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Steamboat Springs — It goes only nine mph.

It's big and blocky.

It makes sharp turns and only appears for 10 minutes at a time.

But for those 10 minutes, no one leaves their seats. No one talks. Everyone just stares.

I never noticed it until Saturday at the Steamboat Springs hockey game.

Probably because I'm among the people who just stop and stare in awe when the Zamboni hits the ice.

I've always loved the Zamboni. It's the best halftime or between periods show in any sport. You can have Justin Timberlake or U2. I'll take the Zamboni.

In Charles Schulz's cartoon strip Peanuts, Charlie Brown once said "There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire and a Zamboni clearing the ice."

Charlie Brown couldn't have been more right.

I usually can't pay attention to anything for more than 10 minutes, but the Zamboni hypnotizes me. Still, I never knew how it worked.

So Saturday after the Steamboat hockey game, I set out to find just how this thing that mesmerizes people operates.

"It's magical," said Dave Calder who drives the Zamboni at Howelsen Ice Arena.

Calder said he's probably done more than a 1,000 Zamboni rides in his life and is more than willing to show people the machine.

I was even more than willing to learn about it.

A blade shaves the ice, then a horizontal auger collects the shavings and a vertical auger propels them into the snow tank (the big blocky part on the front of the Zamboni.) After that, water is fed out to clean the ice and then quickly sucked back up. Then clean water is put down to create a new surface. (Visit www.zamboni.com for more information. It's a great site. I spent more than two hours there.)

I don't think I've ever paid more attention than when Calder told me about all the intricacies of the Zamboni.

Some things I found especially interesting.

When Calder is pumping one of the knobs up and down on the Zamboni, it's actually to clear the entry to the vertical auger so it doesn't freeze up.

When he looks in the top of the Zamboni while he's driving, he's checking to see how much ice he's actually shaving.

The ice is resurfaced with 130 degree water. Hot water has less air and Calder said it bonds better.

And the brakes on the Zamboni? It has them, but Calder never uses them.

After Calder's 15-minute lesson on the Zamboni, I was extremely satisfied.

I finally knew how something that transfixes the masses works.

So much so, I waited an extra half hour just to watch Calder make two more passes with the Zamboni.

And during it, you could have heard a pin drop in the arena because nobody - including myself - could take their eyes off the Zamboni.

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229

or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com