Kongsvinger is thus the last team that moved up to 2nd Division on natural ice.
This was the last time that speed skating at the Olympics was held on natural ice.
Harvesting of natural ice and storage for summer was increased.
Thanks to the advent of railways and steam ships, natural ice came onto the market.
In fact, cold packs can be even colder than natural ice.
By the late 1870s, however, efficiency improvements were allowing them to squeeze natural ice out of the marketplace in the south.
By the 1860s, natural ice was also being increasingly to move western American products to the east, starting with chilled meat from Chicago.
Concerns also grew over the safety of natural ice.
However there was an early spring that year, and with natural ice used at the time, the series had to wait until the following winter.
However since the field was artificially frozen, the opening season was much longer that with natural ice.