THE COOPER.
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.