International holidays - International Day of Ice Makers (Ice Makers)

Icemaker's Day is a holiday for those whose activities are related to the preparation of ice. It is celebrated on January 16th. And the heroes of the occasion are all the pourers - those who work professionally at large sports venues, preparing ice for competitions of various levels, and those who pour hockey rinks in the courtyards for young hockey and skating fans. The date of the holiday is symbolic. On this day in 1901, engineer Frank Zamboni was born in America. It was he who invented the ice harvester for filling and restoring ice at skating rinks - the resurfacer. Up to this point, all preparation work was done manually. People often underestimate the work of such masters as ice makers. And no wonder, because they are in the shadow of everything that happens on the ice. The spectators' attention is captured by the athletes - the spectacular pucks of hockey players, sparkling lifts in ice dancing, graceful pirouettes of figure skaters. Few people think that in order for high-quality performances to become possible, the painstaking work of ice makers is necessary. Not only the level of the programs shown, but also the health and safety of the athletes depends on properly prepared ice. Often, athletes who have completed their professional careers become ice makers. They know better than anyone else the role high-quality ice plays in the performance of athletes. This profession is also chosen by people with a technical education, for example, engineers and builders. At the same time, their work schedule is very busy. On the days of major tournaments and international competitions, the ice should be in perfect condition by 7 am. At this time, athletes begin their warm-up and first training sessions. In addition, the ice requires constant grinding during competitions and a lot of restoration work after competitions. Therefore, ice makers end their working day late at night. The process of preparing ice itself is interesting and painstaking. It occurs in stages and requires a minimum of seven days. It all starts with creating the necessary atmospheric conditions. First of all, experts reduce the temperature of the base of the ice rink from room temperature to 0 degrees Celsius. Typically the base is concrete slabs or a monolithic concrete platform. Subsequently, the temperature of the base is brought to subzero. All this lasts for several days. The concrete base is washed and cleaned, and then filled with water from a hose. When the water level reaches 2 centimeters, it is painted. For example, in figure skating they use gray ice - they add white, then gray paint, and again fill it with a layer of water. The next stage of work is annealing. To implement this, the temperature of the base is raised, and after that a special combine begins to work in the arena. He squeezes the ice so that air and salt come out. At the end of the combine's rolling, the final layer of ice is poured.