SMOOTH AS ICE Zamboni celebrates its 65th anniversary by DEBRA RUGHOO Everyone from amateurs to professionals will
attest that there’s nothing like skating on a fresh sheet of ice. Te smooth, even surface allows skat- ers to glide along easily. With constant use, howev- er, ice becomes scratched and chipped, so it needs to be cleaned and resurfaced. Before the 1950s, there was no simple way of doing this. Back then a tractor pulled a scraper to shave
the ice surface, and three or four workers shoveled the shavings into a bucket. Te surface then had to be hosed down and squeegeed, before another layer of water could be spread to create new ice. Te entire process took more than an hour. Tankfully, Frank Zamboni, who built Ice-
land Skating Rink in Paramount, Calif., saw the inefficiency of this method and started experiment- ing in the 1940s with how to cut down on the time and manpower it took to resurface the 20,000 square feet of ice at his rink. He eventually built a machine constructed with an army surplus engine and axles and vehicle components that did it all: shaved the ice surface with a blade, swept up the shavings and moved them to a tank via a conveyor belt, washed and squeegeed the ice, and spread a thin layer of water to make a fresh sheet of ice. Te “Model A Zam- boni Ice Resurfacer,” which had four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, became a working reality in 1949.
Te Zamboni machine transformed the way
ice was resurfaced forever, making the multi-per- son, time-consuming task into a solo, 15-minute operation. It is quite fitting that its inventor hails from a city in Utah called Eureka. Tough Zamboni created an ice resurfacer just to solve the problem he was having at his rink,
Courtney Hicks, center, took part in the annual holiday show at Paramount Iceland. She was greeted in the rink’s lobby by Mary Ann Russell, Richard Zamboni (son of Zamboni inventor Frank J. Zamboni); Alice Zamboni (wife of Richard); and Jill Contreras. Mary Ann and Jill are Richard’s daughters.
U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame member Frank J. Zamboni changed the ice skating world with his invention of an ice resurfacing machine.
the machine began to gain popularity elsewhere, thanks to a famous figure skater. Tree-time Olympic champion and 10-time
World titlist Sonja Henie of Norway was practic- ing at Iceland for her traveling ice show and saw the Zamboni being used. She loved the machine and asked Frank to build her one. He updated his original Zamboni and built a Model B machine for Henie to tour with. She later purchased another one to use on tour in Europe. Henie’s traveling show helped the Zamboni machine gain exposure throughout North America and Europe and piqued the interest of arena own- ers. Te Ice Capades also heard about the ice resur- facer and was next to order one. Te show toured 22 cities across America, giving the Zamboni more publicity. After that, ice rinks in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Dallas and Philadelphia wanted the machine, too.
22 FEBRUARY 2014
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