This book mentioned one, and when I spoke to Heather about them, she didn’t know what I was talking about. So let me explain it to you damn kids the way it was in the days before plastic could survive the sub-32 degree temperatures of Frigidaires.
The ice cube trays were metal, with a louvre fixture atop of them. Essentially, the tray itself did not have separate compartments for the individual cubes, but the louvre blades made boundaries. You poured your water in and let it freeze. Once it was frozen, you operated this lever atop the louvre which caused the blades to shift back and forth, breaking the ice cubes apart and out of their tray.
None of this little plastic twists to pop individual cubes out. In the old days, when we wanted to drop ice in our scotch, we had to freakin’ operate machinery. Which is why we drank it straight, you damn malternative-suckers.
Is malternative a word?
heh – I go back farther than this. The ice cube trays we had up until I was about 12 or 15 years old were not only metal.. but there was no lever on the top – you popped each set of 2 ice cubes with a can openner. Yep – same set up as the trays with the lever… just no lever on top. Actually I liked those better – they were sturdier trays and made larger cubes.
And heaven help you if you grabbed that metal ice cube tray with wet hands… :-)