The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1880-11-23
THE ORIGIN OF TaE BARREL.

Few inventions have had q wider or
more varied usefulness than the barrel /;
few give such promise of perpetaity.
Unique in principle. simple yet singu.
larly perfect in plan and structure, the
barrel is little less than O stroke Of
genius Who set mp the first one. T
Who 6rst conceived the happy thought
OF making O vessel tight snd strong out
Of strips Of wood bound together with
hoops? And when did he live?
No history OF Inventions. Dens of the
encyclopedias in our great libraries. no
historian of human progress. SO far as
We know. gives any informstion on the
subject. unless vs except the Roman
anthor Pliny. who mistakenly attribu' 'es
the invention to the Gauls whe inhab-
itsd the banks of the Po. We say
mistakenly. since there is the best Of
good reason for believing that the bar
rel was in use long before the Gauls
took possession Of their Italian home,
perhaps long before the Gsnls existed
as q people.
The monuments OF Egypt furnish
proof Of tie early use Of hooped vessels,
though no date is given OF their inven-
tion. In one Of the inscriptions copied
by Wilkinson may be seen two slaves
emptyiDg grain from & wooden vessel
made with hoops. while q scribe keeps
tally, and o sweeper stands by with q
broom to sweep up the scattered ker.
nsls. Close by an unfortunate 10 un.
dcrgoing punishment by bastinado, for
short measure perhaps. or. as Mr. VIII
kinson suggests. for petty THEFT. The
measure is barrel shaped sAd precisely
like that in use in modern Egypt. 1t
would hold. appearantly about peck.
Unfortunately. the age Of this inscrip-
tion 10 not indicated Measures of the
sort would seem to have been in COM
mon use very early in Egypt. though
not for the storing Of liquids. fer which
purposes skins and esrthen ysssels were
employed.
At first thought. Egypt would be the
last place to look for the invention of
hooped vessels. its arid climate making
it especially unsuited for their employ
ment. Possibly. however. that may
have been the compelling cause Of their
invention. Throughout the east. the
bamboo is largely used for making
hollow vessels, . section OF the stem
through node securing q 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 employment of
hollow tree trunks for the same pur-
pose, or sections Of tree stems. followed
out by Are or otherwise. ln drying,
such vessels would split ard spoil, and
il would require no great natural geni
US to repair them by means of withes
or wooden bands. the primitive form
of the hoop.
II the users of such natural barrels
should migrate to region where tim
bsr was scarcer, economy OF lumber
would be likely TO suggest the building
Of barrels from pieces artitcially split,
in short, the use of staves, by means Of
which the primitive cooper would be
able to make several barrels ont Of q
block that would suffice but for single
dug-out.
Bot this 10 speculation merely. 1t is
enough to know for pertain that the
oooper's srt. like the potter's. 10 one OF
extreme antiquity. We had no suspi-
cion of its veners bleness when We be-
gau its history in response to the in
quiry-who made the first barrel I