History’s Coolest Déjà Vu: How We Killed Ice Twice

A Century of Chilly Disruptions

Every great technological shift has a moment when the old guard looks utterly ridiculous in hindsight. Few shifts, however, come with the poetic justice we are living through right now. A hundred years ago, Americans cancelled literal ice. Today, we are cancelling Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). The parallels are so tight they could make a penguin blush.

The Ice Age That Wasn’t Eternal

In 1900, the average US household depended on a burly man with iron tongs. Harvested ice from northern lakes was sawn into blocks, packed in sawdust, and delivered by horse wagon. By 1914, the industry peaked at 28 million tons annually. Companies like Knickerbocker Ice in New York boasted they would supply forever. Then General Electric and Frigidaire introduced electric refrigerators. Sales of fridges went from basically zero in 1920 to over 50% adoption in US homes by 1935. Ice delivery employment collapsed from 100,000 workers to almost none in fifteen years. Natural ice simply melted away as a business.

Same Disruption, Different Century

The internal combustion engine (or ICE) has been the powerhouse of personal transportation for a century. Let's look at the parallels between ice and ICE. Replace frozen lake water with Saudi crude, horse carts with tanker trucks, and the iceman’s tongs with a gasoline nozzle, and you have today’s situation. In 2024, Americans spent roughly $2,000 per year on gasoline, plus oil changes and smog checks, etc, for each car they owned. We line up at gas stations the way 1920s housewives waited for the ice wagon. Ice anxiety in 1925 meant praying the iceman came before the milk spoiled. ICE anxiety in 2025 means finding a working pump during a hurricane.

Why Resistance Feels Familiar

Ice barons in the 1920s ran full-page ads claiming electric refrigerators would explode or poison food with “artificial cold.” Sound familiar? Swap “artificial cold” for “battery fires” or “cobalt mines,” and you have 2025 EV FUD campaigns verbatim. Both times, the entrenched industry underestimated how much people hate inconvenience. Once middle-class families realized they could wake up to cold milk without scheduling a burly stranger, the game ended. Once drivers realize they can “refuel” while brushing their teeth and never visit a gas station again, the same social logic will kick in.

The Ultimate Irony

From harvesting frozen lakes to harvesting sunlight, humanity has come full circle, only quieter and without the exhaust.

Modern refrigerators now make their own ice cubes on demand, mocking the very profession they killed. We make our own ice at home, and soon we'll make our own "gas" too. Give it ten years, and the average US home with solar panels will generate more than enough electrons for its electric car, effectively making its own “gasoline.” From harvesting frozen lakes to harvesting sunlight, humanity has come full circle, only quieter and without the exhaust.

Parallel Disruption in Numbers

Metric	Ice Delivery (1920)	ICE Cars (2024)	Electric Replacement (current)
Delivery frequency	2-7 times per week	1-2 times per week	Overnight at home
Typical refill time	10 minutes	5-10 minutes	6-12 hours (unattended) or 20 min DC fast
Annual household cost	~$1000 USD (~$60 in 1920 dollars)	~$2,000 USD gasoline	~$400 USD electricity
Related US Jobs	~100,000 icemen & harvesters	~2 Million in oil industry	~900,000 in the electric utility sector
Smell in the kitchen/garage	Wet sawdust	Gasoline & exhaust	Energy freedom

Conclusion: Same Movie, Better Ending

History rarely repeats itself, but it often rhymes with a dad-joke level of precision. We once fired the iceman because electricity was cheaper, cleaner, and didn’t require scheduling. We are now firing the ICE man for the same reasons. The transition will create winners, losers, and plenty of laid-off roughnecks who will retrain faster than ice harvesters ever managed. One day, our grandchildren will laugh that we once burned ancient plankton, stood in the rain with a pump in our hand, and paid $5 a gallon just to commute, the same way we chuckle at sepia photos of men with ice tongs. Convenience and cost saving will drive the transition faster than any environmental message ever could. The destination is not some utopian fantasy. It is simply a future free from fossil fuels, and, let’s be honest, a future free from that lingering gasoline smell on Tuesday mornings. Chilling progress, indeed.