 
Despite the popularity of ice skating and hockey in Canada, the Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine that we are all familiar with was actually invented in the United States. In 1940 an open-air ice rink called 'IceLand' opened in southern California in the U.S. At the time it was one of the largest skating rinks in the United States, with over 1800 square metres of ice surface. It was soon covered with a dome to help preserve the quality of the ice. Maintaining a good ice surface in those days meant pulling a scraper behind a tractor, and then having three to four people shovel away the shavings. This was followed by a good hosing with water, which was then squeegeed off. Allowing the wet surface to refreeze then took about an hour. What was needed was a way to resurface the ice quickly. Frank Zamboni was an American living in California who knew a lot about water pumps and refrigeration units, and who had built IceLand across the street from his refrigeration plant. He decided to design a vehicle that would do the job. His first self-propelled prototype ice-conditioning vehicle was patented in 1949. In 1950 he formed a company to manufacture them, and the first one was sold in Chicago that year. The original machines were built on a 4WD Jeep chassis. Over the next four years, Frank Zamboni's company produced 15 more of the vehicles, each one an improvement over the last. The original patent for the 'Zamboni Ice Resurfacer Model A' was granted in 1953. Soon his machines were appearing in ice arenas around the U.S. The first use of a Zamboni machine at the Olympics occurred in 1960 at Squaw Valley, California. The main Zamboni plant is still in Paramount, California, and there's a second plant in Brantford, Ontario. The company also has a branch office in Zurich, Switzerland. Frank J. Zamboni & Co. is still a family-run business; the plants employ 50 to 60 people and the machines are built year-round. The National Hockey League started purchasing Zamboni Ice Resurfacers in the early 1950s. A single Zamboni machine will usually stay in service for about ten to twenty years, although there are many of the early models that are still clearing rinks around North America. Machine number 8000 was built and sold in 2005. Zambonis are now electrically powered, and have a top speed of about 9 miles an hour. Here are some diagrams so you can see how they work:   |