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Modern conveniences were unheard of in times before the 19th century. For instance, ice was only a seasonal feature, and an unimaginable luxury in the tropics, until the Ice King.
A Boston man sailed to the tropics, and marveled that the natives there had no concept of ice, or what it might be. During one frosty New England winter he gathered tons of ice to sail it to the West Indies. In March 1806, the people in the West Indies were first introduced to a crazy American, and his boat load of ice. A government sized load of red tape needed to be cut thro9ugh before anybody could experience the mysteries of the cold stuff, but with the heat time is running out before his shipment melts away.
Though the unique substance was celebrated, it would take building better ice houses to keep his profits from melting away. He did lose money on that first shipment, but over the course of time the ice king managed to have a productive livelihood in his new found business.
