Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni's Ice Machine by Monica Kulling

Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni's Ice Machine by Monica Kulling

Now in paperback. Meet Frank Zamboni, whose determination and persistence led to his invention of the now-famous Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine.


When Frank Zamboni, along with his brother and cousin, opened their own skating rink in 1940 in Paramount, California, it could take an hour and a half for a crew to resurface the ice. They had to level the surface by shaving down the pits and grooves with a tractor, remove the shavings, wash the ice and find a way to give the rink its shining finish. Skaters became exasperated with the wait, so Frank was determined to do something about it. Could he turn a ninety-minute job for five men into a ten-minute task for only one? Working in the shed behind his ice rink, Frank drew designs and built models of machines he hoped would do the job. For nine years, he worked on his invention, each model an improvement on the one before. Finally, in 1949, Frank tested the Model A, which "cleaned the ice in one sweep around the rink." The rest is history.

MONICA KULLING is a poet who has written over forty children's books, including picture books, classic novel adaptations, and biographies. She has written about Harriet Tubman, Henry Ford, Houdini, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Amelia Earhart, among others, and is known for bringing biography to children who are just learning to read. Her award-winning Great Idea Series tells the stories of fascinating inventors and their incredible innovations. She's also the author of Merci Mister Dash!, a humorous children's book. David Parkins is an award-winning illustrator of more than fifty children's books. Visit his website at www.monicakulling.ca.

He became a freelance illustrator after studying wildlife illustration in Wales and general illustration at Lincoln College of Art. His work has featured in The Guardian, the Toronto Star, Bloomberg Business Week, Nature, The Economist, and The Beano, a British children's comic. He is the critically acclaimed illustrator of three more books in Monica Kulling's Great Idea Series: In the Bag!, in which he draws a regular editorial cartoon for the Globe and Mail.