The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-01-15
WHO INVENTED THE BARREL!

Few inventions have had wider or more
varied usefulness than the barrel; few give
such promise of perpetuity. Unique in
principle, simple yet singularly perfect in
plan and structure, the barrel is little less
than a stroke of genius. Who set up the
first one? Who first conceived the happy
thought of making vessel tight and strong
out of strips of wood bound together with
hoops? And when did he live?
No history Of inventions, none of the
encyclopedias in our great libraries, no his
torian of human progress, SO far as we
know, gives any information on the sub
ject, unless we except the Roman author
Pliny, who mistakenly attributes the in
vention to the Gauls who inhabited the
banks of the Pc. We say mistakenly,
since there is the best of good reason for
believing that the barrel was in use long
before the Gauls took possession of their
Italian home, perhaps long before the Gauls
existed as a people.
The monuments of Egypt furnish proof
of the early use of hoped vessels, though
no date is given of their invention. In
one of the inscriptions copied by Wilkin-
son may be seen two slaves emptying grain
from a wooden vessel made with hoops,
while scribe keeps tally, and sweeper
stands by with broom to sweep up the
scattered kernels. Close by an unfortunate
is undergoing punishment by bastinado,
for short measure perhaps or, as Mr.. Will
kinson suggests, for petty theft. The meas
ure is barrel shaped, and precisely like the
kayl of modern Egypt. 1t would hold, ap
parently, about peck. Unfortunately the
age of this inscription is not indicated
in common use very early in Egypt, though
not for the storing of liquids, for which
purpose skins and earthen vessels were en-
ployed.
At first thought, Egypt would be the last
place to look for the invention of hoped
vessels, its arid climate making it 81 ecially
unsuited for their employment. Possibly,
however, that may have been the compel-
ing cause Of their invention.
Throughout the East, the bamboo is
largely used for making hollow vessels, a
section of the stem through node secur-
ing solid bottom, and one between the
nodes an open mouth for natural tub or
bucket. In well wooded regions, nothing
would be more natural than the employ
ment of hollow tree trunks for the same
purpose, or sections of tree stems, followed
out by fire or otherwise. In drying, such
vessels would split and spoil, and it would
require no great genius to repair them by
means of withes or wooden bands, the
primitive form of the hoop.
If the users of such natural barrels
should migrate to region where timber
was scarcer, economy of lumber would be |
likely to suggest the building of barrels
from pieces artiicially split, in short, the
use of slaves, by means Of which the prim-
tive cooper would be able to make several |
barrels out of block that would suffice |
but for single dug-out.
But this is speculation merely. 1t is
enough to know for a certainty that the
cooper's art, like the potter's is one of ex-
IRENE antiquity. We had no suspicion of
its venerableness when we began to trace
its history in response to the inquiry-who
made the first barrel?