Ice House Vending
A patented machine manufactured in the United States; for the purpose of manufacturing, storing, bagging, and vending fresh chipped ice.
Definition
A vending machine is a machine that provides various consumable products to consumers. Ice is the name given to any one of the 14 known solid phases of water.
History
The first vending machine in the U.S. was built in 1888 selling gum on train platforms.
Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the invention of the refrigerator. The most common designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to NATURAL sources of winter ice such as fresh water lakes.
Ice houses allowed a trade in ice that was a major part of the early economy of The New England region of the United States, which saw fortunes made by people who shipped ice in straw-packed ships to the southern U.S. and throughout the Caribbean Sea.
As home and business refrigeration became more common, ice houses disappeared. The home ice delivery business declined, and was virtually gone by the late 1960âs. Today most ice for daily consumption is made in a home freezer, while bulk ice is manufactured, distributed and sold like other retail commodities.
Manufacturer
Ice House America (www.icehouseamerica.com) manufactures a free standing patented (U.S. Patent No. 6,932,124 and U.S. Patent No. 7,104,291) ice vending and storage building (The Ice House) is capable of producing 13,000 lbs of ice per day. The Ice House, in the normal course of business, uses electricity and water from a public source.
Ice House America was chartered in November of 2003. Headquartered in Atlantic Beach, FL and with a manufacturing facility in Moultrie, GA, IHA has contracted with 30+ retail dealers across 18 states and several international countries to provide sales of individual machines in excess of 750.
See also
- Ice
- Icehouses
- Ice Vending
- Ice Maker
Sources
- 1 - Ice House America