SC - Period cooling (was ice)

[David Dendy]

At 11:16 AM -0500 5/24/00, Lady Ysabeau of Prague wrote:
>Greetings,
>
>I seemed to have read somewhere about a way to make a cooler out of unglazed
>pottery, like terracotta flower pots. The theories involved could have
>worked in period.


I believe that such are described in  _The Modern Egyptions_. It's a 
mid 19th century account, so doesn't prove they existed in period, 
but it seems likely.

Allison writes, describing Anne Hagen's work:


>A note regarding the [possible] use of saltpetre [potassium nitrate] to
>preserve dead bodies, and freeze ale or water, in Estonia.  She thinks it
>was not practiced in England.

The use of saltpetre to cool shows up in the _Ain I Akbari_, so it is 
period in Northern India, although late period.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/