I once thought that ice…

Up until a few years ago – and I literally mean about 2010 – I thought “they” couldn’t make ice until we started using electricity. I mean historically. Again, like the “no waves in winter” one, it was a deduction based on an observation: if the power goes off at home today, the ice in the fridge melts. 

By compressing a gas – I assume using steam machines – they could create a ‘heat exchanger’ and thus cool water down below freezing point. Wikipedia points out there were functioning and patented ice-making machines in the 1850s. Edison wasn’t doing his stuff with electricity until about the 1880s.