1. The cooper manufactures casks, tubs, pails, and various other
articles for domestic use, as well as vessels for containing all kinds
of liquids and merchandise of a dry nature. He also applies hoops to
boxes which are to be transported, with their valuable contents, to a
distance from the cities.
2. The productions of this art being of prime necessity, the trade
must have been exercised at a very early period. Roman writers on
rural economy speak of the existence of its productions more than two
thousand years ago; nevertheless they are still unknown in some
countries, and there the inhabitants keep or carry liquids in skins
daubed over with pitch.
3. Bottles of this kind were used, more or less, in all parts of the
Roman empire, in the days of our Savior; and to such he alluded, when
speaking of putting new wine into old bottles. Earthen vessels of
various dimensions, were also in extensive use at the same time. The
custom of keeping wine in such vessels, is still common in the
southern parts of Europe. Pliny accords to the Piedmontese the merit
of introducing casks. In his time, they were daubed with pitch.
4. Cedar and oak are the woods chiefly employed as materials in this
business; and the persons who carry it on, as well as journeymen,
confine their attention to the production of wares from one or the
other of these woods; hence the division of the workmen into _cedar
coopers_ and _oak coopers_.
5. It is not always the case, however, that every cooper executes all
kinds of work belonging to either one of these divisions of the trade;
but this is not because there is any peculiar difficulty attending any
part of the business, but because some particular kind of coopering is
required in preference to others; for example, in some places, flour
barrels are the casks most needed; in others, those for sugar,
tobacco, pearlash, or some kind of spirits.
6. In illustrating the general operations of this business, we will
describe the process of making a tub. The timber is first cut to the
proper length with the kind of saw used in the cities for cutting
fire-wood. It is next split into pieces with a _frow_, the curvature
of which corresponds, at least with some degree of exactness, to that
of the proposed vessel. The several pieces are then shaved on the
edges with a straight _drawing-knife_, on the inside with one of a
concave form, and on the outside with one of corresponding convexity.
7. After this, they are jointed on a long plane, which is placed with
its face upwards, in an inclined position. The workman is guided in
giving the proper angle to the surface cut with the plane, by a
wooden gauge of peculiar form. The staves, having been thus prepared,
are set up in a _truss-hoop_; and after this has been driven down, one
or two others which are to remain are put on. The outside is then made
smooth with a convex drawing-knife, and the inside with a
smoothing-plane, the edge of which is circular, to correspond with the
form of the surface. The inside of small wooden vessels is generally
made smooth with a crooked drawing-knife.
8. The staves are now sawn off to a uniform length at the bottom, and
a groove is cut for the insertion of the bottom. The latter operation
is performed by means of a cutting instrument fixed in a kind of
gauge. The several pieces to compose the bottom are brought to the
proper form and smoothness with a straight drawing-knife; and, having
been slightly fastened together by wooden pins, the whole, as one
piece, is inserted in its proper place by driving it down from the top
on the inside. The whole process is finished by driving on the hoops,
and making the holes in the handles.
9. The cedar employed in this business is a considerable tree, which
grows in various parts of the world, but especially in the United
States, where it occupies large tracts called _cedar_ or _cypress
swamps_. The wood is soft, smooth, and of an aromatic smell. It is
likewise much used for shingles. The Dismal Swamp, lying in Virginia
and North Carolina, contains an abundance of this kind of timber.
10. The operations in oak vary from those in cedar so far as to
conform to the nature of the material, and the form of the vessels
manufactured. In bringing the staves to the proper form, the workman
is guided altogether by the eye; and, if they must be bent, they
require to be heated. The fire for this purpose is made of shavings
and chips in a small furnace of sheet iron, called a _crusset_. The
hoops, both for cedar and oak wares, are made of thin strips of iron,
or of small oak, hickory, ash, or cedar saplings. Within a few years,
several machines have been invented, for getting out staves, and for
bringing them to the proper form, as well as for performing several
other parts of the cooper's operations.
11. The coopers in England derive a great deal of their employment
from the West India trade. Barrels, puncheons, and hogsheads, are
carried out of the country filled with dry goods, and are returned
filled with rum and sugar. In the United States, much work of this
kind is done for the same market; but then the staves and heads are
only fitted and marked here, to be afterwards put together in the West
Indies.
[Illustration: WHEELWRIGHT.]