Hi All, I have seen a million silos but haven't a clue as to how the old "coopered" silos were made. The reason I bring this up is because the other day a guy was saying the bands were made of some kind of special steel. I did an internet search on silos and came up with nothing. Does anyone know how those old silos were made and is there something magical about the steel used in the bands? Rick
I watched an interesting documentary on TV a while back about an outfit that makes and repairs rooftop water reservoirs in New York city. Apparently they too are made like a huge barrel out of coopered planks with iron banding, and last for decades.
In 1981 I supervised an airport project where the backhoe was bringing up sections of wood water main that had been installed forty years previously and abandoned probably after ten years. The wood (douglas fir) was as sound as the day it was installed. The steel band joint assemblies were quite badly rusted. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
What are those for, anyway? Stable water pressure? Fire reservoir? Hot tub for Trump?
Yup.
I don't think the big skyscrapers use them. These were on buildings of moderate height, up to 20 stories or so.
If wood is kept wet and in an anaerobic environment it will last millennia. Apparently some of the bridges over the Seine in Paris are built on wood pilings driven by the Romans!
Older bands, ones that are of a round cross section, may be wrought iron. Nothing "magical", but some blacksmiths like to use it because it forge welds easily. Some like it because it has fiberous structure; sorta looking like a tree trunk. If you get some, hacksaw about half way through it, put it in a vise and bend it 90 degrees or more. If it is wrought iron, it will sort of splinter at the bend, showing its fibrous nature. I have seen old pickle barrels (1000 gallon size) made of it too.
Pete Stanaitis
Rhbuxt> Hi All,
That was a standard way of making liquid containers way back when. Either flat or round bar stock, usually of wrought iron, was used and the bands had a tensioning arrangement of a threaded bolt or rod to keep the tank tight. Often on larger containers (railroad water tanks come to mind) there were special castings that did the tensioning and these were attached to the bands.
-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!
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