Vintage work crew photos

[mklotz]

Interesting that they still made these early barrels, barrel shaped. The only reason I can see for this is to hold less beer. Air receivers and modern stainless beer barrels have parallel sides and they are much easier to roll and carry.

The traditional barrel shape has some mechanical advantages...

If rolling one on a flat surface it's easy to change the direction of motion since the barrel contacts the ground in only a single circle. OTOH, a cylinder will want to continue rolling in the same direction.

A barrel will self center its rolling on two rails whereas a cylinder will not. In olden days it was typical to unload trucks, ships, etc. by arranging two rods or planks as "rails" and rolling the barrels down the rails. Cylinders would have fallen off the rails.

These advantages must have been important since constructing a barrel is more difficult than making a cylinder and barrel shapes do not pack as tightly as rectangular containers.

In the modern world, the second advantage is moot. Palletizing, fork lifts, and other mechanized handling equipment have minimized direct handling.

Whether the shape is preserved because of the first advantage or simply because of the public perception that beer should be in barrel-shaped containers is hard to know.