JOHNSON, Nancy, American, 1795-1890. The producer of an ice cream freezing machine in 1843 (before freezers were invented). It was a manual device cranked by a handle. An outer wooden pail contained crushed ice; an inner tin or pewter cylinder contained the ice-cream mix to be frozen. A lid was bolted on and the handle inserted through the top of the lid and turned to freeze the mix. The device inside attached to the handle was called a dasher. It was possible to split the inner cylinder such that 2 different ice cream flavours could be frozen simultaneously but separately. The invention was patented in 1843, the first such device listed, but Nancy sold it off cheaply. It did however become the standard mechanism for many years and someone made a fortune out of this invention.