BARREL-MAKING 3IICHINERY. The saw for cutting staves is a cylindrical sheet, having teeth upon one end; the blocks of wood are clamped in the usual manner, and the staves fall within the cylinder. They are then laid upon an endless convever, which carries them against two circular saws that cut them a definite length. Loch piece is then placed iu a pair of clamps, and moved against a rotary wheel provided with cutters, that dress the edge to the required bilge and bevel; the bilge is the increased width midway between the ends, which causes the enlarged diameter of the cask at the middle; the betel is the angle given to the edge conforming to the radius of the cask. The surface of the stave is smoothed by passing it under revolving cutters; a late forM of machine takes off the surplus wood from riven staves without cutting across the grain, following winding or crooked pieces as they are split from the block. The heads are usually made of several flat pieces jointed and fastened with dowels, or pins of wood. The edge of each piece is pushed against the side of a rotary disk, provided with cutters that instantly straighten it; it is then pushed against bits that bore holes for the pins to be afterwards inserted by hand. Several boards,beiug pinned together, enough to make a head, the whole is first smoothed on one side and dressed to a uniform thick ness; then it is clumped between two disks, and as these disks turn, a saw trims the head into a circle with a beveled edge; if the wood is green, an oval form may be given to provide against shrinking The barrel has nest to be "set hp." A sufficient number of staves are set into a
frame, their edges refitted if necessary; stout iron hoops, called "truss hoops," pushed up from below grasp the lower ends tightly, and the whole may be lifted from the mold. One end of the barrel is formed but the other is open and flaring. A rope is passed about the open end and taken to a windlass, and the staves are drawn together by tight eningthe rope; in this stage the barrel is heated to cause the staves to yield more easily to their required form. The barrel is now leveled by placing it upon a horizontal bed and bringing down upon it a powerful disk that presses upon its ends and forces the staves into their proper position. A machine is devised which trusses and levels the barrel at a single movement. The slack barrel stands in its truss hoops, two on each end; those of the lower end rest on strong supports; those of the upper end are seized by books whose handles pass down through the platform to a common lever; when all the parts are in place, powerful machinery pulls the upper trusses down, at once driving the barrel into the lower trusses, drawing together both ends, and leveling the whole. Each end of the shell, thus made, passes under a rotary cutter which forms a eroze, or groove, to receive the head, and chamfers, or bevels, the ends of the staves. The heads are put in, and the hoops set by hand. The barrel is then made to turn under a smooth ing tool and rapidly finished.