School: Taobh Breac (roll number 15227)

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1. Is the Ice-Box or Refrigerator a Modern Invention?

   

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   ( Sketch of ancient Firkin including dimensions )

   
   Here is a picture of a firkin of butter recently unearthed from a bog in the townland of Pollyarnon near Tievebrack, by Mr. Patrick Catherson.

   The utensil which contained the butter was made of wood, and like most objects discovered beneath the rich loamlike preservation of Irish peatlands, it was in a good state of preservation and the butter itself equally well preserved.

   The ferkin and the butter are extremely old. It was a custom, it seems, with the natives to place butter in the clear cool water of bogland brooks for the purpose of keeping the butter congealed, until it was ready for use, the freshness of the air overhead, and the absence of it in the ground underneath the bog area and the purity of the water, serving – so to speak, for much the same purpose as the modern ice-box and refrigerator in keeping butter from melting.

   Frequently, however, the butter was overlooked for some newer stock; sometimes the place where it rested was hard to find, and in later years

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Donnachadh E. Mac Congáile

   Gender

   Male

   Occupation

   Múinteoir