Ice cubes are small pieces ofice that are oftencubes. These pieces are sometimes used to cooldrinks. Ice cubes are used inmixed drinks, when the drink has the words "on the rocks."
Ice cubes are made by filling a tray withwater and putting it in afreezer. Many freezers also have anicemaker. Icemakers make ice cubes and put them in a bin. After that, they can be put in a glass.
Ice cubes are also madecommercially and sold in large amounts. These ice cubes are usuallycylindrical, and might have holes through the center. Commercially made ice cubes are very clear, as the water doesn't have much air dissolved in it.
Ice cubes can also becrushed into different-shaped flakes, which some people think makes some kinds ofcocktails look better. Crushed ice is also used to cool a drink or other liquid quickly because the speed of cooling depends on theamount andaverageradius of the ice particles.[1]
Americanphysician andhumanitarianJohn Gorrie built arefrigerator in1844 to be able to cool air. His refrigerator made ice, which he hung from theceiling in abasin. Gorrie is the creator of ice cubes, even though he was not trying to cool drinks. Instead, he used the ice to cool the room'stemperature. During that time, people thought thatbad air quality made people sick. So, to help treatsickness, headvocated for the draining ofswamps and the cooling ofsickrooms.
Ice cube trays are designed to be filled withwater, then put in afreezer until the water freezes toice, thus creating ice cubes. Trays are oftenflexible, so the ice cubes can be removed easily by flexing the tray. Another design is analuminum tray with alever that raises the ice cubes up, releasing them from the tray. Amotorized kind of this is in mostautomatic ice-making freezers.
Even though ice cubes are usually shaped like cubes, there are trays that makespherical orcylindrical shapes. These are sometimes calledice tubes. Somenovelty trays make blocks of ice inseasonal,festive, or other shapes.
The first flexible,stainless steel, all-metal ice cube tray was made byGuy L. Tinkham in1933. The tray bent sideways to remove the ice cubes.
The firstrubber ice cube tray was made byLloyd Groff Copeman. One day in1928, while walking through some woods gettingsap formaple syrup, Copeman saw thatslush and ice came off of his rubberboots instead of sticking to them. After talking about it with hispatent attorney at lunch, he didexperiments using rubber cups. Later, he made and patented several kinds of tray: a metal tray with rubber separators, a metal tray with individual rubber cups, and a tray made of only rubber.[2]