Frank Zamboni, an Entrepreneur and Inventor

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Beginning
The Ice Resurfarcer Machine
Frank Zamboni’s Late Years
Zamboni’s Company Today
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Frank Zamboni was an Italian-American inventor who established mass production of modern ice resurfacers, tools necessary for ice cleaning and reprocessing after activity on ice stadiums. Zamboni started as a teenager who loved to work with technical devices, such as early cars and consumer electronics, and earn money. He started his first business at age 20, and some time after he started to work in the field of ice production and ice rink management. His love for technology and inventions led him to create a scheme of automatic ice resurfacers and establish a company that produced them. The company grew quickly, partnering with large ice sports organizations due to the high demand for their machines and services. Before Zamboni made his machines easily accessible for ice stadiums, their management was hard and expensive, requiring much labor and workforce. His company became a pioneer and a leader in resurfacers production, and no competitors ever reached the same revenue level. Therefore, Frank Zamboni had a strong entrepreneurial spirit, which enabled him to make a drastic change in ice sports industry and create various inventions.

The Beginning

Frank Zamboni was born in 1901 in Idaho on a farm of an Italian immigrant family. His main hobby was tinkering with mechanical compounds and studying cars, which was new and rare at these times (Crockett). He even left school education to earn money fixing a car when he was 15. He had a large entrepreneurial spirit, was eager to earn more, and opened an electric services shop in 1920 with his brother (Vinoski). It was his first business venture, a small local business, but it was not enough for Frank, and soon, he started to work with more large-scale projects.

In the 1920s – 1930s, the Zamboni brothers established an ice-producing plant, as new ice stadiums were built across the country and refrigeration technics were constantly improving. They started in 1927, selling ice for various purposes, mostly for food storage than ice stadiums (Scafetta). When the mass production of refrigerators started, they saw that their business would probably not last long, as refrigerators made large-scale ice production abundant (Vinoski). Instead, the brothers decided to use a new invention for their benefit and became involved in the ice stadium management business.

The Ice Resurfarcer Machine

Fig. 1. A modern Zamboni electricity-powered ice resurfacer and a 1960s example on the advertising of these times (Vinoski)

In the 1940s, the Zamboni brothers, with their cousin, opened a large ice rink named Iceland, located in California and covered by a large dome. In these times, the ice renewal process on hockey stadiums and ice rinks was hard and daunting (Crockett). People made it with tractors and their hands: first, a tractor scraped the old ice, and then workers removed it manually with shovels and positioned new ice. Soon, Frank Zamboni realized that machines that could do the resurfacing would be much more actual than a routine ice production process (Bellis). He started to work on a prototype of an automatic ice resurfacer managed by one person (Scafetta). Figure 1 shows what an ice resurfacer looks like: a vehicle that one person can drive. It shaves the upper layer of ice with thin blades, absorbs the ice to collect and use later, and then supplies fresh hot water, which freezes and forms a smooth ice layer (Vinoski). As ice sports became increasingly popular, a method to clean and resurface ice with less effort and price was in demand.

Frank Zamboni’s Late Years

Therefore, in the 1950s – 1960s, Zamboni’s company constantly grew as new technology was highly efficient, and Frank constantly improved it. He agreed with national hockey organizations and sold his machines to them regularly, as there was a high demand for their usage and maintenance (Vinoski). In 1967, Zamboni’s company became international, starting manufacturing in Canada, as the demand was large. In the 1960s, when he was 66, he decided to retire from the company, but his inventing activity continued: he registered two patents in the 1970s for a water pumping machine, working with Monsanto (Scafetta). He died in 1988, soon after the death of his lovely wife; while suffering from various illnesses at the end of his life, he continued his activity virtually to the moment of death.

Zamboni’s Company Today

Zamboni’s company still holds an absolute leadership position in the market of ice resurfacing. While there are competitors, the largest of which is Olympia, located in Ontario, Zamboni’s company produces more revenue than all other ice resurfacer companies combined (Vinoski). Even today, the company continues to grow as new customers arrive from other countries, including developing ones (Crockett). Zamboni managed to create a leading brand for ice resurfacers, and the name of his company is strongly associated with all ice sports industry.

Conclusion

To summarize, Frank Zamboni was a man with a strong entrepreneurial and inventive spirit who changed the ice sports industry with his family business. He started as a small local businessman, along with his brothers, with love to tinker with technologies, create something new, and make money. Soon, they became involved in the ice-related business, producing ice for commercial purposes and then managing an ice stadium in Iceland. Then, Zamboni invented a technology to clean ice using an automatic resurfacer, which removes the upper ice layer, collects it, and renews the ice with freezing warm water. This machine was highly in demand, and the company which manufactured it became an industry leader and still is. Even after retiring and almost to his death, Frank continued his innovating activity, inventing various machines, such as an efficient water pump for Monsanto.

Works Cited

Bellis, Mary. “What Every Hockey Fan Should Know about the Zamboni.” ThoughtCo, Web.

Crockett, Zachary. “The Man Who Invented the Zamboni.” The Hustle, Web.

Scafetta, Joseph. “Frank J. Zamboni,. (1901-1988): The Man behind the Machine.” Zamboni.com, Web.

Vinoski, Jim. “There’s so Much More to the Zamboni Story than You Ever Imagined.” Forbes, Web.

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