Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-05-13
FLOUR BARRELS.
VISIT TO A FACTORY WHERE THESE
- USEFUL ARTICLES ARE MADE.

Oddities Of coopsrs and Some Of the In
tsrssting Machinery Which has So
Largely Taken Their PIacss-How a
Barrel 10 Made.
The clatter of steel hoops and ham,
mers and the noisy and unintelligibie
technical language of coopers, says
Lake Superior wis., letter to the
Chicago Record, will utterly bewilder
a stranger on entering a barrel-factory
and cause him to wonder whether he
is in the hands OF his friends or being
led into trap designed for his exter-
mination.
The fiour-barrel cooper is an odd
character and belongs to class unlike
any other. Coopers universally pos
ses rowing disposition and are SUI
premely independent. They are strong
and active and Just the persons to
avoid, particularly when reflection
is cast on their courage or efficiency.
In later years, however, since barrel
making has centralized in the larger
flour manufacturing cities and mach
inery has supplanted labor to mark
ed degree, coopers are throwing OF
some of their peculiarities and withal
are better class of men. They earn
fair wages. as a general thing, getting
from 81 to SO a day, and they spend 1t
| literally. The work of barrel fac
| tory may be divided into two classes,
setting up barrels" which is a small
part of the work in barrel making, and
''hooping them off," skilled work.
man will often set up 1000 barrels per
day, while If eighty are hooped off 1t
is regarded as a good days work.
The three principal articles in -four
barrels makeup are slaves, hoops and
the headings. The material for bar
rels, which is referred to in the trade
as STOCK" comes to the factory in
bundles cut in the proper length and
ready for the cooper. Numberless
factories are scattered throughout the
county for the preparation of this
stock. The hoops used in the manu-
facture of -four barrels are mostly elm
and the northwestern markets secure
their supply largely from Wisconsin
and Michigan factories Hickory
hoops, which are used In the manu-
facture of perhaps 10 per cent of the
barrels for northwestern -four mills,
are purchased in Tennessee, which
grows a wood very suitable for hoop
making. Wisconsin and Minnesota
headings only are used. The slaves
used are mostly of elm, about one-half
of which come from Canada and the
remainder from Michigan and Wiscon-
sin.
Hoops and headings are always ready
for barrel-making but slaves are run
into dry kiln, where the temperature
reaches 100 to 100 degrees, the object
of this excessive drying being to pre-
resultant loss from the sitting of flour
through the sides of the barrel Ma
chinery has created a great revolution
in matchmaking in the last ten years
and barrel prices have fallen as a re-
suit.
When the cooper begins to make a
barrel he first sets the slaves up in
temporary or truss" hoops. The en-
bryo -four package is next placed over
a red-hot stove for five minutes or so,
the object of this additional heating
being to cause the barrel to keep its
shape. The barrel is next run into a
"trussing" machine, which presses the
steel hoops on the barrel with pressure
equal to fifteen-horse power. A most
marvellous machine then takes the
package and whizzes it around at a
wonderful velocity, smoothing the ends
and forming the groove which holds
the head of the barrel. This piece of
machinery is called a double-headed
crozing machine. The barrel next is
elevated to an upper floor, where COOP
ers fit the permanent hoops, put in
the head and smooth the sides. The
barrel is then ready for the mill.
The capacity of one of the largest
factories in the northwest Is about g.
900 barrels a day. Roughly speaking
the barrels sell to the -four mills for
80 cents each and the several items of
cost in -four barrel are: Slaves, IL
cents; heading, cents; hoops, 6 cents;
labor and profit, 8. The few hickory
hoop barrels used by the mills sell for
about cents each more than the elm
hoop barrels.
Millers pack into barrels about one
half of the -four shipped by them. The
barrel Is preferable to sack as pack
age for -four, chiefly. because it furn-
ishes better protection to the -four
from dust and moisture and is more
easily handled. Nearly all of the high
er grades of -four are packed In barrels
for these reasons.
The -four trade of the larger eastern
cities demands that the hoops Of the
elm, or flat-hooped barrels, be colored,
a blush tint, obtained from aniline dye,
being most desired. This Is largely a
fad, but at the same time it indicates
that the fiours with the colored hoped
barrels come from the northwestern
mills, and there may be an advantage
in that. Millers, too, have fallen vic
Tins to the craze and oddities of their
own in the shape of different colored
hoops or striped slaves often may be
seen. There is also what Is known as
the mugwump barrel, which is hoped
with both hickory and elm hoops, the
object of the odd barrel being chiefly
to attract attention.
There is usually a good sale for Sec
ond Inland -four barrels in the larger
cities, which annually take the bulk
of the flour made in the big north