Category: Historical Images

I have worked at coopering in all its different branches off and on for about thirty years; have seen it in its prosperity and felt its adversity. I have known the cooper who worked journey work to have a kit of tools weighing 100 to 150 pounds, and many curious-shaped tools they were, among which the only machine in use was a boring machine. Twenty staves from the rough were called a set and made a load to carry into the shop— rough heading four or six pieces—often causing the cooper to go back and make a second load to get a complete set for a barrel.

Old-time coopers will remember how a new man was broken into the traces; then, when his staves were equalized, shaved and jointed by hand, and heading made into a head, all of which required a mechanic to do the work, and our journeyman had his first barrel raised, there would go up from every cooper about the place a yell, “blockwash, blockwash!” that, only for the difference in the way it was done and the word itself, you would think there was fire in the next yard. The new cooper understood the rules, and if he hadn’t the money he got the boss to help him out, and the nearest saloon got the benefit of his first earnings by furnishing the ingredient (blockwash).
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We know of no reason whatever that should prevent a good joiner from working hardwood as skillfully and as speedily as a trained cabinetmaker. As a rule, a good joiner can make superior cabinet work—Work that will stand more wear and tear than that usually turned out by furniture men; but the trouble lies in the fact that good joiners are very scarce.

The cabinetmaker must possess a certain amount of skill in the use of tools and finishing, or he will prove very unprofitable to his employer, a state of things not permissible nowadays; this skill may not be much; but much or little, it must be there.

On the other hand, there is certain rough work that can be done, about a building by any one having brains enough to dig a post-hole, and the rougher the work and coarser the operative, the more profitable to the employer.

Again, the wages paid the more skillful joiner is so little above the amount paid the coarser workman that it is scarcely worth striving for, more particularly so, when we take into consideration the fact that the higher the class of work the more expensive are the tools required to do it.
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The other day I made a trip through a handle factory and talked about hickory handles and their manufacture for a couple of hours, after which I did some thinking and investigating, the result of which is I have come to the conclusion that we are not giving a prominent enough place in history to inventors of wood-working machinery.

In the handle factory they were using old-style irregular lathes and had quite a string of them, giving good service. I marveled a little at this, as it was a living example of the possibilities of doing good work and successful business with what are termed antiquated types of machines. Then I fell to wondering just how old these machines were in their type, and this led me to consulting a modern encyclopedia, from which I got more disappointment than anything else.
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It is a melancholly Proſpect to view the Royal Foreſts; almoſt all diſmantled; in many ſcarce a Stick left: There is indeed one Advantage, Tyrannical Monarchs may for the future hunt in Safety, where there is not a ſingle Tree to glance an Arrow at them. The Diminution in the Article of Timber Trees, within leſs than this half Century, is no leſs peculiar than deplorable.

To ſee thoſe encreaſing Funds for future Shipping totally ſunk, and no Care taken to raiſe others, muſt ſenſibly affect every Engliſh Heart, who knows that his Nation’s Safety conſiſts in her Wooden Walls: With ſome of which our honeſt Timber-Merchants, even in this Time of Scarcity, have ſupplied our Enemies; and which may perhaps embolden the French to make an Attempt upon the Land where their Veſſels grew.
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An Account of the Manner of bending Planks in His Majeſty’s Yards at Deptford, &c. by a Sand-heat, invented by Captain Cumberland.
By Robert Cay, Eſq;

The place, where the Planks lie to be ſoftened in the Stove, is between two Brick-Walls; of ſuch a length, height, and diſtance from each other, as ſuffice to admit the largeſt, or to hold a good number of the ſmaller Sort: the bottom is of thick Iron Plates, ſupported by ſtrong Bars; under the middle of which, are two Fire-places, whoſe Flews carry the Flame towards the Ends.

The Planks are laid in Sand; the loweſt about ſix or eight Inches above the Iron-Plates, they are well cover’d with the Sand, and Boards laid over all, to keep in the Heat. The Sand is moiſtened with warm Water, (for which purpoſe they have a Cauldron adjoyning to the Stove) and if the Timber be large, and intended to be very much bent, ſo that it muſt lie long in the Stove, they water the Sand again, once in 8 or 10 Hours.
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