Oh! If not, do email me! [email protected] - I will send over a reader's copy!

From my reading of it, he understands that coopers from various regions make casks differently - he champions Austrian barrels over Rhenish barrels due to the fact that they 'gauged' easier when applying his polyhedral method.

I think this is an open link to the work: brill.com/view/journal...

Yes! Baxandall's work is amazing! One of the things I have not considered is the use of screws and bolts used by coopers when fashioning hoops around the staves.

My thesis was on barrels. Took ages until people, not all - but some, began to take my interests 'seriously'. This said, I had very supportive supervisors - which really really helped.

looking forward to seeing your work! Feel free to send stuff over to the Bulletin of Scientific Instrument Soc.

Check out @sochistnathist.bsky.social for all things, histories of natural history!

Lang has also created a YouTube class for curators, instructors & collectors who are interested in digitizing the materiality of pre-modern books.

You can watch the full playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

#HSS2025 #RareBooks #SpecColls

I am now wishing I re-wrote a line in my article on barrels and natural specimen preservation which compared the similitude of "pickled herring" in casks to pickled "exotic birds". I should have said pickled eels. Next time.

adding this to my STS course reading list! Thank you!

At last, our interests (eels and barrel gauging) come together. Sweet harmony.

Yes - I have been meaning to write a post on it for sometime!

This reminds me of library punch cards. Cambridge got rid of them in 2018 - so I kept this as a keepsake and historiographical reminder of how these things are just as important. You might notice familiar people.