Sorry about the late reply, but those are great questions!
1) I think it's just because sailing to and working in Antarctica was hard and dangerous. An industrial ice harvesting operation would have required a long-term sustainable presence in Antarctica with a large number of labourers living there for a long period and being appropriately supplied. In the 19th and early 20th century, even short-term exploratory voyages in and around Antarctica were often disastrous. so I think the challenges of setting up an operation there would have been much greater than those of transporting ice from Boston.
2) That is one form, but I also mean to include other forms of heat transfer into (for emission) or out of (for absorption) an object. This could include conduction - where energy is transferred between particles on touching surfaces of different objects; convection - where higher energy particles leave a higher temperature object or enter a lower temperature object; or radiation - where electromagnetic radiation such as infrared leaves or enters the object. Generally, a mixture of these processes will happen, but I just talk about absorption or emission of heat wherever I mean energy is gained or lost from an object's environment.
I have two beginner's questions:
1. Why did they import ice from Boston if antarctica is relatively close-by?
2. if you write that heat is emitted or absorbed, that is in the form of (infrared) radiation, right?
Sorry about the late reply, but those are great questions!
1) I think it's just because sailing to and working in Antarctica was hard and dangerous. An industrial ice harvesting operation would have required a long-term sustainable presence in Antarctica with a large number of labourers living there for a long period and being appropriately supplied. In the 19th and early 20th century, even short-term exploratory voyages in and around Antarctica were often disastrous. so I think the challenges of setting up an operation there would have been much greater than those of transporting ice from Boston.
2) That is one form, but I also mean to include other forms of heat transfer into (for emission) or out of (for absorption) an object. This could include conduction - where energy is transferred between particles on touching surfaces of different objects; convection - where higher energy particles leave a higher temperature object or enter a lower temperature object; or radiation - where electromagnetic radiation such as infrared leaves or enters the object. Generally, a mixture of these processes will happen, but I just talk about absorption or emission of heat wherever I mean energy is gained or lost from an object's environment.
Very cool article