1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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In the Port Wine Country.

central building,roofed witb glass and galvanised iron,containing tbe engine, boilers, and macbine-rooms, flanked on either side by the trussing and rearing sheds,and having at the back a large finishing shed, in which 300 coopers can conveniently work. The entire estabhshment was planned in England by Messrs. Allan Eansome and Co., of Chelsea, the well-known makers of cooperage and wood-working machinery, in con junction with Mr.T.Smith, engineering director to the com pany, Messrs. Bass and Co., of Burton-on-Trent, who were among the first to adopt the system of making casks by steam, having also famished many valuable hints to the pro jectors. On entering the machine-room the first machines that strike the eye are the cross-cut saw for sawing staves to their proper lengths, and the six large band saws for cutting the wood to the requisite thickness, and by means of which 1,800 logs can be transformed into three times that number of pipe-staves during the day. The freshly-cut staves are then either thorouo-hly tanked in hot water for forty-eight hours, or submitted to a new process, known only to the company,which by rendering the resin and tannin of the wood insoluble effects the same result as tanking in less than an hom. When dry the staves are brought back to the shop and passed through backing hollovring,and jointing machines, the latter of which—a special feature of the establishment—can joint from 5,000 to ?000 staves a day. These staves are then ready to be converted into casks,and are"trussed"or closed by hydrauhc pressure in afew seconds, whereas two men would certainly require an hour to accomplish the operation by manuallabour. There is a special set of machines for making the cask-heads which turn out150pairs per diem. These are afterwards adjusted in the finishing-shed where the casks pass through the chimiuf and crozing machines, and are hooped, scraped, gauged and storedreadyfor delivery. Before leaving the establishment each cask is carefully tested by steaming to detect any leakage or •defective staves. The cooperage, which when we visited it