Cooperage dates back to the seventh century. It is a weird idea to shape and join in the round pieces of wood, using heat bending as well to obtain strong and liquid proof containers. We could have used pottery, hide or simple hollowed out wooden shapes to hold liquids. Wood must be split along the fibers to be watertight, and especially for volatile liquids with high alcohol content. Casks were built to a precise content, and when full there was apparently no way to pick up liquid without breaking the seal.

But were there is a will, there is a way………….!

1861 was a drastically cold winter in France. In a train station, workers were loading a coopered container onto a wagon. The container was thought to carry a liquid as the way it moved within the container. It was sent from the Java islands to a natural history professor. Therefore the workers presumed it was an exotic alcoholic drink sent to him by a colleague working in the islands.

With the weather being so cold the temptation of a ‘little heart warmer’ was too great. They thought if they were clever enough know one would find out about their little secret. So they proceeded to push back one of the hoops, drill a small hole and pour out some alcohol, everyone enjoyed the tasty exotic amber colored liquid. To finish the job they put a dowel back in the hole and pushed the hoop back in place and ‘hey presto’ the trick was complete!

Later on, the train stopped in a train station, and the barrel was delivered to its rightful, rather anxious owner. Wanting to make sure the content had not deteriorated, he asked for the container to be opened.

The workers happily opened up the container and they looked into the liquid. Much to the delight of the workers they found a pickled Great Borneo Ape floating in the middle that had been sent for study to the natural history museum!

Not sure what the moral of the story is, I guess not to drink from suspicious containers, but hey, a true story nonetheless! We won’t drink to that!