ice floats for me on fresh pond ice to cool the pallets of the world that I might be warm." – Frederick Tudor [12:35]

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This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of Frederick Tudor, whose determination and innovative spirit not only transformed the ice trade but also had a lasting impact on global refrigeration practices.

Transcript

[Paul Shannon]

Adventures in research. We do take a lot of things for granted. Water, air, earth, sun. Ice. Well, now, ice. Perhaps you never heard of the man who invented ice. This is Paul Shannon bringing you another transcribed story of science, produced as a public service in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratories and today telling you the story of the Ice King, as he liked to be called. And he also liked to think he invented ice. This notion seemed absurd to the New Englanders at the dawn of the 19th century. Invent ice with lakes, rivers and streams frozen over when part of any winter's work was sawing out blocks of the solid stuff.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Come on, Tom, let's keep moving. Gosh, it's cold.

[Giovanni]

Ain't that enough? How much of the consign stuff does Martha need anyhow?

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Oh, just enough to store in the cellar.

[Frederick Tudor]

One more block ought to do it.

[Giovanni]

Eve.

[Frederick Tudor]

Jew.

[Paul Shannon]

While such scenes were common in the northernmost states, a young chap named Frederick Tudor of Boston found the winter months more pleasant on a ship headed for the West Indies.

[Tudor's Friend]

Ah, there, Tudor. Another fine day for sailing. Oceans smooth as glass, eh?

[Frederick Tudor]

Indeed. Oh, it's like a different world when I think of the poor souls up in Boston and New England. Fetch more wood, Frederick. Get out the snow shovel. Frederick. Heat the bricks for the bed. Frederick. This is the life.

[Tudor's Friend]

Warm sun, no winter clothes for a young chap. You've done quite well for yourself, Tudor. Don't mind my asking, but just what do you do the rest of the year?

[Frederick Tudor]

Oh, work in a Boston shipping firm. Started when I was 13. I've been there for eight years.

[Frederick Tudor (older)]

Eight years of cold winters and ice and snow.

[Tudor's Friend]

Well, see you've left that far behind. Wait till you see the West Indies. The captain says we'll be putting into port this afternoon about sundown. Care to debark and see the place, Student?

[Frederick Tudor]

Fine.

[Tudor's Friend]

It sure is warm, isn't it? I've been doing little else but mop my brow. I don't mind it being warm, but a man can get baked in this climate too, you know.

[Paul Shannon]

Yes, but I love it.

[Frederick Tudor]

Oh, how about joining me in some ginger tea? That should cool you off.

[Tudor's Friend]

Cool you off? Man, you're mad. It's warm.

[Frederick Tudor]

It doesn't have to be up home in the summers. We chipped some ice from the ice cellar and.

[Martinique Local]

Ice?

[Tudor's Friend]

We left that back there, boy. Ice. These people never saw ice, never heard of it, and wouldn't believe it if you showed it to them.

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, that's right. I forgot. Imagine living all your life and not knowing what ice is.

[Tudor's Friend]

Yeah, I think I'll go below deck. That sun will have me baked to a crisp.

[Frederick Tudor]

Next time I come back, I'll have to bring my own ice with me.

[Paul Shannon]

Back in his native Boston, young Tudor approached his father with a peculiar request.

[Frederick Tudor]

Dad, you know that pond you own up in Saugus?

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

What about it?

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, I wondered if I might be able to use it.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Use it? Well, it's pretty well fished out just a few miles out of Boston, and the city is growing, so I don't.

[Frederick Tudor]

Want it for fishing. I. I want the ice.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Yeah, in a few years.

[Paul Shannon]

You want the what?

[Frederick Tudor]

The ice. When it freezes over this winter.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Well, I don't see why not. Welcome to it, son. You're going to build another ice cellar? Go right ahead, lad. Take all of it you want.

[Frederick Tudor]

Thank you, dad.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Frederick.

[Paul Shannon]

You're welcome to it, of course.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Take all the ice in the pond. But what do you intend to do with it? Not that it's any of my business, of course, but then.

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, thanks again, Dan.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Frederick, As I say, it's none of my affair. The ice is there for the taking. What you want with it is your own concern, of course. I mean. Well, hang it, son. What are you going to do with a whole pond full of ice? That is. Well, now, mind you, I know you have a good reason for it, I'm sure, but then.

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, I do, dad. I'm going to take the ice down to the West Indies.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

I see. Well, I knew you'd have a sound, sensible saying. Rit you wish What?

[Paul Shannon]

Yes. Frederick Tudor was going to bring ice to the equator. With hardly enough cash to pay for cutting the ice, he managed to charter a ship, and in the winter of 1805, sent two helpers down to the port of St. Pierre in Martinique to prepare for the arrival. In March of 1806, Frederick Tudor arrived in Martinique on a ship whose hold was filled with 130 tons of ice packed in hay.

[Frederick Tudor]

Excuse me. You speak English?

[Martinique Local]

Oui, I speak English little.

[Frederick Tudor]

Have you seen a couple of Americans? A Mr. Armitage, a Mr. Westland? Oh, a tall man? Short man. My friends supposed to meet me here. Meet me here. Ice. They talk of ice in boat. Boat? Ice.

[Giovanni]

No.

[Frederick Tudor]

Let me put it this way. American money.

[Martinique Local]

American money. We they be at Tivoli Garden. Yes. They spend, laugh, drink. We they gone.

[Frederick Tudor]

Tivoli Gardens.

[Martinique Local]

We Tivoli Garden. Over there. See it say Tivoli.

[Frederick Tudor]

Thanks.

[Martinique Local]

Merci, monsieur. Merci.

[Frederick Tudor]

Are you the proprietor?

[Giovanni]

Ah, we miss you. At your service, monsieur.

[Frederick Tudor]

I'm looking for some countrymen of mine. From the States. I understand. They were here.

[Giovanni]

I look for them too. They leave. Giovanni. They say. We see you, Giovanni. Goodbye, Giovanni. Pay you later, Giovanni. For two weeks. Giovanni, wait. I cannot afford to lose such money. They your friend. You pay their bill, huh?

[Frederick Tudor]

I'm afraid not. They left me holding the bag too.

[Giovanni]

What back?

[Frederick Tudor]

I have a cargo aboard my ship in the harbor and they were supposed to.

[Giovanni]

Ah, you bring in cargo from the estates machine.

[Frederick Tudor]

Yes, and something has to be done quickly with this sun beating down in no time at all.

[Giovanni]

Of course, of course. Sun no good for food, monsieur. Sun spoil it soon.

[Frederick Tudor]

Not spoil it, melt it.

[Giovanni]

Such funny words you use in statesmanship. We say food spoiled. You say food milk melt.

[Frederick Tudor]

But it isn't food, it's ice.

[Giovanni]

And it's very, I am sure, Nice, Very nice.

[Frederick Tudor]

Not nice. Ice. I c E. Ice.

[Giovanni]

Oh. Oh. So be sure, monsieur. Oui, Ice. I c E. Ice in Espa.

[Frederick Tudor's Father]

Yes.

[Giovanni]

Ice, ice. What is ice?

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, well, it's the. Well, when it freezes, you. Well, water becomes.

[Giovanni]

Ah, water. You like less of water, monsieur? Of course, of course. There you are, monsieur. Water complimente. Tivolet Gardens.

[Frederick Tudor]

Very nice establishment you have here.

[Giovanni]

Like in the States? No, monsieur, just like in the sort of.

[Frederick Tudor]

Of course, in the States we have ice.

[Giovanni]

Tivoli Gardens as good as states, Monsieur. Nothing you have there that Giovanni does not have here.

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, you lack just one thing. If you had that, then indeed your Tivoli Gardens would be as great as any American restaurant.

[Giovanni]

What? What do we not have? Giovanni has everything. Look. Coffee, tea, a home baked cake.

[Frederick Tudor]

But where is your ice? Ice, ice.

[Giovanni]

In states, monsieur, Every place has these.

[Frederick Tudor]

Ice wouldn't dream of opening without it. Unheard of.

[Giovanni]

Chipoli Garten's as good as any place. I too can have ice. You, you say you have shipload of this ice in harbor?

[Frederick Tudor]

Oh, I do. But I've already promised it to.

[Giovanni]

Promise? Bah. I buy this ice, I pay double. You sell to me, eh?

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, you're a hard businessman, Giovanni. All right, I. I'll sell you the ice. Good, good.

[Giovanni]

Monsieur. One question, monsieur. Now I have the ice, what do I do with it?

[Frederick Tudor]

Why, you can make ice cream with it.

[Giovanni]

I scream. Oui, of course, of course. I scre. What is this ice cream?

[Frederick Tudor]

You never heard of ice cream?

[Giovanni]

Never, monsieur.

[Frederick Tudor]

Well, you will, Giovanni. And all Martinique. Will you have some milk sugar flavorings? Here, take my coat. I'll start in making some ice cream right now. And by tomorrow Tivoli Gardens will be the talk of Martinique.

[Paul Shannon]

On the first night, Tivoli Gardens sold more than $300 worth of ice cream, and the customers crowded the place. The local newspaper hailed the event.

[Tudor's Friend]

This remarkable epic in the history of luxury and enterprise began March 6, 1806, when ice creams were eaten for the first time in the settlement of the country lying just 14 degrees north of the equator.

[Paul Shannon]

And though the bringing of ice to Martinique might be hailed as a social success, financially, Tudor lost almost $3,500 due to the melting of the ice. But he tried it again, this time in 1815 in Havana, where startled natives saw the construction of a strange building.

[Frederick Tudor]

Mamma mia, he say.

[Paul Shannon]

It is an ice house. An ice house it was, with double partitions and dead space between the walls. And heavy plank flooring. In the floor, gutters were embedded like eaves spouts, which caught the melted ice and conveyed it to a barrel outside. At the barrel, Frederick Tudor stood with a watch in his hand.

[Frederick Tudor]

Hours up, runoff amounts to £56. That's too much. We'll need more hay to cover the ice. Better. £33 in an hour, but not good enough. We'll bank earth around the building and try that. 18 pounds. We can't do much better than that.

[Paul Shannon]

But Tudor was still not completely satisfied. His shipments increased, his fleet enlarged. But what could he do to preserve the ice? Hay was not enough. He tried tan bark, chaff, wheat, pulverized cork, even coal dust. Until he hit upon another item of New England waste. Pine sawdust. With the help of that and new special tools. Augers, tongs, picaroons, his ice Exports jumped from 4,000 tons a year to 65,000 tons. He sent apples to the tropics, brought tropical fruits to the States, and was soon recognized as the ice king of the world. Four years before his death in 1864, he had the satisfaction of seeing his ships carrying ice to 53 ports all over the world. The last glimpse we have of the ice King is at 80 as he stands at a frosted window in the cold he so despised. Watching the weather and remarking.

[Frederick Tudor (older)]

The frost covers the window. The wheels creak, the boys run winter rules. And $50,000 worth of ice floats for me on fresh pond ice to cool the pallets of the world that I might be warm.

[Paul Shannon]

The world has come far since the days of Frederick Tudor and his shiploads of ice. And in no respect has it progressed further than in the science of refrigeration today. Modern electric refrigeration and ice making methods have long since made Tudor's enterprise out of date. But his discovery of better insulation to protect his ice helped push forward the day when the ice itself would be unnecessary. An unusual result indeed to Frederick Tudor's equally strange adventure in Research. And that's today's Adventures in Research. Produced in cooperation with the Westinghouse Research Laboratories, these programs are broadcast to armed forces personnel overseas through the facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Join us again next week for another transcribed story of science on Adventures in Research.