KINDS AND USES OF COOPERAGE IMPORTED

Cooperage in all its forms is imported into the United Kingdom, but of most importance are the tight staves.

Tight cooperage is, with few exceptions, made from imported oak staves, and it is used for the transportation and storage of malt and spirituous liquors, palm oil, kerosene, cured fish and vinegar, and for the manufacture of tubs and churns. The principal exceptions are the barrels used by the pickled-herring industry, which are made of Swedish spruce, and those to hold glucose, for which American gum is preferred.

TIGHT SHOOKS

Although attempts have been made from time to time by American exporters to induce the British cooperage industry to use tight shooks instead of staves for the manufacture of barrels, little headway has been made so far. The glucose industry, however, is an exception, and it is probable that most of the 19,053 sets of tight shooks, valued at $32,611, exported from the United States to the United Kingdom during 1925 were of gum and were used for the manufacture of glucose barrels.

SLACK STAVES

North European and Baltic spruce and pine staves sold as fir are imported into the United Kingdom in very large quantities for the manufacture of containers for cement and dry chemicals and, to a smaller extent, for pottery. In addition to these, some American slack gum staves are imported for making flour barrels. During 1925 the United States exported 1,647,142 slack staves, valued at $74,846, to this market, most of which were probably used to make containers used by the flour-milling industry for their export trade.

HEADING

Of the heading imported into the United Kingdom, that of oak and gum from America is the most important, a total of 476,273 sets, valued at $168,715, being exported from the United States to the British market during 1925.

EMPTY BARRELS AND CASKS

Some new empty oak barrels are imported for use by the British brewing industry, principally from Germany and the Netherlands, made from Russian and Polish staves. The number, however, is comparatively small and their importation is not looked upon with favor by the British cooperage industry.

Empty secondhand casks to the number of 24,668, valued at $194,597, were also imported from the United States during 1925. After cleaning and repairing, they are knocked down and shipped to West Africa in shook form for use as palm-oil containers.

There is also a considerable business done in other secondhand barrels, which are imported filled with packing-house products, paraffin, and edible oils, principally from America. After being emptied of their contents, cleaned and repaired, they are sold for use as containers for products similar to those which they originally held.

HOOPS

American elm hoops, 5, 52, and 6 feet in circumference, are also imported by Great Britain for use on flour barrels and other containers for dry material, but the quantity is not shown in any available

statistics.

CONSUMING INDUSTRIES

BREWING

Barrels manufactured from what are called "Memel" oak staves are used exclusively by the brewing industry in Great Britain. These staves were originally shipped through the German port of Memel for convenience, although manufactured in the Russian Province of Volhynia, but for many years the name "Memel" has been used to indicate a type of stave rather than the port of shipment.

The "Memel" type of stave is excellent in manufacture and grading, cleft and flat dressed by hand to an exact thickness and width, and in "crown" quality is practically free from all defects. Russia and Poland together supply the entire stave needs of the British brewing industry.

During the war it was impossible for Great Britain to get supplies of staves from these countries, so that the brewing industry was compelled to go to the United States for them. However, it is asserted that oak staves from the United States are not satisfactory for beer barrels on account of the tannin flavoring the beer, so that as soon as European staves were again available the trade returned to their use. As a consequence there has been a surplus of American staves. in brewers' sizes in Great Britain ever since the close of the war. Efforts on the part of United States stave exporters to induce the resumption of the use of American staves for beer casks so far have been unsuccessful; consumption has now been reduced to meager proportions and there does not appear to be any prospect of immediate revival. Although the "Memel" stave may not have any inherent superiority over the American, the fact remains that the countries where it originates produce a perfectly made stave, which has for generations found favor in Great Britain for the making of beer casks.

Quotations for "Memel" staves and heading are in pounds sterling per mille of 1,200 pieces, as of full-size pipe, or per "shoeck" of 60 pieces computed according to a standard base table known as "The Memel reduction table," using the full-size pipe, 66 to 73 inches, 3 by 6 inches as a base. The following are the standard dimensions of "Memel" staves and heading: 3 by 6, 21⁄2 by 5, 24 by 42, 2 by 4, 134 by 32, 11⁄2 by 3, 14 by 3, and 1 by 3 inches, with lengths for pipes 66 to 73 inches, brandies 58 to 65 inches, long hogshead 52 to 57 inches, hogsheads 46 to 51 inches, long barrel 38 to 45 inches, short barrel 34 to 37 inches, long heading 26 to 33 inches, short heading 20 to 25 inches, short short heading 17 to 19 inches, and ends 15 to 16 inches. It will be noted that the width is always double the thickness of the stave.

PALM OIL

Liverpool is the center of the United Kingdom palm-oil trade, it being estimated that over 90 per cent of the palm oil imported into Great Britain from West Africa comes through this port. The

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palm-oil cask must be of exceedingly strong construction in order to stand rough handling by native African labor. When full of oil it weighs between 1,600 and 1,700 pounds; the barrels are rolled for many miles on the rough roads, and it is essential that they can stand this treatment without leakage. The palm-oil cask of to-day is the outcome of many years' experience. It is large, carries a heavy weight under varying conditions, has to stand recoopering and many long voyages, and must be strong enough at the head to be slung with hooks when filled, as well as of sufficient strength on the bilge to be stored without damage.

The materials now used for the manufacture of these palm-oil casks are the best that can be procured, and for this purpose American staves have been found superior to all others and are used exclusively by coopers supplying this trade.

Palm-oil staves are shipped to Great Britain principally from New Orleans and Galveston, and are chiefly of red oak. They may be either flat or circle bucked, and are imported both listed and unlisted. Listed staves are those which have square edges, while the unlisted are shipped as they leave the bucking machine, without any dressing of the edges.

The following stave specifications are used for the manufacture of palm-oil casks: 44 by 18 inches, prime white and/or red oak, flat or circle dressed, listed 5 inches, average; 44 by 11% inches, prime white or red oak, flat or circle dressed, unlisted; 44 by 11 inches, second quality, white or red oak.

The second-quality staves are used in small quantities only. Heading for the casks is manufactured by local coopers out of third or fourth quality Canadian white or red pine lumber. The heading is finished to 38 and 40 inches diameter, principally the former, by 11⁄2 inches thick. At opposite sides of the heading is inserted a small piece called a "cantel," which is made of oak, to strengthen the heading and to allow for the binding by the hoops.

Efforts have been made to introduce American palm-oil shooks into Liverpool, but so far they have made little headway.

The casks are sold by the coopers to firms engaged in the palmoil trade and shipped to West Africa in shook form, whence they are returned filled with oil and distributed to the soap and tinplate manufacturers, who are the largest consumers of palm oil. After being emptied they are resold to the coopers, who repair those that are damaged, and after cleaning and shooking they are sold again to the operators and reshipped to West Africa.

There is also a considerable demand for secondhand casks-in fact, they are preferred to new ones by some palm-oil operators on account of their absorbing less oil. While a sufficiently low ocean freight obtained in recent years, quantities of empty palm-oil casks were shipped to Liverpool from America and sold to the coopers. These casks, after being cleaned and repaired if necessary, were converted into shooks, and resold to the palm-oil operators for shipment to West Africa again. The Liverpool Produce Association specification for regular palm-oil casks (the regular size of a Liverpool palm-oil cask is 38 inches and is known as a 38-inch cask), November, 1920, new or secondhand, follows:

Staves. The staves shall be of oak, of a minimum length of 42 inches, with an allowance of 1 inch for wear and tear, and of a thickness of 1 to 14 inches.

Heads.

The heads shall be of white or red pine, with two oak cantels, and of a thickness of 13% to 15% inches.

Hoops. The hoops shall be 10 in number, and of 2 inches by 14 Birmingham wire gauge.

Width. The outside diameter at ends of cask shall be from 38 to 44 inches.

KEROSENE

The use of wooden containers for kerosene has been decreasing for some years in this market, being replaced to a large extent by road tank wagons and metal storage tanks. Secondhand barrels, which are used over and over again, fill most needs of the oil industry, and new barrels are made only to supplement supplies of the old.

As dealers will not pay any more for kerosene delivered in new barrels, old barrels are used whenever they are available. The new barrels are made almost exclusively by the large oil companies, which operate their own cooperage plants. These companies do not buy their stave and heading requirements from regular importers in Great Britain, but get their supplies direct from the United States. Under these circumstances, so long as supplies of secondhand barrels and such new ones as are made by the oil companies themselves are sufficient to meet the demand, there will be no call for oil barrels from the cooperage industry, and the necessity for importing staves and heading to make them will not arise. Consequently, imports by the stave importers have virtually ceased, being confined to a small quantity of heading for repair purposes only.

American red and white oak are used exclusively for making oil barrels, the staves being circle sawn, kiln dried, and jointed 34 by 34 inch, average 41/2 inches wide. The heading is circled, rushed, doweled, and beveled (completely finished), 201⁄2 inches diameter by 34 inch, random widths. In addition, some square heading 22 by 3/4 inch, random widths, is imported for repair work.

The regulation kerosene barrel is made in one size only and has a capacity of from 40 to 42 British gallons.

HERRING

Large quantities of staves are imported into the United Kingdom every year for the manufacture of barrels in the export pickledherring trade. The principal herring-curing centers are Yarmouth, Lowestoft, and the Isle of Man, in England; Fraserburg, Peterhead, Aberdeen, and Wick, in Scotland; Larwick, in the Shetland Islands; Stronsay, Orkney Íslands; and Stornaway, in the Hebrides. It is through these ports that the staves are imported and made into barrels by local coopers and the fish curers. The herring are brought in by drifters, cleaned, and packed in salt for export.

Herring barrels are manufactured largely from flat-sawn spruce staves imported from Sweden, and to a small extent from Norway, but the quality and selection, with a few exceptions, are not considered by the consumers as favorably as that grown in Sweden.

Small quantities of pine staves from Norway are occasionally imported, this pine having been found suitable for pickled-herring barrels.

Some spruce logs are also imported from Sweden and the White Sea (Russia), the latter being considered the best, and manufactured into staves by local coopers, but these staves have not been found as suitable for barrel making as the imported, according to those

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