TERRAFORMING TERRA
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Friday, October 25, 2019
How the Zamboni Changed the Game for Ice Rinks
This is a family story of the invention of a niche industry that is usually written in Europe in particular, but in North America, such businesses got too big and then chased other markets to make shareholders happy. Here we have the Zamboni and no one really wants to fight them for what is clearly a solid niche market. They earned their industry by actually making it work. Recall that a rink gets used heavily for even an hour, it then must be properly resurfaced. Throw in that this machine then allows many rinks to be operated 24/7 with the only down time used to clear the ice. Thus the Zamboni allowed rinks to massively increase real time ice capacity.It really was the missing link for an industry that was in demand..How the Zamboni Changed the Game for Ice Rinks Invented by rink owner Frank Zamboni, the ice-clearing machine celebrates its 70th anniversary this yearimage:
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The Zamboni totally transformed winter sports by giving
chopped-up ice surfaces a fresh-frozen smoothness in a matter of
minutes.
(David Brewster/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The Ice Capades
were in Boston on New Year’s Day 1954. That evening, the Boston Bruins
were also scheduled to play in Boston Garden. The maintenance crew was
dreading clearing the ice in just a few hours in preparation for the NHL
game against the New York Rangers.
It was a laborious process, requiring shovels, brooms, squeegees
and pushing small handheld plows around to clean the surface. It
worked—sort of—but the ice usually had an uneven finish and tended to be
bumpy, which could cause the puck to bounce in unexpected ways and
skaters to lose their balance.
Fortunately, Bob Skrak was working for the Ice Capades that day. He
operated a new piece of equipment that smoothed the ice for the figure
skaters so it was as clear as if fresh made. Bruins management
immediately took notice and ordered a unit. It was delivered to the team
in the fall.
That fabled piece of equipment—Zamboni Model E21,
the first to be used by an NHL team—was a game-changer. It was driven
around Boston Garden for years by Lelo Grasso, who would deftly tip his
trademark fedora to the crowd as he circled the ice. In 1988, when the
Boston Bruins ordered a new machine, it sent Model E21 back to the Zamboni manufacturing plant in Paramount, California, to be restored. It is now in the collection of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada. image:
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Getting into the Hockey Hall of Fame is tough enough; but it almost
became impossible on July 25, 1990, for one of the original Zamboni
machines. Workmen had a long struggle before finally squeezing it
through a side door.
(Ken Faught/Toronto Star via Getty Images)Invented by Frank Zamboni, the eponymous ice-clearing machine celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. He applied for his first U.S. patent in 1949,
for this innovative idea that totally transformed winter sports by
giving chopped-up ice surfaces a fresh-frozen smoothness in a matter of
minutes.
“At the time, he was just trying to address a need of his,” says
Frank Zamboni, the inventor’s grandson and now president of the Zamboni Company.
“He saw a need for the ice rink he owned with his brother and cousins
because of the time requirements. Instead of taking 1 1/2 hours to clean
the ice, that was time somebody could be paying to skate on it.”
image:
https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/LMPh38yZiu50Xztj1EMBUCM0a0g=/fit-in/1072x0/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/4d/be/4dbe778e-bb38-4e4c-ae6b-01607a4e0be3/zamboni_patent.pngFrank Zamboni's "Ice Rink Resurfacing Machine," patented June 23, 1953
(U.S. Patent 2,642,679)Contrary to popular belief, the Zamboni machine was not invented in
Canada—the place of snow and ice—but in Southern California—the land of
sun and fun. The elder Zamboni operated an ice-making plant in
Paramount. As modern refrigeration equipment became more popular, he
could see his business melting away like, well, ice in the California
sun.
So Zamboni decided to diversify in 1939 by opening a small skating rink, now known as Paramount Iceland.
As time went on, he saw a need to quickly clean the ice, so he started
improvising with war-surplus equipment. Ten years later, Zamboni came up
with a prototype that, as the patent describes, “functions
automatically to shave the ice, convey the shaved ice to a large
receptacle attached to the vehicle, and then squeegee a thin film of
water over the surface of the ice so as to provide a like-new surface
when the water is frozen.”
“He learned a lot from that first
machine, the Model A,” says Paula Coony, brand manager at Zamboni. “It
was the biggest machine he ever built, a one-of-a-kind. It was all built
from war-surplus. There was even landing gear from a Douglas bomber!”
Zamboni
began to refine his invention so it worked more efficiently. One of the
first things he did was to change the chassis. Zamboni built the Model B
using a Willys Jeep for the frame. That innovation would provide a
signature look for the machine over the next few years.
image:
https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/duNI5nXgjoggSwXvuyiHTSC6nno=/fit-in/1072x0/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/f1/d3/f1d31dc7-3d69-47bf-af66-dc7408cc35be/modelc.jpg Model C
(Zamboni Company Archives)
At first, Zamboni was only thinking
about making a better machine for his rink. However, owners at other
arenas saw the equipment in action and wanted it for their own use.
Then, in 1950, Olympic ice skating star Sonja Henie
was practicing at Iceland and witnessed Zamboni’s invention turning
rough ice into a smooth surface. She ordered two for her European tour.
Sales slowly increased as word spread and ice sports became more
popular in the 1950s. Fortune took a hand in 1960 when the Winter
Olympics was held in Squaw Valley, California, complete with widespread
television coverage. The U.S hockey team stunned the world for the first time by winning the gold medal on clean ice prepared by Frank Zamboni’s machines.
“The more people saw it, the better it sold,” says grandson Frank. image:
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An ad for a Zamboni
(Zamboni Company Archives)The business grew quickly after that.
Canada, hockey’s birthplace, was important to the company’s success. In
1967, Zamboni opened its first manufacturing facility north of the
border. Today, that facility is located in Brantford, Ontario,
birthplace of “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer.
The
younger Frank headed north in 1983. He helped build the plant in
Brantford and strengthen the company’s position in this crucial market.
Though Canada has a tenth of the population of the United States, it has
three times more ice rinks than its neighbor to the south.
“The reason for me coming to Canada was the importance of this
market,” the Zamboni president says. “It’s the biggest in the world.
Hockey is foundational in this culture. As a Canadian citizen now, as
well as an American, I realize how important hockey and skating are up
here.” image:
https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/EfCQsH_1bDwtiUlFFq-duDYH9MA=/fit-in/1072x0/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/f6/b7/f6b797a1-3b22-4117-8e0a-97f88c9d13de/frank_and_richard_zamboni.jpg Ice resurfacing machine pioneers Frank Zamboni (right) and his son
Richard Zamboni (left) with their Zamboni machine in background in 1985.
(Bob Riha Jr/WireImage/Getty Images)
The inventor, who died in 1988, fiddled with his designs throughout
his life. He even created equipment, based on his original ice-cleaning
unit, for, as a 1978 patent describes, “laying down and taking up strips of artificial turf” in baseball and football stadiums. His last patent in 1983 was for an ice-edging machine that removed buildup along the boards at arenas.
The Zamboni Company remains a family-run business today. Sales are
global now with a variety of Zamboni machines and equipment specifically
made for different markets. While the firm does not release production
numbers, it does acknowledge its preeminence in the marketplace.
“Of the 500 to 600 ice-cleaning machines made by all manufacturers
today, we produce the majority of them,” Coony says. “And they are all
built by hand. Each one is custom built.”
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-zamboni-changed-game-ice-rinks-180973352/#kMZiR4R5q2FRrTcW.99 Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
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