The Zamboni as we know it (Driving.ca/YouTube).
Ice-obsessed brothers Frank and Lawrence Zamboni created the first ever ice-resurfacing machine in 1949.
Frank and Lawrence were born in Eureka, Utah, in the early 20th century to Italian immigrant parents. The brothers would move to Idaho with their parents, and then to Los Angeles, where the family settled down with their older brother George, who operated an auto shop. They would stay in California, a great place to invest in the ice industry.
Ice Ice Baby
The Zamboni brothers got icey first in the 1920s. They would create ice blocks for the food industry, a popular way to keep food cold before refrigerators became a household staple. The brothers did well, but so did the refrigerator industry. Ice block production was mostly fazed out by the 1940s.
Fans of blocks of ice, Lawrence and Frank, decided to make a giant one indoors. Ice skating wasn’t a unique concept; bodies of water have been frozen over and skated over since ever. However, the idea of freezing and maintaining giant chunks of ice in a building in a warm city was innovative.
The Zamboni’s came up with such an amazing invention as a result of need. As every attendee of children’s birthday parties who had to don a pair of ankle-aching ice skates knows, the ice doesn’t stay pretty long. Ice gets slushy, divots are created in the surface, and you’re more likely to get that dreaded ice sliver in your hand when you fall.
The initial Zamboni was manual; it required several people and 90 minutes or more. Initially, the workers had to shave off the top layer of ice, remove the top layer, squeegee the ice, and then spray another layer of water that everyone had to wait to freeze.
It’s Zamboni Time
Frank wouldn’t be held back by his lack of formal education (he left school at 15); you can’t hold genius back. As an inventor with patents already, Frank first attempted to tackle the ice issue in 1942. The formal name of the machine was the Zamboni Ice Resurfacer.
The Model A
It took Frank seven years, but he would not be stopped. Eventually, in 1949, the first Zamboni was created. On a Jeep platform, a wooden box held ice shavings that the machine picked up. A tank on the Jeep with water pumped it on to the ice and collected it via a bucket. Another layer of water was placed on the ice and left to dry. This took 15 minutes, in comparison to 90.
This Model A still exists and was refurbished by the original ice rink in 1998; it works, but it has done its duty and is enjoying retirement.
The Model B
The Model B was created in 1950 and patented in 1953. Inspired by the initial Model A, ice skater Sonja Henie wanted one for herself; she got an updated model.
Zamboni adoption was slow; as of 1956, 32 were sold. As ice rinks grew in popularity, so did Frank’s invention. Soon, the sports world had to have one. The Jeep on wheels was first used by the NHL in 1954 and by the Olympics in 1960.
Zamboni Thoughts
What did Frank think about this whole situation? He knew a good thing when he saw it: he would tell rink owners that the product they were selling was ice. So the state of the ice was critical.
Despite Frank’s love of ice, he was surprised that one of his inventions became so popular in the world of frozen water. Posthumously, the inventor was inducted into the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame; his son Richard thought he would be thoroughly pleased.
This was hardly the only honor Frank would receive. He has dozens of awards and honorary degrees from various institutions. His fourth Zamboni, “No. 4,” is enshrined in the US Hockey Hall of Fame, and so is its creator.
The State Of The Ice
Pre-Zamboni, things were dicey. There were different attempts to get as many bodies on the ice as possible to speed up the manual process, but the arduous process could only go so fast.
At some facilities, a tractor with a blade would be driven along, motorizing the resurfacing process. A wheelbarrow/hose contraption was implemented to spread the water out easier.
Hockey rules would be altered as well. Originally, the game was played in two separate 30-minute halves with an extremely long intermission in between to restore the ice. The surface was so rough after those 30 minutes that the game was done at walking speed.
The NHL tried out a three-period system. Each period was 20 minutes long, and there was an interception in between each round. The quality of the game increased with better ice, and debatably also because more interceptions allowed more beer fetching for fans. The Zamboni helped shorten these interceptions to a more reasonable period of time, and NHL fans still enjoy two of them to this day.
For another ice-cold story, look here.
