Seattle's Artificial Ice Ambition
A newly incorporated company plans to manufacture artificial ice for the Puget Sound region.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
This morning we are pleased to inform our residents of Seattle and Puget Sound that the ice famine is rapidly drawing to a close, not by the kindness of nature, but that there has been organized a manufacturing corporation, outfitting with the necessary machinery to manufacture artificial ice and supply it to the residents of Puget Sound at a rate that everybody can afford to use it. The officers of the company are Captain Charles Hopkins of Seattle, O. O. O’Dool of Washington, D. C., Nathaniel W. H. D. Heaney of Seattle, Major William K. Porter of Seattle, and Colonel Geo. O. Lyon of Seattle. The name of the enterprise is the Puget Sound Ice Company. The capital stock is $12,000, all paid up, and the chief office and principal place of business is Seattle. The object of the company is to manufacture ice from pure and scientific sources. Land has been leased from Captain Hopkins in the rear of his new block on Front street, on which suitable buildings will be constructed at once. The machinery is purchased and contracts have been signed that it will be installed in place and be in running order by the first of January. The capacity of the works will be eight tons per day, which will be increased from time to time as the business will justify.
“This morning we are pleased to inform our residents of Seattle and Puget Sound that the ice famine is rapidly drawing to a close.”
In 1886, before modern refrigeration was ubiquitous, ice was a precious, harvested commodity subject to 'famines.' Today, Seattle’s climate is rapidly changing, turning the necessity for cooling and energy-efficient climate control into one of the city's most critical infrastructure and equity challenges.
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