What’s a Saturday evening in summer without the sound of an ice cream maker churning away? While ice and all the joys it brings have been popular for a long time, ice cream’s popularity really started to heat up at the end of the 19th century. While ice cream as we know it has been around since the 18th century and hand-crank makers since the mid-1800s, ice cream really took off when the Industrial Revolution made making and storing ice cream so much easier. Ice cream parlors and soda fountains sprang up everywhere, and they only became more popular during Prohibition.
And do we have the equipment to prove it! In the database you’ll find early ice cream advertising from Borden’s, Breyer’s, Dove and Hershey’s. My favorites are two serving trays, one for Dove and one for Pearl ice cream. A savvy manufacturer was at work, because they’re pretty much identical, except for the company name! We’ve also got a variety of ice cream dippers, including a nifty gadget that is designed for making ice cream sandwiches, but if it’s not ice cream sandwiches you like, you can have your ice cream molded into a variety of shapes, including a castle. (Castles are for those with expensive tastes – the pewter mold here sold for over $2,000!) In terms of sheer gadgetry, though, it’s hard to beat the item pictured above: a hand-crank malt/milkshake shaker. I think you’d be ready for something frosty by the time you finished operating this. So, go have some ice cream, sit in front of a fan, and be thankful for the joys of modern technology!
