Those who are accustomed to value things used in common life only
according to the price for which they can be purchased, will perhaps
imagine that my subject must be nearly exhausted when I think it worth
my while to entertain my readers with a matter so inconsiderable. Cork,
however, is a substance of such a singular property, that no other
has yet been found which can be so generally employed with the same
advantage; and before the use of it was known, people were obliged on
many occasions to supply the want of it by means which to us would
appear extremely troublesome.
Cork is a body remarkably light, can be easily compressed, expands
again by its elasticity as soon as the compressing power is removed,
and therefore fills or stops up very closely that space into which it
has been driven by force. It may be easily cut into all forms; and
though it abounds with pores, which are the cause of its lightness, it
suffers neither water, beer, nor any common liquid to escape through
it, and it is only very slowly and after a considerable length of time
that it can be penetrated even by spirits. Its numerous pores seem to
be too small to afford a passage to the finest particles of water and
wine, which can with greater facility ooze through more compact wood
that has larger or wider pores[972].
Cork is the exterior bark of a tree, belonging to the genus of the oak,
which grows wild in the southern parts of Europe, particularly France,
Spain, Portugal and Italy[973]. When the tree is about twenty-six years
old it is fit to be barked, and this can be done successively every
eight years[974]. The bark always grows up again, and its quality
improves with the increasing age of the tree. It is commonly singed a
little over a strong fire or glowing coals, and laid to soak a certain
time in water, after which it is placed under stones in order to be
pressed straight.
This tree, as well as its use, was known to the Greeks and the Romans.
By the former it was called _phellus_. Theophrastus reckons it among
the oaks, and says that it has a thick fleshy bark, which must be
stripped off every three years to prevent it from perishing. He adds,
that it was so light as never to sink in water, and on that account
could be used with great advantage for a variety of purposes[975].
The only circumstance which on the first consideration can excite any
doubt of the _phellus_ being our cork-tree, is, that he expressly says
it lost its leaves annually, whereas our cork-tree retains them. In
another passage however he calls it an evergreen[976]. This apparent
contradiction several commentators have endeavoured to clear up, but
their labour seems unnecessary; for there is a species of our cork-tree
which really drops its leaves. Linnæus did not think this species
worth his notice; but it has been accurately observed by Clusius and
Matthiolus[977], and its existence is confirmed by Miller[978]. As
Theophrastus[979], Pliny[980], Varro[981] and others mention a common
oak which always retains its leaves, it appears clear to me that the
first-mentioned author, where he speaks of evergreens, meant our common
species of the cork-tree, and that extraordinary kind of oak; but in
the other passage that species which drops its leaves in winter.
That the _suber_ of the Romans was our cork-tree, is generally and with
justice admitted. Pliny relates of it, in the clearest manner, every
thing said by Theophrastus[982] of the _phellus_[983]; and we find by
his account, that cork at the period when he wrote was applied to as
many purposes as at present[984].
At that time fishermen made floats to their nets of cork, that is,
they affixed pieces of cork to the rope which formed the upper edge
of the net, and which it was necessary should be kept at the surface
of the water, in the same manner as is done at present[985]. The use
of cork for fishing-nets is mentioned by Ausonius[986]; and Alciphron
describes so abundant a capture that the net and the cork floats sunk
by the weight. This use, however, was much limited by the high price
of cork; and small boards of light wood, such as that of the pine,
aspen-tree, lime-tree, and poplar, were employed in its stead[987]. The
wood of the _Marum arborescens_ is used as floats in Guiana, and that
of the _Hibiscus cuspidatus_ in Otaheite[988]. The German and Swedish
fishermen, and also the Cossacks, use for the same purpose the bark of
the black poplar; but the Dutch and Hanoverians, who fish on the Weser,
employ for their nets a kind of wood called in Holland _toll-hout_. It
is a wood of a reddish-brown colour, extremely light, and of a very
fine grain, which the Dutch, who export it to Germany, procure from the
Baltic. At Amsterdam it costs a stiver per pound; but I have not yet
been able to learn what wood it properly is.
Another use to which cork was applied, according to Pliny, was for
anchor-buoys. “Usus ejus ancoralibus maxime navium.” These words
Hardouin has not explained; and Scheffer[989], where he speaks of
anchors, and what belongs to them, takes no notice of cork. Gesner,
however, has attempted an explanation[990], but what he says is, in
my opinion, not satisfactory. He certainly could not mean that it was
employed to render anchors lighter. According to my idea, they may be
easily made light enough without cork, and perhaps they can never be
made too heavy. The true explanation of this passage is, that it was
used for making buoys, called _ancoralia_, which were fixed to the
cable, and by floating on the surface of the water, over the anchor,
pointed out the place where it lay[991]. Our navigators use for that
purpose a large but light block of wood, which, in order that it
may float better, is often made hollow[992]. A large cask also is
sometimes employed. The Dutch sailors call these blocks of wood _boei_
or _boeye_; and hence comes their proverb, “Hy heeft een kop als een
boei,” he has a head like a buoy; he is a blockhead.
A third use of cork among the Romans was its being made into soles,
which were put into their shoes in order to secure the feet from water,
especially in winter; and as high heels were not then introduced, the
ladies who wished to appear taller than they had been formed by nature,
put plenty of cork under them[993].
The practice of employing cork for making jackets to assist one in
swimming, is also very old; for we are informed that the Roman whom
Camillus sent to the Capitol when besieged by the Gauls, put on a light
dress, and took cork with him under it, because, to avoid being taken
by the enemy, it was necessary that he should swim through the Tiber.
When he arrived at the river, he bound his clothes upon his head, and,
placing the cork under him, was so fortunate as to succeed in his
attempt[994].
The most extensive and principal use of cork at present, is for
stoppers to bottles. This was not entirely unknown to the Romans, for
Pliny says expressly, that it served to stop vessels of every kind;
and instances of its being employed for that purpose may be seen in
Cato[995] and Horace[996]. Its application to this use, however, seems
not to have been very common, else cork-stoppers would have been
oftener mentioned by the authors who have written on agriculture and
cookery, and also in the works of the ancient poets. We everywhere
find directions given to close up wine-casks and other vessels with
pitch[997], clay, gypsum or potters-earth, or to fill the upper part
of the vessel with oil or honey, in order to exclude the air from those
liquors which one wished to preserve[998]. In the passages therefore
already quoted, where cork is named, mention is made also of pitching.
The reason of this I believe to be, that the ancients used for their
wine large earthen vessels with wide mouths, which could not be stopped
sufficiently close by means of cork. Wooden casks were then unknown,
or at least scarce, as Italy produced little timber, otherwise these
vessels would have been stopped with wood, as is the case at present.
The practice of drawing off wine for daily consumption, from the large
vessels into which it is first put, into such smaller vessels as can
be easily corked, was then not prevalent[999]. The ancients drew off
from their large jars into cups or pitchers whatever quantity of wine
they thought necessary for the time, instead of which the moderns
use bottles. It appears to have been customary at the French court,
about the year 1258, when grand entertainments were given, and more
wine-vessels had been opened than were emptied, that the remainder
became a perquisite of the _grand-bouteiller_[1000].
Stoppers of cork seem to have been first introduced after the
invention of glass-bottles, and of these I find no mention before the
fifteenth century; for the _amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ_ of
Petronius[1001], to the necks of which were affixed labels, containing
the name and age of the wine, appear to have been large jars, and to
have formed part of the many uncommon articles by which the voluptuary
Trimalchio wished to distinguish himself. It is however singular, that
these convenient vessels were not thought of at an earlier period,
especially as among the small funeral urns of the ancients, many are
to be found which in shape resemble our bottles[1002]. In the figure
of the Syracusan wine-flasks, I think I can discover their origin from
these urns. Charpentier[1003] quotes from a writing of the year 1387,
an expression which seems to allude to one of our glass bottles; but,
when attentively considered, it may be easily discovered that cups or
drinking-glasses are meant. The name _boutiaux_ or _boutilles_, occurs
in the French language for the first time in the fifteenth century; but
were it even older it would prove nothing, as it signified originally,
and even still signifies, vessels of clay or metal, and particularly
of leather[1004]. Such vessels filled with wine, which travellers
were accustomed to suspend from their saddles, could be stopped with
a piece of wood, or closed by means of wooden or metal tops screwed
on them, which are still used for earthen-pitchers. In the year 1553,
when C. Stephanus wrote his Prædium Rusticum, cork stoppers must have
been very little known, else he would not have said that in his time
cork in France was used principally for soles (p. 578). In the time of
Lottichius, rich people however had glass flasks with tin mouths, which
could be stopped sufficiently close without cork; and these flasks
appear to have been as thin as the Syracusan wine-bottles; for he adds,
that it was necessary to wrap them round with rushes or straw[1005].
Flasks covered with basket-work must have been common among the
Greeks, if it be certain that πυτίνη signifies a flask of this kind.
It appears indeed to do so, because Hesychius says it was a plaited
wine-vessel, like the baskets which prisoners were accustomed to make.
Suidas, however, states that it was a vessel woven of twigs, named in
his time φλασκεῖον, from which is derived our word _flask_. It is
probable that these wine-vessels covered with basket-work were only of
earthenware, as glass ones were at that time costly and scarce. But I
do not think it can be proved that a flask of this kind was called by
the Romans _tinia_.
In the shops of the apothecaries in Germany, cork stoppers began first
to be used about the end of the seventeenth century. Before that period
they used stoppers of wax, which were not only much more expensive, but
also far more troublesome.
That the use of cork for stoppers was not known in the sixteenth
century may be proved from this circumstance, that it is mentioned
neither by Ruellius[1006] nor Aldrovandi[1007], though they describe
all the other purposes to which this substance was applied. How great
the consumption of it is at present, will appear from the quantity
used by the directors of the springs at Niederselters alone; who in
the year 1781 employed 2,208,000 stoppers, each thousand of which cost
four florins, making a total of 8832 florins. They were furnished by a
merchant at Strasburg, who was obliged to take back the refuse, which
he then caused to be cut on his own account into smaller stoppers,
and many of these could be used by the people at the springs. The
experiment also was once made of causing the corks to be cut on account
of the directors of the springs; but the carriage of the refuse became
too dear, and there was no sale for the stoppers of the apothecary
phials which were made of them.
In later times, some other vegetable productions have been found which
can be employed instead of cork for the last-mentioned purpose. Among
these is the wood of a tree common in South America, particularly in
moist places, which is called there _monbin_ or _monbain_, and by
botanists _Spondias lutea_. This wood was brought to England in great
abundance for that use. The spongy root of a North American tree, known
by the name of _nyssa_, is also used for the same end, as are the roots
of liquorice, which on that account is much cultivated in Sclavonia,
and exported to other countries, and likewise the black poplar, for its
bark is employed by the Cossacks[1008] as stoppers to their flasks,
and the _Æschynomene lagenaria_, which is used instead of cork in
Cochin-China[1009].
[That most useful substance, caoutchouc, now replaces cork for numerous
purposes, and is superior to it in almost every respect, especially in
its greater elasticity, in being subject to less injury from the action
of many substances, and but slightly affected by moisture or dryness.
It also keeps better, and is not much more expensive. The quantity of
stoppers now manufactured by the Patent Caoutchouc Company is perfectly
astonishing.]