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The Boston ice king
Discover how a stubborn Boston entrepreneur turned frozen New England ponds into a global empire, forever changing how the world drinks, eats, and stays cool.
4 chapters80 assets
by hank · Aug 3, 2026
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Chapter 1
Harvesting the frozen ponds of New England
1The cold source of the white gold
2The genius of the horse-drawn ice plow
3The grueling labor of the ice harvest
4Stacking and storing in massive icehouses
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Chapter 2
The struggle to ship ice to the tropics
1The disastrous first voyage of 1806
2The dark days of debtors' prison
3The secret magic of pine sawdust
4Teaching the world how to drink cold
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Chapter 3
Ice around the world
1The legendary voyage to Calcutta
2Changing British India's hot afternoons
3Ice reaches the Southern Hemisphere
4London falls in love with Wenham Lake
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Chapter 4
The legacy and the demise of natural ice
1The birth of the home icebox
2Saving lives in the summer heat
3The rise of artificial ice machines
4The final melt of the ice empire
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