On 08/07/2021 4:35 PM robert netzlof <rtnetzlof@...> wrote:


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From: "Claus Schlund &#92;(HGM&#92;)" <claus@...>

I note the use of wooden barrels at the oil dealership - I've never seen this before. Instead I always see steel barrels (drums?) even in the pre-1920 era.

I have a book on oil refinery design (unfortunately concealed somewhere in The Dreaded Basement). It dates from pre-WW2 days, but how much before I don't recall. It might even have been published pre-WW1. (I got it in the mid 1960s from the local Goodwill store where it was in company with several texts and references in the civil and mechanical engineering area, apparently all contributed by the estate of a deceased engineer once employed in the petroleum refining business.)

One of the chapters was devoted to the design of facilities for manufacturing, filling, and repairing wooden barrels for use in distributing oil products. One part that sticks in my mind is the use of glue to line the barrels after they had been coopered. The general idea was to pour a quantity of hot glue into the barrel, plug the bung, then roll the barrel about on the floor to distribute the glue all over the interior followed by propping the barrel up over a pan to allow excess glue to drain out through the bung hole.

Recall that in the late 19th Century, there were barrel cars, some of which were owned and operated by Union Tank Line to transport empty barrels back to the refineries for re-use. Of course, those could have been steel barrels, if there were steel barrels in the late 19th Century.

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Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob