An Improved Manufacture of Casks, Barrels, and the like.
Year: 1895

page_text: An Improved Manufacture of Casks, Barrels, and the like.
A communication from LA SOCIÉTÉ ADOLPHE_FRUHINSHOLZ & CIE., of
95 Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris, in the Republic of France.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
Hitherto in the manufacture of casks or barrels formed of staves, intended to
hold mineral oils, fermented liquids, or any substance capable of giving rise to
a strong internal pressure, such for example as beer, the various machines
employed to join the staves and give conical form to the ends had no other result
than to bring the staves together so that they were in close contact the one with
the other.
Under these conditions the tightness of the casks proceeds exclusively from the
employment of seasoned i.e. perfectly dry woods, dried in the open air for two
years at the least; woods thus seasoned undergo no shrinking, and the pressure of
the hoops upon the conical parts of the cask keep in perfect contact the well-
dressed edges of the staves. Furthermore, to obtain, over and above the tightness
of the joints, a power of resistance against pressure, as regards the rupture of the
staves and ends, it is customary to employ very thick wood, exclusively of oak, and
split in a particular manner. It is known, in fact, that oak presents or offers layers
more or less closely set, and constituted by a horny material which is impermeable
and incompressible. The wood intended to form the staves is split in such
manner that these layers are as far as possible laid, for each stave in a direction
parallel to the tangent of the circumference of the cask These layers oppose the
passage of liquid across the staves, by their constitution as well- as by their
position.
Owing to the means actually employed in the manufacture, the conditions
necessary to be fulfilled to secure tightness in a cask, give rise to the following
inconveniences;―
1. The employment of dry or seasoned wood, which keeps a considerable capital
locked up, owing to the necessity of keeping the wood in the timber-yard for
several years before bringing it into use ;-
2. The almost exclusive use of oak (which is a very expensive kind of wood) for
casks intended to hold fermented fluids ;-
3. The use, for staves, of wood of a relatively considerable thickness, whereby
the weight of the cask is also considerably increased ;-
4. The use of wood split up along the aforesaid horny layers which is, naturally
much more costly than woods cut in the ordinary way with a saw.
This present invention, however, relates to a new process of manufacture of
casks intended to hold fermented or other liquids, admitting the use of all kinds of
green wood, and thus suppressing all those inconveniences above enumerated; this
is based on the principle of applying to the casks, during their manufacture, an
extremely high degree of compression, combined with the use of a special mode of
cutting the wood intended for the staves.

page_text: .
In tracing the manufacture of the stave, as hitherto practised, we find that it
must be admitted that there is a great loss of wood, when the stave is cut out from
the wood with an axe or hatchet, which must be done strictly in the direction of
the radius of the tree-trunk.
In this manner is obtained a stave with tangential rings which is an elementary
or fundamental condition for obtaining a tight stave; for it must be understood
that here only oak is treated of, the only kind of wood in which the rings are
absolutely impermeable.
In the present process, however, which, as above stated allows all kinds of wood
to be utilised, the rings need not be taken into account which may constitute the
various kinds of wood, from the point of view of their impermeability; and
therefore there is no necessity to pay any attention to the waste, arising from
cutting the wood radially; as the loss of wood produced in the section may be
avoided entirely or almost entirely by cutting instead with an annular or band-
saw, or other analogous apparatus, in such a manner as to turn out a series of
concave staves.
There are several ways of cutting up the tree-trunk, giving concave staves all
based upon the same principle, and depending upon the thickness or diameter of
the trunk to be cut up.
The staves are always cut in the direction of the rings of growth of the wood,
and not across the same. A stave obtained by this method of cutting with the saw
will therefore have a concave form, and it is seen that, if this stave is of oak, the
rings, instead of being parallel to a tangent to the cask, are perpendicular to the
same, and consequently present no difficulty in the way of employing the new
process for the manufacture of casks, based, as has been already explained, on
a high degree of compression being applied to the staves when joined together to
form a cask. In fact, the rings not being parallel to a tangent, offer no opposition
to compression.
This compression, to which are subjected the staves intended to be used in the
manufacture of casks, is effected in two successive operations. The first is
applied to each individual stave, separately; the second takes place after the
staves are put together, with the double object, of completing the compression
applied separately to each stave in the first operation, and of producing thoroughly
tight joints.
In certain cases and with certain woods the first operation is entirely dispensed
with.
This first compressive operation corsists in taking a piece and pressing it, after
boiling in water, in moulds, by means of a hydraulic press, or any other suitable
apparatus. These cast-iron moulds are concave in the direction of the joints of the
stave, and are provided, on their interior surfaces, with grooves whereof the profile
is such that, after the compression of the piece between the two parts of the mould,
the piece of wood, which was originally of rectangular section, presents, on its two
chief parallel faces a series of inclined parallel planes having exactly the
inclination of the joints of the staves. Thus are obtained, after the compression of
the piece between the two parts of the mould, absolutely finished joints, and after
that is done it suffices to cut the piece up into staves of suitable thickness by saw-
cuts, to be able to put these staves together for the manufacture of a cask. This
preliminary compression, which, as has been seen, gives the inclination to the
joints, has the further object, on the one hand, of extracting part of the moisture
contained in the staves, and, on the other hand, of pressing together the fibres of
the wood in such manner as to render it much more homogeneous than it was
naturally. Owing to this compression the wood no longer shrinks, but also
becomes tight to such a degree that it even prevents the passage of com-
pressed air.
The second compressive operation consists in effecting the application of
compression after the staves are brought together for forming a cask; and it
must be clearly understood that the right is reserved to employ this second process

page_text: only, or in combination with the first named, viz., a preliminary compression to the
compression applied in forming the cask; or the first to be applied separately, as
well for the manufacture of casks, as for the manufacture of staves for repairs,
which in fact, they are able to deliver in separate pieces.
Supposing that a stave is taken, sawn, bent to form, but uncompressed, and
joints are cut in the way in which that has been done hitherto. The staves thus
prepared and jointed are then joined together within a heading hoop and a middle.
hoop so as to form a pinked cone at the wider end. A slip-knot or running noose
is placed round the wider end, and encircling the staves, allows their ends to be
drawn together, by pulling at the two ends of the rope, until the joints are in
close contact with one another. This process is in general use among coopers.
My correspondents bave long ago improved that method by the substi-
tution of conical moulds; and it is evident that this method of assembling
the staves may be successfully utilised for the new mode of manufacture, for the
purpose of closing the joints of the staves and fitting on the hoops; but also that it
can only be adopted for closing the stave-joints, but not to produce any sensible
compression of the staves themselves.
To obtain that compression, it is first of all necessary to cut the staves in the
improved manner hereinbefore referred to and to submit them, after being.put
together to a second treatment.in conical moulds, for the purpose of reducing, over.
the entire length of the cask, the diameter thereof, in a proportion varying with
the nature of the wood used and also in accordance with the use to which the cask.
in hand is to be put.
Before being exposed to this compression, the cask formed in the manner just.
indicated or in any other appropriate manner, is put in the lathe and notched or.
bevelled off. It at the same time undergoes a chamfering over its outer edge,
and is then submitted to a boiling process, either in steam, or hot water.
After this operation, the arrangement of the staves in place is proceeded with,
and to the fixing of the heads or ends.
The ends are prepared separately, and turned oval, with two or three centimetres
more wood in the way of the width. These ends are never made in one piece.
only, but may be formed in two or three pieces, and these are joined together by
pins or dowels. The perforations to receive these dowels are made of sufficient
depth to receive them wholly leaving sufficient play to allow for compression of
the wood after they have been driven home, so as to avoid bursting and fracture
which, otherwise, might occur.,
Instead of uniting the pieces of the head by means of pins or dowels, the right,is
reserved to make a tongued and grooved joint.
The heads or ends thus prepared are introduced by their tenoned, periphery into.
the croze-grooves or notches, and brought into position there by means of special
apparatus.
This apparatus is composed of a frame carrying two transverse slideways and
a screw which latter can be rotated by means of a hand-wheel keyed on one end of
the screw.
The movement of the screw has for its object the displacement of the
nut which slides on and is guided by the two parallel rods or slideways. This nut
is fitted with a projecting tongue which is introduced into the empty space between
the two outer pieces forming part of the head or end. By turning, this screw first
in one direction and then in the opposite one, the tongued periphery of first one
piece, and then of the other is securely fixed in the, croze-groove or notch cut
inside the stave-ends.
The cask thus fitted with its ends is then brought under the compressing
apparatus. For reasons which will appear later on this is a horizontal piston
press. It is composed of two moulds in the form of truncated cones, whereof the
one is fixed and the other which is movable may be advanced towards the fixed one
by the action of a horizontal hydraulic piston; two rods serve as guides and slide-
ways for the movable mould in its displacement. The moulds are grooved
internally and carry the finishing hoops of the cask.

page_text: In causing the one mould' to advance towards the other, under hydraulic pressure
three different operations are simultaneously performed;-
1. Compression of the staves by means of the enforced reduction in the diameter
of the head, this operation having for its object to dry the staves and give them
a compact and homogeneous structure :
2. Forcing the parts of the heads together as well as into the crozes, and their
compression of the same in so far as they are made preliminarily oval:
3. Final hooping of the casks.
The cask issues from the mould ready for sale as soon as it has received a coat
of paint, so as to give it a finished aspect and protect the hoops from rust.
In regard to the resistance to the required pressure the right is also reserved of
using heads or ends compressed separately and apart from the finishing operation ;
and in this case the procedure is as follows ;-
The pieces concentrically pressed from a larger diameter are flattened between
two cast-iron plates which keep them flat during compression, and then they are
preliminarily dowelled. By bringing force to bear on them the heads are com-
pressed to the same degree as the staves. The cast-iron plates are provided with
a central circular opening, which allows the introduction of a spherical headed
mandrel through the upper plate by which is imparted by suitable pressure upon
the head when closed-up a concave form to the latter.
The head thus formed is in this case turned perfectly circular and then placed
in the croze of the cask (to be put together) in the manner previously explained.
Owing to this inward curvature of the head, this latter is capable of resisting
a higher pressure, while being at the same time thinner, than another head; and it
is also to be understood that it can be made of any kind of wood.
The horizontal position of the press in which the finishing pressure is applied is
advantageous as will be readily understood from the facility given thereby for
placing the heads, and for the surveillance over the work; for this is a some-
what delicate operation requiring close, careful, and continuous attention and
supervision, which indeed would be very difficult of execution were the press
vertical.
In the case in which the casks are formed of a single sheet of wood, or of several
staves of the same breadth throughout their entire length (these. casks taking
a cylindrical form) the right is reserved of employing the system of heading
previously set forth, and consisting in putting the heads in their place before
introducing the cask into the compressing moulds; the said heads having or not
having been subjected to a preliminary compression, will be in several pieces,
joined together by pins or dowels or in a single piece bent inwards with its
convexity towards the centre of the cask.
Dated this 9th day of August 1895.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.
A communication from LA SOCIÉTÉ ADOLPHE FRUHINSHOLZ & CIE., of
95 Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris, in the Republic of France.
1, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, formerly of 323. High Holborn, but now of
111 Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Chartered Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
:―
Hitherto, in the manufacture of casks or barrels formed of staves and intended

page_text: to hold mineral oils, fermented liquids, or any substance capable of giving rise to
a strong internal pressure, such for example as beer, the various machines
employed to join the staves and give conical form to the ends had no other result
than to bring the staves together so that they were in close contact the one with
the other.
Under these conditions the tightness of the casks proceeds exclusively from the
employment of seasoned i.e. perfectly dry woods, dried in the open air for two
years at the least; woods thus seasoned undergo no shrinking, and the pressure of
the hoops upon the conical parts of the cask keeps in perfect contact the well-
dressed edges of the staves. Furthermore, to obtain, over and above the tightness
of the joints a power of resistance against pressure, as regards the rupture of the
staves and ends, it is customary to employ very thick wood, exclusively oak; and
split in a particular manner. It is known in fact that oak presents or offers
layers more or less closely set, and constituted by a horny material which is
impermeable and incompressible. The wood intended to form the staves is split
in such manner that these layers are as far as possible laid, for each stave, in a
direction parallel to the tangent to the circumference of the cask. These layers
oppose the passage of liquid across the staves, by their constitution as well as by
their position.
Owing to the means actually employed in the manufacture, the conditions
necessary to be fulfilled to secure tightness in a cask, give rise to the following
inconveniences;-
:-
1. The employment of dry or seasoned wood, which keeps a considerable
capital locked up, owing to the necessity of keeping the wood in the timber-yard
for several years before bringing it into use.
2. The almost exclusive use of oak (which is a very expensive kind of wood)
for casks intended to hold fermented fluids.
3. The use for staves of wood of a relatively considerable thickness, whereby
the weight of the cask is also considerably increased.
.
4. The use of wood split up along the aforesaid horny layers which is, naturally
much more costly than woods cut in the ordinary way with a saw.
This present invention, however, relates to a new process of manufacture of
casks intended to hold fermented or other liquids, admitting the use of all kinds
of green wood, and thus suppressing all those inconveniences above enumerated;
this is based on the principle of applying to the casks, during their manufacture,
an extremely high degree of compression, combined with the use of a special mode
of cutting the wood intended for the staves.
In the following particulars and for the purpose of rendering the explanations
perfectly clear, the drawings accompanying this Specification, are referred to,
whereon are illustrated, by way of example, the various stages of this improved
process, and the apparatus for carrying them out.
In tracing the manufacture of the stave, as hitherto practised, it must be
admitted that there is a great loss of wood, when the stave is cut out from the
wood with an axe or hatchet, which must be done strictly in the direction of the
radius of the tree-trunk (Figure 1).
In this manner is obtained a stave with tangential rings, which is an elementary
or fundamental condition for obtaining a tight stave; for it must be understood
that here oak only is being treated, the only kind of wood in which the rings are
absolutely impermeable.
In the present process, however, which, as before stated allows all kinds of wood
to be utilised, the rings which may constitute the various kinds of wood need not
be taken into account, from the point of view of their impermeability; and
therefore there is no necessity to pay any attention to the waste shown in Fig. 1
by the spaces between the lined or batched parts and arising from cutting the
wood radially; as my correspondents may avoid entirely, or almost entirely, the
loss of wood produced in the section cut up as indicated in that figure, by cutting

page_text: instead with an annular or band-saw, or other analogous apparatus in such a
manner as to turn out a series of concave staves.
Figs. 2, 3 and 4 illustrate, by way of example several ways of cutting up the
tree-trunk, giving concave staves. These three systems of cutting up wood are all
based upon the same principle, and depend upon the thickness or diameter of the
trunk to be cut up.
The staves are always cut in the direction of the rings of growth of the wood,
and not as shown in Fig. 1, across the same. A stave obtained by this method of
cutting with the saw will therefore have a concave form as shown in Fig. 5, and
it is seen that, if this stave is of oak, the rings, instead of being parallel to a
tangent to the cask, are perpendicular to the same, and consequently present no
-difficulty in the way of employing this new process for the manufacture of casks,
based, as has already been explained, on a high degree of compression being
applied to the staves when joined together to form a cask. In fact, the rings not
being parallel to a tangent, offer no opposition to compression applied in the
direction indicated by the two arrows in Fig. 5.
This compression, to which are subjected the staves intended to be used in the
manufacture of casks, is effected in two successive operations. The first is applied
to each individual stave, separately; the second takes place after the staves are
put together with the double object, of completing the compression applied
separately to each stave in the first operation, and of producing thoroughly tight
joints.
In certain cases and with certain woods the first operation may be dispensed with
entirely.
This first compressive operation consists in taking a piece A and pressing it,
after boiling in water, in the moulds shown in Figs. 6 and 60s, by means of a
hydraulic press, or any other suitable apparatus. These moulds are concave in
the direction of the joints of the stave, and are provided, ou their interior surfaces,
with grooves whereof the profile is such that, after the compression of the piece A
between the two parts of the mould, the piece of wood, which was originally of
rectangular section, presents, on its two chief parallel faces a series of inclined
parallel planes (see the two views of this piece, at right angles to each other,
constituting Fig. 7) having exactly the inclination of the joints of the staves.
Thus is obtained, after the compression of piece A between the two parts of the
mould, (Fig. 6), absolutely finished joints, and after that is done it suffices to cut
the piece A up into staves of suitable thickness by saw-cuts, to be able to put
these staves together for the manufacture of a cask. This preliminary
compression which, as has been seen, gives the inclination to the joints, has the
further object on the one band, of extracting part of the moisture contained in
the staves, and, on the other hand, of pressing together the fibres of the wood in
such manner as to render it much more homogeneous than it was naturally.
Owing to this compression the wood no longer shrinks, but also becomes tight to
such a degree that it even prevents the passage of compressed air.
The second compressive operation consists in effecting the application of
compression after the staves are brought together for forming a cask; and it
must be clearly understood that my correspondents reserve to themselves to
employ this second process only, or in combination with the first named, viz., a
preliminary compression to the compression applied in forming the cask; or the
first to be applied separately, as well for the inanufacture of casks, as for the
manufacture of staves for repairs, which in fact they are able to deliver in separate
pieces.
Supposing that a stave is taken, sawn, bent to form, but uncompressed, and let
the joints be cut in the way in which that has been done hitherto. The staves
thus prepared and jointed are then joined together within a heading hoop and a
middle hoop (Fig. 8) so as to form a scalloped or serrated cone at the wider end.
A slip-kuot or running noose placed round the wider end, and encircling the

page_text: staves, allows their ends to be drawn together, by pulling at the two ends of the
rope, until the joints are in close contact with one another.
This process is in general use among coopers.
That method has long ago been improved by the substitution of conical moulis ;.
and it is evident that this method of assembling the staves may be successfully
utilised for this new mode of manufacture, for the purpose of closing the joints of
the staves and fitting on the hoops; but also that it can ouly be adopted for
closing the stave-joints, but not to produce any sensible compression of the staves-
themselves.
To obtain that compression, it is first of all necessary to cut the staves as shown
in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and to subunit them, after being put together, to a second'
treatment in conical moulds, for the purpose of reducing, over the entire length
of the cask the diameter thereof, in a proportion varying with the nature of the-
wood used and also in accordance with the use to which the cask in band is t
be put.
Before being exposed to this compression, the cask formed in the manner just.
indicated or in any other appropriate manner, is put in the lathe and notched.
or bevelled off. It at the same time undergoes a chamfering over its outer
edge, and is then submitted to a boiling process, either in steam or hot water.
After this operation, my correspondents proceed to the arrangement of the
staves in place, and to the fixing of the heads or ends.
The
The ends H are prepared separately, and turned oval as at H¹ (Figure 9) with,
two or three centimetres more wood in the way of the width. These ends are
never made of one piece only, but may be formed in two or three pieces h-
(Figures 13 and 14), and these are joined together by pins or dowels J.
perforations I to receive these dowels J are made of sufficient depth to receive.
them wholly leaving sufficient play to allow for compression of the wood after they
have been driven home, so as to avoid bursting and fractures which, otherwise
might occur.
Instead of uniting the pieces h of the head by means of pins or dowels J the
right is reserved to make a tongued and grooved joint K K' (Figure 14).
The heads or ends thus prepared are introduced by their tenoned periphery
into the croze-grooves or notches, and brought into position there by means of the
apparatus shown in Figures 15 and 16.
This apparatus is composed of a frame R carrying two transverse slideways r
and a screw r1 which latter can be rotated by means of a hand-wheel keyed on
one end of the screw. The movement of the screw r₁ has for its object the
displacement of the nut which slides on and is guided by the two parallel rods
or slideways r. This nut is fitted with a projecting tongue r₁ as shown in
Figure 16, which is introduced into the empty space between the two outer
pieces forming part of the head or end. By turning this screw first in one
direction and then in the opposite one, the tongued periphery of first one piece h
and then of the other, is securely fixed in the croze-groove or notch, cut inside the:
stave-ends.
The cask thus fitted with its ends is then brought under the compressing
apparatus. For reasons which will appear later on, this is a horizontal-piston
press, such as shown in Figure 17. It is composed of two moulds S S¹ in the
form of truncated cones, whereof the one (S) is fixed and the other S¹ which is
movable may be advanced towards the fixed one S by the action of a horizontal
O hydraulic piston S; two rods & s₁₁ serve as guides and slideways for the movable
mould S¹ in its displacement. The moulds are grooved internally and carry the
finishing hoops of the cask.
5
In causing the one mould to advance towards the other under hydraulic pressure-
three different operations are performed simultaneously:-
1. Compression of the staves by means of the inforced reduction in the diameter
of the head, this operation having for its object to dry the staves and give them a
compact and homogeneous structure.

page_text: 2. Forcing the parts of the heads together as well as into the crozes, and the
compression of the same in so far as they are made preliminarily oval:
3. Final hooping of the casks.
The cask issues from the mould as represented in Figure 20 and is ready for
sale, as soon as it has received a coat of paint, so as to give it a finished aspect
and protect the hoops from rust.
In regard to the resistance to the required pressure the right is also reserved of
using heads or ends compressed separately and apart from the finishing operation ;
and in this case the proceeding is as follows:-
The pieces concentrically pressed from a larger diameter are flattened between
two cast-iron plates, which keep them flat during compression, and then they are
preliminarily dowelled (Figures 18 and 19). By bringing force to bear on the
points a and b in the direction indicated by the arrows, the heads are compressed
to the same degree as the staveɛ. The cast-iron plates W W are provided with
a central circular opening, which allows the introduction of a spherical-headed
mandrel through the upper plate, by which is imparted by suitable pressure upon
the head when closed-up a concave form to the latter.
The head thus formed is, in this case turned perfectly circular, and then
placed in the croze of the cask (to be put together) in the manner previously
explained.
Owing to this inward curvature of the head, this latter is capable of resisting a
higher pressure, while being at the same time thinner, than another head; and
it is also to be understood that it can be made of any kind of wood.
The horizontal position of the press in which the finishing pressure is applied is
advantageous, as will be readily understood, from the facility given thereby
for placing the heads, and for the surveillance over the work, for this is a
somewhat delicate operation requiring close, careful, and continuous attention and
supervision, which indeed would be very difficult of execution, were the press
vertical.
In, the case in which the casks are formed of a single sheet of wood, or of
several staves of the same breadth throughout their entire length (these casks
taking a cylindrical form), the right is reserved of employing the system of
heading previously set forth, and consisting in putting the heads in their place
before introducing the cask into the compressing moulds. The said heads, having
or not having been subjected to a preliminary compression, will be in several
pieces, joined together by pins or dowels, or in a simple piece, bent inwards with
its convexity towards the centre of the cask.
'
'Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature the said inven-
tion as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
The mechanical process for the quick manufacture of casks with staves,
compressed, made of all kinds of wood in the green or unseasoned state, with the
simultaneous fixing of the heads or ends, substantially as described and with
reservation to ourselves of all the applications of which the process is capable.
Dated this 7th day of May 1896.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.