The pharaohs in the ancient Egypt knew the fruit juices chilled with snow. But they were not very much like the nowadays ice-cream. We also know, that the English king James II. had served something similar in 1686 and that one portion of this delicacy cost one pound. James´ elder brother Charles II. ate ice-cream even sooner in 1660 in his Parisian exile. We even know, that the president of USA George Washington was an ice-cream lover.

Most probably the invention which made ice-cream possible to be produced was the invention of Blasius Villafranca from Rome. In 1550 he found out, that it is possible to reach the freezing-point by adding alum or salt to ice. Thanks to this he succeeded in making a frozen cram mixture. The first hand icecream freezer was invented in 1846. In 1851 Jacob Fussel, a milk-supplier from Baltimore noticed, that in some seasons the skim does not go well off. He laid hold of this and started to produce the ice-cream. Then he supplied it to other dairy-men. So he actually became the promoter of an ice-cream factory. such factory was founded in London in 1870 thanks to the many Italian immigrants, who came there and who were called hokey-pokey men, because they were calling over in Italian Ecco un pocco, which means “Here is a bit”.  The ice-cream cone was  invented by an Italian immigrant in America Italo Marcioni. and patented in 1903.  The ice-cream became very popular in Great Britain in 1922, when Thomas Wall, the sausage producer in Acton, started to worry, how to employ his workers during the summer months, when much smaller amount of sausages was being sold. He decided to produce packed ice-cream and was selling it very cheaply. Wall started to sell his goods from a three-wheeler in the streets. These go-carts had a sign: Stop me and buy one. In that time is born an ice cream sandwich (a slice of ice cream and two wafers) and in 30's chocolate-covered ice cream bar on a stick. In 40's the ice cream industry settled and production remained relatively constant through the 70's. Traditional ice cream parlors began to disappear with the increase of prepackaged ice cream sold through supermarkets.

Ice Cream Cart (dry ice type)
(from page http://www.pushcarts.com/icecream.html)

Production scale ice cream freezer
(from page http://research.unilever.com/examples/icecream.htm)