In 1867 Cool, Ferguson & Co. had licensed the right to manufacture a set of barrel-making machines that had been patented by John S. Thompson in 1865. They exhibited the set of three barrel-making machines at the 1867 Paris Universal Exposition, winning a Silver Medal, which gained them a fair bit of attention. They also exhibited their machines at the 1867 New York State Fair and then they disappeared without a trace, as did Thompson's patent barrel machinery.

Information Sources

• 1867 Reports of the United States Commissioners to the Paris Universal Exposition, mentions this firm as having exhibited barrel-making machinery, which won them a Silver Medal.

  Another of the very original contributions of the United States to the machinery department of the Exposition consisted of the machines, three in number, exhibited by Messrs. Cool, Ferguson & Co., of Glen's Falls, New York, for making casks and barrels. The three operations performed by these machines are—first, the cutting of the staves to the required length, finishing the ends, and providing them with the necessary groove for the introduction of the head; secondly, the finishing of the sides of the staves, for which purpose a number are firmly held together, and subjected to the operation all at the same time; and finally, the formation of the heads to the proper size and figure, and with edges suitably prepared to enter the grooves in the ends of the staves. The advantages afforded by these machines over the hand manufacture of casks, are not simply economy of expenditure and saving of time. The article produced is much better than the hand-made article. It is easy, indeed, to perceive that the perfect uniformity of parts secured by the machine, and the perfect similarity of joints, must greatly improve the accuracy of fitting, and render the cask more solid, less liable to leak, and more durable than can be the case where, as often happens, the imperfection of workmanship is only masked or concealed by an excessive strain upon the hoops. The machines exhibited found, it is said, a prompt sale in France, having been purchased for the use of an establishment manufacturing Portland cement.

• 1867 catalog of 8 pages: "Thompson's Patent Barrel Machines: Manufactured and for Sale by Cool, Ferguson & Co., Glen's Falls, N.Y."
• 1868 Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, page 50 of the Annual Report, lists premiums awarded at that year's State Fair, including a Diploma to "Cool & Fersuson, Glens Falls, N. Y." for "Best set [of] barrel machines".
• M. Powis Bales' Woodworking Machinery: Its Rise, Progress, and Construction, pages 213-5, contains a detailed description of J. S. Thompson's barrel machines that were patented in 1865 and concludes, "A set of cask making machines was exhibited in the Paris Exhibition, 1871, by Cool, Ferguson and Co., Mass., U. S. A."
• Despite extensive searches for anyone who might have taken over the business of Cool, Ferguson & Co., we were unable to find anything at all. We were also unable to confirm the full names of the titular Cool and Ferguson although we did find a few people with one or the other of those surnames who were living in Glen's Falls at about the right time.