ICE CONCRETE—This is the name of a new, porous, astonishingly light building material invented in Finland. Like ordinary concrete, it is composed of cement and sand. Crusht ice or snow is used during the process of mixing. Says Waldemar Kaempffert in the New York Times:

Heat evaporates the water of the melting ice, and the result is a block or brick uniformly honeycombed with minute pores. The number of pores varies directly with the quantity of ice or snow mixed with the cement and sand. Building blocks thus made are exceedingly light and durable. In a house or office building of ice concrete there is a saving of weight varying from 20 to 50 per cent. Because they are cellular in structure, the blocks act as insulators to keep out heat in summer and cold in winter. If ice concrete is made without sand the resultant product is a tough compound that can be sawed, nailed, screwed, chiseled, and cut as readily as if it were wood.”

Source: The Literary Digest for October 1, 1927

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