The Opelousas courier., 1886-08-28
KID GLOVES.
Interesting Account of How
They Are Made.
Many Processes Necessary to the Pre-
paration of the Skin.

seKid gloves" said a leading glove
dealer to q reporter for The minneapolis
Tribune the other day, care, forthe best
part made in France. There are some
made in England and Germany; but the
best are of French make, the principal
manufactures being at Paris, Grcnoble,
! and Chaumont. OF all the materials
used for gloves kid is the ~favorite, yet of
the manifold operations necessary to put
the skin into shape to cover the hand
few people have any idea. In all there
are 219 separate and distinct processes
that the raw skin has to go through
before converted into the kid glove.n
The reporter had been brushing up his
knowledge of glove making. At what
period of the worlds history people be-
| gan to c!othe their hands in gloves he
had not been able to satisfactorily de-
termine. His researches had carried him
back to Genesis, where it tells of the
mother of Jacob covering the boys hands
with the hairy skin of a goat in order to
deceive his father, this seeming to be the
earliest mention on record. Coming
down to a late date, Homer sings about
them, and they are spoken of in shak-
speare's writings. Having exhausted his
own time and patience, the reporter had
gone to the local glove dealer.
''The first thing to do" continued the
latter, sis to get the hair from the raw
skins. A three weeks bath in lime
water does this. The skins are con-
stantly turned and shifted, and when
taken out the hair comes off easily.
"Fron the lime pit the skins go to the
unhairing room, where they are stretched
on a wooden block and are scraped with
a blunt knife. Then they are taken by
the fesher, who cuts away all the worth
less parts, that are used for glue and ge-
%lantine, while the hair goes for mortar
and felt. The sudder next takes the
skins and move any hair that may have
escaped the previous operators. A soak
in clear water to take out all traces of
lime is the next step the skins are put to,
and then they are put through a process
of artificial fermentation. 1t removes
every 1eshy impur:ty from the skins and
renders them soft and supple. The tan
ming of the kid skin is not in the usual
way with bark, but they are put into a
revolving drum with a mixture of the
yolks of eggs wheaton -four, alum and
salt. 1t takeseno end of eggs, one fac
ssry at Chaumont using, / understand,
over three hundred dozen every day.
The skins are kept in this mess for an
hour, then being allowed to lay for
twelve hours. Then they go to the dry
ing room, and are subjected to atempera-
ture varying from 40 to 100 degrees.
This leaves them dry, and they are next
seasoned or samtnied' with cold water. |
Then they are stretched backward and
forward over an upright knife of half
moon shape.
Shaving is the next process, this re-
curing great dexterity. 1t is done with
specially constructed knives, and re.
moves all the under flesh. The skins are
again treated to a composition of egg
yelk, -four and oil, calculated to make
them pliable, after which they are ready
for dyeing. The preliminary operation
is to tread the skins under water for
several hours to soak out anything that
would impair the action of the dye.
Another egg treatment follows, and a
days drying is given the skins. They
are then brushed with ammonia and sew
eral coatings of I've. If the skins are to
be dyed on both sides they are put in a
vat and covered with the liquid. Black
gloves show first a decided blue tinge,
but this is worked off until q perfect
black is secured. This process is called
lustring."
The caller, who had taken in the ac-
count of the preparation of kid skins
with increasing interest, began to won
der at this point, not that one of the best
make of gloves costs So or more, but
how they could be made SO cheap. Here
the skins had been going through no
end of hands, and been days on the
way, yet they had only reached the dye
shop.
"Having been dyed and dried" went
on the affable informant, ''the skins are
given a grounding, the object being to
all roughness. They are next
sorted and cut up. This may seem an
easy thing, but it is called the most diff
and requires great care and good
as the natural stretch of the
must be taken into account. The
finished skins. having been selected and
mapped out by the %sorters, and pieced
out by the cutters. are put a frame
like a glove spread out unsewn.
The gloves, with the thumbs only fitted
and rent together, are pressed, and
punched, and trimmed d number of
times, after which the edges are folded
by machinery, and they are ready for
#E. EEZH