THE COOPER.

A Cooper manufactures casks, tubs, pails and various other articles in domestic concern, as well as vessels for carrying and transporting all kinds of liquids, and many dry wares.

The art of the Cooper is very ancient, and appears to have soon arrived to the degree of perfection in which it now is. The operations in this trade are referred to two thousand years ago, bv the Roman writers on rural economy. Not withstanding which, it is still unknown in some countries; for in these, where wood is scarce, they carry wine in skins daubed over with a mixture of pitch and tar.

The custom of keeping wine in earthern vessels, is still in use in some of the southern parts of Europe. Pliny gives to the Piedmontese the merit of having first made use of casks. Iin his time they were daubed with pitch.

The art of coopering has enabled man to possess and retain the richest viands and liquors of foreign climes. It promotes and facilitates the export and import of the produce of distant countries, which have enriched the merchant, supplied the wants and luxuries of the people, enriched the revenues, and given spirit to navigation. It is impossible, in reflecting on this trade, not to feel that it occupies a much greater space in our existence, than it at first appears to do.

The Cooper principally employs oak in the manufacture of his different articles, a great part of which comes from America : but he
also uses, occasionally, other woods, as deal and beech. The oak is usually imported, cut up into narrow pieces, called staves ; for tabs, pails, &c. the bottoms of which are less than the tops, the staves are wider at the top than they are at the bottom. After the staves are dressed, and ready to be arranged, the Cooper, without attempting any great nicety in sloping or beveling them, so that the whole surface of the edge may touch in every point, brings them into contact only at the inner surface, and then, by driving the hoops tight, he can make a closer joint than could be done by sloping the staves from the outer to the inner side. These staves are kept together by means of hoops, which are made of hazel and aish ; but some articles require iron hoops. To make them hold water, or other liquids, the Cooper sometimes places between each staves, from top to bottom, split flags, which swell with moisture, and effectually prevent the vessel from leaking : but this is more commonly done in repairing old casks : if the new work be properly conducted there is no necessity for the use of flags.

The trade, in London, is divided into several branches, and the persons carrying it on as.well as the journeymen, confine themselves
to the different branches respectively. They are designated first by Butt-Coopers, whose employ consists in making all kinds of
casks for breweries, and the puncheons and hogsheads for distilleries. The Dry-Cooper finds his employment in manufacturing hogsheads, and other casks for the containing of every kind of dry produce ; the leading feature of the consumption in his line, is hogsheads for sugar.

The employ of the White-Cooper comes home to every house-keeper : he makes all domestic utensils, such as are used in private
brewing, washing, dairies, &c. The Wine-Cooper is a person employed in drawing off, bottling, and packing wine ; spirits, or malt liquor. In London, many persons follow this business only ; it is common for persons of the first consequence to employ the Wine-Cooper to take charge of their wines.

The Cooper derives large profit, and great part of his employment, from the West-India trade. The puncheons and hogsheads are used in the voyage out to the Islands, for packing coarse goods, as coarse woollen cloths, coarse hats, &c. whence those vessels return filled with rum and sugar.

The tools required by the Cooper are numerous, some of which are peculiar to his art; but most of them are common both to him and the Carpenter.

A Cooper busily employed in putting together a hogshead holds in his left hand a flat piece of wood, which he lays on the edge of the hoop, while he strikes it with the hammer in his right hand. To make the hoops stick, he takes the precaution to chalk the staves before he begins this part of the operation. The tops and bottoms he puts together by means of wooden pegs.

Around the wall of the shop, and on the floor, we see iron and wooden hoops, and various tools, such as saws, axes, spoke-shaves, stocks, and bits, adzes, augers, &c. &c. The structure and uses of the saw and the axe, are too well-known to stand in need
of description.

The stock and bit make but one instrument ; it hangs over the left shoulder of the Cooper. The stock is the handle, and the bit is a sort of piercer, that fits into the bottom of the stock : bits of various sorts are adapted to the same stock, of course, the bit is always moveable, and may be instantly replaced to one of a different bore.

An adze is a cutting tool of the axe kind, having its blade made very thin and arching : it is used chiefly for taking off thin chips, and
for cutting the hollow sides of boards, &c. Augers are used for boring large holes : they are a kind of large gimblet, consisting of a wooden handle and an iron blade, which is terminated with a steel bit.

A drawing-knife is also a tool of the utmost importance in this trade; it is sometimes straight, and sometimes bent, in order to give
the staves that circular form which they are designed to have in a cask, or other round vessel : this tool, and the spoke-shave, with
the Cooper, almost supersede the necessity of the plane.

There is one other little tool peculiar to the Cooper called a drift, which he uses for the purpose of striking on, to drive down the
hoops. It is made of iron, for driving down iron hoops, and of some hard wood, for wooden hoops : without this little tool the operation of straining the hoops could not be performed. The trade of the Cooper was formerly among the cries of London "any work for the Cooper ?" is now heard, though rarely, in some parts of the country. A travelling Cooper carries with him a few hoops of different sizes, some of iron, rivets, and wooden pegs ;. his hammer, adze, drift, and stock and bit. With these few instruments he can repair all washing and brewing utensils, besides the churns and wooden vessels made use of in dairies. An ingenious workman will, in his peregrinations, readily perform various jobs which belong to the carpenter, in villages which are too small to support a person of that trade.

A journeyman Cooper will earn from three to five shillings per day.

Every custom-house and excise-office, has an officer called the King's-Cooper ; and eveiy large ship has a Cooper on board, whose business is to look after all the casks intended for liquids.