0
SPEAKER_05
Guess what, Will?
0
SPEAKER_05
What s up, Mango?
0
SPEAKER_05
I ve been trying to write a promo for our podcast, Part-Time Genius, but even though we ve done over 250 episodes, we don t really talk about murders or cults.
0
SPEAKER_06
I mean, we did just cover the Illuminati of cheese, so I feel like that makes us pretty edgy.
0
SPEAKER_06
We also solve mysteries like how Chinese is your Chinese food and how do dollar stores make money?
0
SPEAKER_06
And then, of course, can you game a dog show?
0
SPEAKER_06
So what you re saying is everyone should be listening.
0
SPEAKER_06
Listen to Part-Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_03
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff.
0
SPEAKER_03
Where you been?
0
SPEAKER_03
Is that our new slogan?
0
SPEAKER_03
I guess.
0
SPEAKER_03
Okay, I like it.
0
SPEAKER_03
Okay, let s move forward.
0
SPEAKER_03
Maybe they ve been cutting ice.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, maybe.
0
SPEAKER_03
Riding around in a Zamboni, because that s what you call those things no matter what, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
That s true.
0
SPEAKER_02
An ice resurfacer or a resurfacing machine.
0
SPEAKER_02
It is a proprietary eponym, Zamboni, much like Band-Aid.
0
SPEAKER_02
It is the name of one company, but it seems like there are two big, big players among the ice resurfacing juggernaut.
0
SPEAKER_02
That is Zamboni and then the Olympia, which is made by the Resurface Corp.
0
SPEAKER_02
Corporation.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, but they cleverly spelled resurface with an I instead of an A at the end, so resurfice.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_03
Love it.
0
SPEAKER_02
I love it.
0
SPEAKER_03
And Zamboni is named after a single visionary man, technically three men, two, I guess.
0
SPEAKER_03
Let s just go with Frank.
0
SPEAKER_03
Frank J. Zamboni is widely credited as the inventor of the Zamboni or the ice resurfacing machine.
0
SPEAKER_03
And the reason why is because he invented it.
0
SPEAKER_02
That s right.
0
SPEAKER_02
We go back to 1940 when Frank Zamboni and Lawrence Zamboni, his brother and their cousin said, hey, let s open up an ice skating rink.
0
SPEAKER_02
We re in the ice business anyway.
0
SPEAKER_02
We have an ice and refrigeration plant, so we know how to make plenty of ice.
0
SPEAKER_02
Let s just spread that out over a floor and contain it and charge people to skate on it.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, they said that s a really good idea.
0
SPEAKER_03
Apparently it was extremely popular.
0
SPEAKER_03
The problem is, is when you have people skating on a rink of ice, it gets cut up pretty quickly.
0
SPEAKER_03
There s like divots and scratches and it s just, it looks terrible.
0
SPEAKER_03
It looks messy.
0
SPEAKER_03
So you want to make it look good again.
0
SPEAKER_03
And you have to resurface it.
0
SPEAKER_03
And resurfacing is a process.
0
SPEAKER_03
It s actually what Zambonis do, as we ll see.
0
SPEAKER_03
But originally, before the Zamboni was invented, for the first couple years that they owned the ice rink, Frank and Lawrence and the unnamed cousin had to do this by hand.
0
SPEAKER_03
So they would get a tractor that would drag like a blade that would kind of like shave the top of the ice.
0
SPEAKER_03
Then you have people following in the tractor s wake, cleaning up ice shavings, wetting the ice again, and then toweling it up to make it smooth.
0
SPEAKER_03
And the whole thing would take like an hour and a half just for this one ring.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s pretty bad.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I know you, I think you were joking when you said it looks terrible, so they need to make it look good.
0
SPEAKER_02
The problem with chopped ice, of course, is you can t skate on it very well at all.
0
SPEAKER_03
Well, that too.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
So yeah, taking way too long, too much human hours, too many hands involved.
0
SPEAKER_02
So Frank was like, hey, listen, I was born into a family that made and worked on farming equipment.
0
SPEAKER_02
I know how to make stuff and fix stuff.
0
SPEAKER_02
And so I m going to build a machine.
0
SPEAKER_02
And so Frank Zamboni built the Model A Zamboni ice resurfacer in 1949.
0
SPEAKER_02
Look up a picture of this thing when you get a chance.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s really cool looking.
0
SPEAKER_02
It looks like you would think a Model A Zamboni might look, which is to say kind of like an army jeep with a big wooden bin on top of it.
0
SPEAKER_02
And it looks like a little mechanical ladder, I guess, that brought ice up.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yes.
0
SPEAKER_03
So the reason it looked like a Jeep is because it was built on top of a Jeep chassis.
0
SPEAKER_03
They basically just cut the top off and built the rest of the Zamboni on top of it.
0
SPEAKER_03
They also used parts from an oil derrick and the hydraulic cylinder from a Douglas aircraft fighter plane.
0
SPEAKER_03
And I don t know if we mentioned or not, but Frank J. Zamboni was a mechanical genius.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I did.
0
SPEAKER_03
OK, good.
0
SPEAKER_03
Well, I second that.
0
SPEAKER_03
So this is 1949.
0
SPEAKER_03
That was the first Zamboni.
0
SPEAKER_03
And what s interesting is the ads clearly show essentially what looked like would have been the prototype, you know?
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_03
So that s what the first Zambonis were like.
0
SPEAKER_03
So it took a few years to really catch on.
0
SPEAKER_03
But they had some pretty big customers because what they were doing
0
SPEAKER_03
was providing a solution that was way more widespread than you probably would have thought.
0
SPEAKER_03
Anybody who made any kind of money from ice, skating on ice, really was facing all these same problems.
0
SPEAKER_03
So the idea of a machine that could do this in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the human hours, that was a big advancement in the field.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
I know, you know, when people complain about machines taking over jobs that people did, you know, sometimes it s a really good idea.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_03
No one was complaining about this one.
0
SPEAKER_02
No.
0
SPEAKER_02
Some of their early clients were the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
Figure skater Sonia Hinney, of course.
0
SPEAKER_02
And in 1967, they said, things are going so well, we re going to open up a second factory in Ontario, because they were turning out those Zambonis at a pretty good clip.
0
SPEAKER_02
Even though it s the kind of thing that requires a lot of maintenance, though, it s usually the kind of thing you hope to buy once.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, and one of the things that seems to have really kind of boosted the company s image is they were the official ice resurfacer for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley.
0
SPEAKER_03
And that really, I think, kind of sealed the deal for everybody.
0
SPEAKER_03
And then they also were, they went to the Soviet Union with ice capades in 1967, too.
0
SPEAKER_03
So the 60s were a big decade for the Zamboni Company.
0
SPEAKER_01
Should we take a break?
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, because we re going to come back because there s plenty of decades after the 60s.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s right.
0
SPEAKER_01
We ll be right back.
0
SPEAKER_06
Guess what, Mango?
0
SPEAKER_06
What s that, Will?
0
SPEAKER_06
So iHeart is giving us a whole minute to promote our podcast, Part-Time Genius.
0
SPEAKER_05
I know, that s why I spent my whole week composing a haiku for the occasion.
0
SPEAKER_05
It s about my emotional journey in podcasting over the last seven years, and it s called Earthquake House.
0
SPEAKER_06
Mango, I m going to cut you off right there.
0
SPEAKER_05
Why don t we just tell people about our show instead?
0
SPEAKER_05
Yeah, that s a better idea.
0
SPEAKER_05
So every week on Part-Time Genius, we feed our curiosity by answering the world s most important questions.
0
SPEAKER_05
Things like, when did America start dialing 911?
0
SPEAKER_05
is William Shatner s best acting work in Esperanto.
0
SPEAKER_05
Also, what happened to Esperanto?
0
SPEAKER_06
Plus, we cover questions like how Chinese is your Chinese food?
0
SPEAKER_06
How do dollar stores stay in business?
0
SPEAKER_06
And of course, is there an Illuminati of cheese?
0
SPEAKER_06
There absolutely is.
0
SPEAKER_05
And we are risking our lives by talking about it.
0
SPEAKER_05
But if you love mind blowing facts, incredible history and really bad jokes, make your brains happy and tune in to part time genius.
0
SPEAKER_06
Listen to Part Time Genius on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_08
Last season, millions tuned into the Betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception.
0
SPEAKER_08
I m Andrea Gunning, and now we re sharing an all-new story of betrayal.
0
SPEAKER_08
Stacey thought she had the perfect husband.
0
SPEAKER_08
Doctor, father, family man.
0
SPEAKER_08
It was the perfect cover for Justin Rutherford to hide behind.
0
SPEAKER_07
They led me into the house, and I mean, it was like a movie.
0
SPEAKER_07
He was sitting at our kitchen table.
0
SPEAKER_07
The cops were guarding him.
0
SPEAKER_08
Stacey learned how far her husband would go to save himself.
0
SPEAKER_07
I slept with a loaded gun next to my bed.
0
SPEAKER_00
He did not just say, I wish he was dead.
0
SPEAKER_00
He actually gave details and explained different scenarios on how to kill him.
0
SPEAKER_07
He, to me, is scarier than Jeffrey Dahmer.
0
SPEAKER_08
Listen to Betrayal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0
SPEAKER_02
So, since those early Zambonis, they ve changed quite a bit, ice resurfacers in general over the years.
0
SPEAKER_02
Just gotten better and better.
0
SPEAKER_02
They re still making improvements.
0
SPEAKER_02
There s one coming down the pike soon that s even more advanced than the last.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, yeah?
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, sure.
0
SPEAKER_02
They re always trying to make these things a little bit better, run a little cleaner.
0
SPEAKER_03
That s so Zamboni.
0
SPEAKER_02
So, how these things actually work is exactly sort of how they did it by hand, but a machine is doing it.
0
SPEAKER_02
You re basically just giving the surface of the ice a shave with a blade.
0
SPEAKER_02
The blade is about 77 to 96 inches, depending on the size of the machine.
0
SPEAKER_02
And the NHL says, just give me a real close trim, like a 1 32nd of an inch down.
1
SPEAKER_01
You don t have to scrape too much.
1
SPEAKER_01
And the total ice from an NHL rink, let s say, that you would scrape off is about 60 cubic feet.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_02
And on either side of the blade are up to four comfort strips that give a close and comfortable shave.
1
SPEAKER_02
Not buying that one.
1
SPEAKER_02
So that s generally like the main thing that s going on.
1
SPEAKER_02
You re trimming the ice.
1
SPEAKER_02
But the problem is when you trim ice, there s still little divots.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s not smooth necessarily.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s just uniform.
1
SPEAKER_02
So what the Zamboni does is it sprays water out in front of the blade.
1
SPEAKER_02
And that water is picked up by the Zamboni itself, kind of mixed up, I think, with the water or the snow that it picks up or the ice it generates.
1
SPEAKER_02
You just call it snow.
1
SPEAKER_02
And then out of the rear, they put down new water, warm water.
1
SPEAKER_02
that remelts the ice, and then they have essentially a squeegee at the back that smooths the whole thing over.
1
SPEAKER_02
Which, if that sounds familiar, that is what humans did.
1
SPEAKER_02
They just figured out how to put all those things into a machine.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and you know what?
1
SPEAKER_01
It s even better than that.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because that snow that they re picking up gets melted and goes into a tank and gets washed to be reused.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s a beautifully elegant sort of closed-loop system.
1
SPEAKER_02
That makes sense, because you re cleaning up the ice, you re collecting it as snow, as ice shavings, and then you re laying down more water to refreeze.
1
SPEAKER_02
It would make sense to just make the whole thing as closed a system as possible.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and they re heavy.
1
SPEAKER_01
If it s full of water, again, depending on the machine, it can go anywhere between 7,000 to 11,000 pounds total weight.
1
SPEAKER_01
And they hold anywhere from 210 or so to about 265 gallons of water.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
One of the things, you said that they are always kind of innovating.
1
SPEAKER_02
One of the things that s really become a thing in ice resurfacing world is electric ice resurfacers, which is a really good step forward because most of the time they re resurfacing ice in an enclosed ice rink.
1
SPEAKER_02
And if you ve ever, have you ever been to like a skating rink when they re resurfacing the ice and it s not an electric Samboni?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I played hockey for a couple of years.
1
SPEAKER_02
OK, so, you know, the whole place stinks of car exhaust and somehow hot pretzels.
1
SPEAKER_02
I don t know how every single ice rink in the world smells like the hot pretzels that they sell.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s for some reason really carries.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s a very distinct smell.
1
SPEAKER_02
I love it.
1
SPEAKER_01
Interesting.
1
SPEAKER_01
I never noticed that.
1
SPEAKER_02
Check it out next time.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ll bet you ll be like, oh, my God, it really smells like hot pretzels.
1
SPEAKER_01
I haven t skated in a while.
1
SPEAKER_01
I got pretty good for a little while, but it s been a minute.
1
SPEAKER_01
Did you?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
We got into it locally here.
1
SPEAKER_01
Like, a friend of mine worked at a rink, and they had called, they called it stick time, which is basically like after hours.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hockey players could pay like 10 bucks to go up there and just play like pickup games.
1
SPEAKER_02
Cool.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so we all kind of got into it and got gear, and I was never any good at it, but I got to where I could skate okay a little bit and move around a little bit.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s very hard.
1
SPEAKER_02
I was a shameful skater considering I grew up in Ohio where ponds just froze completely solid all the time.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Weak ankles, I guess.
1
SPEAKER_01
So Zamboni, we mentioned it being a proprietary eponym that kind of
1
SPEAKER_01
giveth and taketh away, because it s great when people just call any ice resurfacer a Zamboni.
1
SPEAKER_01
Not so great when you don t win the contract to the Winter Olympics, which is what happened in 2010 in Vancouver when those Olympia machines won the contract, and those machines malfunctioned.
1
SPEAKER_01
And all over the news, they re talking about the fact that the Zambonis aren t working.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, and Zamboni actually released a press release saying like, hey, those are not Zamboni brand machines.
1
SPEAKER_02
And in fact, Zamboni s got trucked in to finish the job after the Olympia machines just stopped working.
1
SPEAKER_02
I guess it was just a catastrophe.
1
SPEAKER_02
I read like an interview from the time and it was like,
1
SPEAKER_02
Like this is you re on the world stage and your stuff is not working well.
1
SPEAKER_02
So the Olympics are on hold right now because your machine isn t doing the job.
1
SPEAKER_01
I was trying to picture a press conference instead of just a press release, where they were like, you know, we ve shut down now.
1
SPEAKER_01
We want to make it clear.
1
SPEAKER_01
These are not Zambonis.
1
SPEAKER_01
These are ice resurfacers.
1
SPEAKER_01
They are not Zambonis.
1
SPEAKER_01
And the press is like, right, right.
1
SPEAKER_01
But what s actually wrong with the Zambonis?
1
SPEAKER_01
They re like, no, no, no.
1
SPEAKER_01
They aren t Zambonis.
1
SPEAKER_01
Just over and over and over.
1
SPEAKER_02
And he gets so, like, frustrated that his nose starts bleeding, he goes, somebody hand me a Kleenex.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, my God.
1
SPEAKER_02
Amazing.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, Chuck, I say we wrap this whole one up, because we basically reached the end here, don t you think?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, just we should mention price.
1
SPEAKER_01
These things are very, very expensive.
1
SPEAKER_01
The cheapest one that you actually need a tractor to drag this thing around is about $10,000.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I saw Zamboni say that they can go up above $500,000 sometimes.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s the gold plated one.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you look up Zamboni price, there are a lot of articles from like smaller towns, like civic organizations that are saying like, you know, do we have one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars to allocate toward a Zamboni for our city rank?
1
SPEAKER_02
That s, I mean, yeah, that s a lot of money.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s a big expenditure, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, the most expensive one only functions with Avion that has been used to wash Shannon Dougherty s hair.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s why it s so expensive.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m not buying that either.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I say short stuff s out.
1
SPEAKER_02
What do you say?
1
SPEAKER_02
I say it s out.
1
SPEAKER_00
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.
1
SPEAKER_00
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app.
1
SPEAKER_00
Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.