Icebox, No Ice

As every one knows, the White House, erected in 1799, had a primitive icebox of shaggy lumber. The ice was cut from the Potomac River and stored in a deep cellar adjoining the Presidential abode. Ceremonious John Adams always needed a big supply; frugal Thomas Jefferson used little.

Meanwhile, Science spawned new wonders; Industry zoomed ahead. Along came Abraham Lincoln and an improved icebox. Then followed Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge (in 1924) with "bigger and better" refrigerators in the White House. But, it is Mr. Coolidge who brings the dawn of the great electrical era. The first event was the famed electric hobby horse ("camelephant"), upon which the President keeps fit. (TIME, Feb. 23, 1925.) Recently a new electric elevator was installed and also, mirabile dictu, an electric refrigerator system/- with finny copper cooling coils and four one-half horsepower compressors. This equipment is equivalent to 1,000 pounds of melting ice per day.

Now Mr. Coolidge can always have that cold chicken sandwich at midnight, and Mrs. Coolidge will not have to worry about the iceman's dirty tracks on the kitchen floor.

*It was once said that Vice President Dawes was considering the purchase of a "camelephant." Mrs. Dawes thought he needed exercise, urged him to buy the machine immediately. Before he could do so, the news came that Mr. Coolidge had already installed one. Then Mr Dawes said that he would not ape the President: refused to get himself an electric hobby horse. /-"Frigidaire," a machine manufactured by a subsidiary of the potent General Motors Corp.