Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-06-23
Kid Gloves, and Their Production.

The material used in making kid
glove are either the skins of kids from
6 weeks to 3 months old-and these
furnish the best articles-or the skin Of
lamb of about the same age; there are
also the skins of sheep, but these make
but poor and inferior article.
The first process of making glove
is the tanning. To facilitate the re-
moval of the hair or wood, the skins
are placed i'm solution of lime, where
they remain for some time, after which
they are placed i'm running water to re-
move the lime, and after being taken
out of this the hair easily comes out
with the aid of blunt scraper. This
process Is repeated two or three times,
until every hair and small particle of
flesh adheIing 10 the skin are entirely
removed, and the skins then are ready
for the tanning operation. For this
purpose they apply an ingredient of
the yolks of eggs, alum. salt, etc., a
polluted preparation, in which solution
the skins remain for several weeks, so
that they may become thoroughly satu-
rated, which gives them the necessary
whiteness, after which they undergo
the various cOloring processes The
dyeing requires considerable skill and
a fine eye, for the composition of the
various shades. The color is applied
to each skin separately with brush,
each requiring from one to four appli-
cations of the color according to the
shade desired. The only exceptions to
this are the very light shades, the So
called evening colors, which are pro-
duced by immersing 200 or 300 skins at
one time in vat containing the color
ing matter, which will soak through
every particle of the skin. Afte- being
thoroughly dried in room heated up
to $50 deg. Fahr., the skins reach the
cutter 70 be cut in squares pieces: this
is a most delicated operation, and not
only requires skill but good judgment.
The gloves have to be cut with the
grain of the skin, running from the
head down, and great waste of material
would result from the employment OF
any but the most skillful hands. One
skin will cut on the average from TO
gloves, according 10 size required;
though when large sheep skins are used,
one skin will give from to 10 inferior
gloves. The squares thus cut are put
up in packages of from to j pairs OF
gloves, and by means of a punch and a
powerful press, are cut out in pieces,
ready TO be sewed.
The sewing on fine gloves is all done
by hand, and requires the best seam
stresses. Over 5000 stitches are Ie-
quired TO sew a pair of ladies' gloves,
and the best hands cannot finish more
than pairs in day of IL hours. For
the sewing of lower grades of gloves
there is now a machine in use, but,
even with this help, the best hands
cannot sew more than IL to IA pairs per
day, The making of button-holes, put
ting on buttons, packing, ETC., all re-
quire extra hands, each trained in their
special vocations, and thus a glove,
before being ready for sale, passes
through no less than 200 different
hands. The largest glove producing
countries are France, Germany, Bel
gium, Austria and Italy. England
also makes some few gloves, but mostly
heavier goods, such as driving gloves,
etc. France and Belgium make the
finest goods, using only kid skins,
whilst Germany makes all kinds of
lamb and sheep skin gloves, and Italy
produces nothing but very low priced
article. The consumption of gloves in
this country, in proportion TO its popu-
lation, is still very small. Last year
there was total importation of 200, 900 I
dozen only, while France alone manu-
factured :, ,O0O, 600 dozen, of which one I
half were exported The production 4
of Germany and Austria can be safely
calculated at 100000 dozen per
annum.