chip@dartvax.UUCP (Brig Elliott) (08/04/84)
Moby Dick is indeed the finest novel ever written, or close to it.
(War and Peace and -- above all -- Remembrance of Things Past are
the only two serious contenders, in my living room.)
But... I do have one question about Moby Dick. Melville at one
point compares a whale's great bony fluid chamber to the celebrated
Heidelburg Tun. Which is evidently some sort of huge, embellished
barrel, to judge from the description.
Does anyone out there know what the original Heidelburg Tun is?
(Hello, Germany?)
Chip Elliott ..dartvax!chipwerner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (08/13/84)
In the cellar of the castle of Heidelberg in SW Germany (my hometown), some crazy duke had himself a wine-barrel built, so huge, that on top he held parties. Room enough for band, tables and dance-floor for your friendly neighborhood blast. Ah, the good old times .... Today, only a few rare Arab princes have similar tendencies. The tourist gets to visit the party-area on top of the barrel, but no 'insights' are possible. I doubt that there is still any wine stored inside, so if anyone has plans to film Pinocchio, this might make a great location for the shots "inside the whale". "Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren ....."
colonel@gloria.UUCP (George Sicherman) (08/16/84)
[If you were a bug, you'd be dead by now.] Right, the Heidlberg Tun is a huge barrel. You'll find an account of it in Mark Twain's _A Tramp Abroad_, where he conjectures that it was used to dilute German milk (smaller containers being unable to hold the requisite amount of water). -- Col. G. L. Sicherman ...seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!sunybcs!gloria!colonel
mike@smu.UUCP (08/24/84)
#R:ut-ngp:-83400:smu:11300006:000:325 smu!mike Aug 24 09:03:00 1984 Strange that this subject should be brought up. I recently saw a reference to the great casks of Germany in a short story by ETW Hoffman. It think it was ``The Cremona Violin''. Some of those things were really big. Tens of thousands of gallons. Is this really a good way to store wine? Mike McNally ...convex!smu!mike
polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry Polard) (09/07/84)
<Tokaji Aszu for the Line-Eater>
The great Heidelberg tun is a great way to store wine - considering that
ten thousand of so people might be under seige in the castle it's in.
The great tun uses less wood than several smaller containers would.
BTW, the story goes that the conquering French burned Heidelberg castle
because the tun was empty.
--
Henry Polard (You bring the flames - I'll bring the marshmallows.)
{ihnp4,cbosgd,amd}!fortune!polard