Frank Zamboni Honored With Playable Google Doodle

Google has provided users with a new way to waste time today, thanks to an interactive homepage doodle in honor of entrepreneur Frank Zamboni.

Anyone who has spent any time at an ice-skating rink has undoubtedly laid eyes on Zamboni's most well-known invention - the Zamboni ice resurfacers. Today, in celebration of Zamboni's 112th birthday, Google's doodle lets you play Zamboni driver.

Visit Google.com and press the "play" button to enter Google's digital ice rink. Using the arrow keys, navigate the Zamboni around the rink, erasing scratch marks made by the skaters. Erasing all the marks will take you to higher levels, where you can also earn gas for your Zamboni. The game is complete with old-school video-game sounds, though they can be turned off. The more levels you complete, the more intricate the ice scrapings become.

Frank Zamboni was born in 1901 in Utah, but relocated to California in 1920, where his older brother George had an auto repair business, according to his bio. The family eventually shifted into refrigeration, and built a skating rink in Paramount, Calif. in 1939. At the time, the ice was resurfaced by pulling a scraper behind a tractor, while workers collected ice shavings and wiped away dirty water. The process took more than an hour, however, so Frank Zamboni started experimenting with other options in 1942.

A prototype for the Zamboni we know today, however, was not developed until 1947, while it took another two years before Frank could adequately clear ice from a rink. At that point, he applied for a patent, which was awarded in 1953.

Frank Zamboni passed away in 1988, but his company lives on. In April 2012, Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc. delivered its 10,000th production machine to the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens.

This is not the first interactive doodle for Google, meanwhile.

A May 2012 playable doodle featured Robert Moog's signature Moog synthesizer, with all the accompanying bells and whistles. A quick-start guide on moogmusic.com provided details on how to play the doodle, which also allowed users to record their creations and share them with friends.

On Sept. 7, meanwhile, Google paid homage to Star Trek with an interactive homepage doodle that celebrated the 46th birthday of the original TV series. Google dressed up the letters in its logo as Star Trek cast members, and with the click of a mouse, you could beam Kirk to an adventure beyond the confines of the starship USS Enterprise.

Back in 2010, Google's playable Pac-Man doodle collectively consumed about 4.8 million hours of our time. Google eventually created a standalone site so people could continue their playtime.

For more of Google's doodles, see the slideshow below. Recently, the company has honored the first computer programmer Ada Lovelace, Amelia Earhart, as well as artist Keith Haring, zipper pioneer Gideon Sundback, and even commemorated its own 14th birthday with a birthday cake doodle.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.