The Zamboni: Where did it come from? | Stuff of Genius
If you've ever been to a hockey game or an ice-skating rink, then odds are you're already familiar with the quirky, unique machine known as the Zamboni. But where did come from?
Stuff of Genius tells the story behind everyday inventions. From the bikini to super wheat and everything in between. Viewers will learn the stories of unsung inventor heroes and their trials, tribulations and successes.
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Behold… the Zamboni. But where did it come from?
Meet Frank Zamboni, born in Utah in 1901.
Frank always had an entrepreneurial streak.
When he was 19, his parents gave up their farm and relocated to California, where Frank got a job at his brother’s garage.
Working as a mechanic and a blacksmith, Frank saved enough money to attend the Corne Trade School in Chicago, Illinois.
By 1922 Frank had already returned to California and set up a business with his brothers.
The Zamboni brothers specialized in electrical work, but they also branched out into ice-making.
Things went well until 1939, when the brothers realized that new refrigeration units would render their ice block business obsolete.
Instead of giving up completely, they decided to build an ice rink.
The rink was very popular, but ice rinks at the time had one huge drawback – it took forever to resurface the ice.
A crew of five men needed more than an hour to resurface the rink, and they had to do this multiple times a night.
Frank realized there had to be a better way, and he started experimenting.
Nine years after they opened the ice rink he hit upon the Stuff of Genius: Today, we call these vehicles ice-resurfacers.
Here’s how the Zamboni works: it cuts the ice with a blade and scoops up the shavings into a tank.
A water tank spray a thin mist of warm water onto the ice, and a towel or shammy runs over the ice, smoothing it out.
Frank Zamboni’s company is still the world’s premier manufacture of ice-resurfacing machines – the name is so common that most ice-resurfacers today are just called ‘Zambonis.’