An ice rink is a frozen body of water or an artificial sheet of ice where people can ice skate or play winter sports.
Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows.
There are two types of ice rinks in prevalent use today:
- Natural ice rinks, where freezing occurs from cold ambient temperatures.
- Artificial ice rinks (or mechanically frozen), where a coolant produces cold temperatures underneath the water body (on which the game is played), causing the water body to freeze and then stay frozen.
Ice rinks are commonly used for ice hockey games.
Besides recreational ice skating, some of its uses include: ice hockey, sledge hockey (a.k.a. "Para ice hockey", or "sled hockey"), spongee (a.k.a. sponge hockey), bandy, rink bandy, rinkball, ringette, broomball (both indoor and outdoor versions), Moscow broomball, speed skating, figure skating, ice stock sport, curling, and crokicurl.
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However, Moscow broomball is typically played on a tarmac tennis court that has been flooded with water and allowed to freeze.
Rink, a Scottish word meaning 'course', was used as the name of a place where curling was played.
History of Artificial Ice Rinks
Early attempts in the construction of artificial ice rinks were first made in the 'rink mania' of 1841-44.
The technology for the maintenance of natural ice did not exist, therefore these early rinks used a substitute consisting of a mixture of hog's lard and various salts.
An item in the May 8, 1844 issue of Eliakim Littell's Living Age headed "The Glaciarium" reported that, "This establishment, which has been removed to Grafton street East' Tottenham Court Road, was opened on Monday afternoon.
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By 1844, these venues fell out of fashion as customers grew tired of the 'smelly' ice substitute.
It wasn't until thirty years later that refrigeration technology developed to the point where natural ice could finally be feasibly used in the rink.
How Ice Skating Became the Highlight of the Winter Social Season
The First Mechanically Frozen Ice Rink
The world's first mechanically frozen ice rink was the Glaciarium, opened by John Gamgee, a British veterinarian and inventor, in a tent in a small building just off the Kings Road in Chelsea, London, on 7 January 1876.
Gamgee had become fascinated by the refrigeration technology he encountered during a study trip to America to look at Texas fever in cattle.
The rink was based on a concrete surface, with layers of earth, cow hair and timber planks.
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Atop these were laid oval copper pipes carrying a solution of glycerine with ether, nitrogen peroxide and water.
The pipes were covered by water and the solution was pumped through, freezing the water into ice.
Gamgee operated the rink on a membership-only basis and attempted to attract a wealthy clientele, experienced in open-air ice skating during winters in the Alps.
The rink initially proved a success, and Gamgee opened two further rinks later in the year: at Rusholme in Manchester and the "Floating Glaciarium" at Charing Cross in London, this last significantly larger at 35.1 by 7.6 metres (115 by 25 ft).
Ice Rink in Frankfurt, Germany.
In the marshlands of The Fens, skating was developed early as a pastime during winter where there were plenty of natural ice surfaces.
This is the origin of the Fen skating and is said to be the birthplace of bandy.
In Germany, the first ice skating rink opened in 1882 in Frankfurt during a patent exhibition.
It covered 520 m2 (5,600 ft2) and operated for two months; the refrigeration system was designed by Jahre Linde, and was probably the first skating rink where ammonia was used as a refrigerant.
Early 20th Century Rinks
The St. Nicholas Rink, (a.k.a. "St. Nicholas Arena"), was an indoor ice rink in New York City which existed from 1896 until its demolition in the 1980s.
The oldest indoor artificial ice rink still in use in the United States is Boston, Massachusetts's, Matthews Arena (formerly Boston Arena) which was built between 1909 and 1910.
This American rink is the original home of the National Hockey League (NHL) Boston Bruins.
The Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval is an outdoor ice rink in Roseville, Minnesota, that is large enough to allow ice skaters to play the sport of bandy.
Its perimeter is used as an oval speed skating track.
The facility was constructed between June and December 1993.
It is the only regulation-sized bandy field in North America and serves as the home of USA Bandy and its national bandy teams.
The oval measures at 400 meters long and 200 meters wide, which makes it the largest artificial outdoor refrigerated sheet of ice in North America.
It is a world-class facility that is primarily used for ice sports such as ice skating, ice hockey, speed skating, and bandy.
The first building in Canada to be electrified was the Victoria Skating Rink which opened in 1862 in Montreal.
The rink was created using natural ice.
At the start of the twentieth century, it had been described as "one of the finest covered rinks in the world" and was used during winter for pleasure skating, ice hockey, and skating sports.
The Denman Arena (1911) was the first indoor ice rink in Canada to use artificial ice.
Located in Vancouver, it was the primary site for the Pacific Coast Hockey Association professional ice hockey league.
It was destroyed by fire in 1936.
The National Hockey Association (NHA) got its first artificial ice rink arena in 1912 with the opening of the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto.
Two of the oldest buildings formerly used for indoor ice rinks are still standing: the Stannus Street Rink (1897) in Windsor, Nova Scotia, and the Aberdeen Pavilion (1898) in Ottawa.
Construction and Maintenance
Many ice rinks consist of, or are found on, open bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, canals, and sometimes rivers; these can be used only in the winter in climates where the surface freezes thickly enough to support human weight.
Rinks can also be made in cold climates by enclosing a level area of ground, filling it with water, and letting it freeze.
In any climate, an arena ice surface can be installed in a properly built space.
This consists of a bed of sand or occasionally a slab of concrete, through (or on top of) which pipes run.
The pipes carry a chilled fluid (usually either a salt brine or water with antifreeze, or in the case of smaller rinks, refrigerant) which can lower the temperature of the slab so that water placed atop will freeze.
This method is known as 'artificial ice' to differentiate from ice rinks made by simply freezing water in a cold climate, indoors or outdoors, although both types are of frozen water.
Modern rinks have a specific procedure for preparing the surface.
With the pipes cold, a thin layer of water is sprayed on the sand or concrete to seal and level it (or in the case of concrete, to keep it from being marked).
This thin layer is painted white or pale blue for better contrast; markings necessary for hockey or curling are also placed, along with logos or other decorations.
Another thin layer of water is sprayed on top of this.