Tonnellerie Thomas (reproduction)
The cooperage is a partial reproduction of the Thomas cooperage in Petit-Tracadie, circa 1937.
The mill represents a standard type for the period, while the cooperage (a building used to assemble barrels) is similar to the one the Thomases owned in 1937. The Thomas cooperage employed six to seven people at the time.
In the early 1800s, barrel production at John Thomas was limited to two barrels a day, as all stages of production were carried out by hand. In the early 1900s, mechanical tools were introduced, and by 1937, a good day’s work represented 20 quarts (barrels or casks) a day.
The barrel’s two main functions are to transport and preserve the goods it contains. Water, wine, oil, molasses and many other solid products such as grain, cured meats, apples, potatoes, cheese, fish, meat, etc. can be stored in them. The barrel is easy to handle, despite the hundreds of kilograms of material it can hold. It’s easy to move yourself, thanks to its geometric, rounded shape.
Until the early 1900s, production was mainly sold on the local market. By 1937, the Thomases were selling quarts throughout the Acadian Peninsula. At that time, production was between 10,000 and 12,000 quarts a year. Main customers were : A. & R. Loggie, W. S. Loggie, the Robin, Jones and Whitman Company, La manufacture des Gauthier de Shippagan, etc.
In the last years of production (1960-1970), cooperages became rare, and the Thomases sold throughout the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario. During this period, the Thomas cooperage employed between 40 and 60 people and produced around 40,000 quarts a year. In 1980, the Thomas cooperage closed its doors, as plastic barrels replaced wooden ones.
- Moat mill
- Two-sided steep-slope roof
- Cedar shingle exterior cladding
- Wide access doors
- Partially open section providing shelter for the steam engine and boiler
- Horizontal steam boiler produced in 1940 by Robb Engineering Work Limited of Amherst, Nova Scotia.
- Steam engine (c1905) by International Engineering Works Limited of Amherst, Nova Scotia
- Stationary engine manufactured in 1941 by International Harvester Company of Chicago, USA
- Stave saw (1900) by the Peter Gerlach Company of Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Dunbar-type shingle mill produced around 1930 by Compagnie Desjardins Limitée of Saint-André-de-Kamouraska, Qc
- 1930s shingle packer
- Circular saw from the 1930s
- Edging saw from the 1930s
