Have there been any Zamboni accidents? In , a Calgary man almost lost his leg after it got trapped in a Zamboni as he was stepping down from the machine. Zamboni was born in in Eureka, Utah, to Italian immigrants.
After Frank attended a trade school in Chicago, he and his younger brother Lawrence opened an electrical supply business in in the Los Angeles suburb of Hynes now part of Paramount. Before the Zamboni was invented, ice surfaces had to be manually shoveled and could take a crew of three men more than an hour to complete. The Zamboni is named for its founder, Frank Zamboni. Armed with his background in cooling and refrigeration, Zamboni went to work on a prototype for an ice resurfacing machine.
A Zamboni machine was first used in an NHL game in , and one scraped the ice at the Olympics for the first time at Squaw Valley in Growth was slow at first; only 32 machines were built through But as refrigeration technology improved, demand for block ice began to shrink, and Frank and Lawrence started looking for other ways to capitalize on their expertise with ice.
That opportunity came in the sport of ice skating. Popularity of the sport was growing, but there were few rinks in Southern California, so in Frank, Lawrence, and a cousin built Iceland Skating Rink in Paramount. The rink still operates today just blocks from the Zamboni factory. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 14 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published March 15, ; Last Edited March 15, The Canadian Encyclopedia , s.
Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions. Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by Tabitha Marshall. Zamboni ice resurfacers are used in arenas across Canada and around the world. Although Zamboni is a registered trademark, many Canadians use the term to refer to all ice resurfacers, including those produced by other companies. American Frank J.
Zamboni invented the original Zamboni ice resurfacer in His namesake company is based in Paramount, California, but also has a large manufacturing facility in Brantford, Ontario.
0コメント