That industrialists made fortunes from ice-a product that is so ubiquitous today-may seem bizarre, but the birth of the ice industry is a crucial historic development, says Andrew Robichaud, a Boston University assistant professor of history who is writing a book on the ice trade, which took off in the 1820s and lasted about 100 years-until refrigeration rendered it unnecessary. By the year 1847, Robichaud says that 353 ice-packed vessels left Boston Harbor on their way to the American South, as well as international ports like Rio de Janeiro and Hong Kong. Boston alone exported almost 75,000 tons of ice that year, and used another 27,000 tons here. Much of it came from Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a kettle hole lake about five miles outside downtown Boston.
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