1953 Press Photo Ice - Smelter invention by Josef Loessner

Ice - Smelter. - A good invention made by a Fire- Brigade Forman.: Josef Loessner is the name of this forman employed in the Municipal water - works of the city of Freising,Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany. Very often, he noticed that during the cold winter time, fire-brigade men had a lot of trouble in removing the glaciated cap-like cover of a fire-hydrant. So he took an old hose, constructed a nozzle and fixed both items to the exhaust-pipe of a Diesel-engine. With this set he "smelted" in three minutes an eight centimeters thick ice-block. When he noticed this result, he improved his set which has been issued to all fire-brigade detachment all over this country. The new set however, has been technically improved and fire- men are able to "smelt" a 15 centimeters-thick ice-block in 15 seconds. It takes an indigenous fire-brigade man exactly 25 seconds to "smelt" an ice-cover of 1m which is about 1 inch thick. Photo shows Josef Loessner with his newly developed "Ice-Smelting-Set".

Photo measures 6 x 8 inches.

Photo is dated 01-01-1953.

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