Cooper In Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau declared, "it appears that the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well." What he meant by this was that the ice cut from Walden Pond would travel, in Boston ships, to those far off places, and be used to chill drinks. Mark Huston, "Refrigeration and the 1632 World: Opportunities and Challenges" (Grantville Gazette 8) addressed the prospects for artificial refrigeration in the 1632 universe. It will happen, and it will happen a lot sooner than it did in the old time line (OTL), but it will not happen right away and it will not happen everywhere at once. For one thing, all the appropriate refrigerants are in short supply, and those which are most readily available are also rather dangerous to use. A short-range snow and ice trade existed before the Ring of Fire, and a long-range trade sprang up in the nineteenth century and was quite profitable. I believe that there will be a window of opportunity in which it can prosper in the new time line until it is finally eclipsed by modern refrigeration.
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