The evening times., 1899-09-01
HOW HIDES ARE TANNED.
Process of Leather-MakinE From the
Fresh Skin to Finished Article.

(From the New York Sum-
The leather man was busy hoisting bum
dies of leather up from the cellar by means
of pulley rope, weighing it and loading it
on the cart which stood at the door ready
TO carry the load to the shoe manufactur-
ers. He looked up, however, at question
and paused to wipe the perspiration from
his brow.
Tell you about leather? Well, that's
iong story. You see. there are fifty diff
ferent kinds of leather if there is one,
and the processes through which the hides
go between the time they leave the stock
yards and the time when the shoe man
gets them are many and varied. There
are steer hides, calf skins, goat skins and
others. which are prepared each in one
certain way.
THE green skins come from the great
stockyards in Chicago and Kansas City
to the tannery, which is generally built on
the bank of a pure stream and near wood
land. At the tannery the hides are at
once placed in great watts filled with fresh
cold water, and left there TO soak for two
or three days. The water tends to soften
them. Then the skins are put In long
trough and run through sort of slide,
while heavy hammers pound them to a
greater softness and pliability. Water is
played on them in a steady stream. When
the work il the trough is finished the hides
are placed back in the watts. and they soak
there a little more, for a day or so. The
next move is TO keep them four or five days
in the sweat pits. The sweat pits are dug
out in the sides of the hills, and the skins
are hung up in rooms inside. 1t is dan
gerous for man to stay in one of these
pits, owing TO the fumes of ammonia which
issue from the hides after they have been
confined for a little while. They are pow
erful enough at times to overcome a per-
son. But the workmen know what they
are about and do not imperil their lives
by remaining too long in the place.
"After the turn in the sweat pits the
hides are ready for scraping. 1t takes a
trained tanner to know just how long to
keep them in the sweat pits. When the
thing is done right the hides should be
just about at the point OF decomposition
before they are taken out Then bare
armed men stand ready with long. sharp
knives. which they work over the skins
with both hands, removing all the hair
and the small particles of flesh SO that
there is not a shred of it left. Each skin
is gone over thoroughly and tossed into
still another vat filled with liquid in
which there are small strips of hemlock
bark The hemlock bark has a hardening
tendency on the skins, In some cases acids
are used in addition to the bark.
Tanners have an instrument they call a
barometer, with which they test the
strength Of the liquid. 1t would not do to
have it too strong or the skins would be
burned. So they are generally put first
into a weak solution. The bark juice, or
whatever you want to call it, permeates
the skin through every pore. The next
process is that of drying. Then the dry
hide is rolled and coating of fish oil
spread over it to give it the peculiar gloss
which you notice in leather. The skins
are next stored in loft for two or three
days, and afterward shipped to the leather
sellers in New York and other cities. We
have nothing to do here but weigh them
and send them off to the shoemen. That is
the way that sole leather is prepared"
What is the best kind of leather?"
"The best quality of leather is made
from hides that come from South America !;
mostly from Buenos Ayres. A great deal
of these hides we get from the big West
ern cattle States. The thicker a skin is
the better for us. An old COW has thick
skin, but calf skin is thin and only usei
for making uppers of shoes. Some hides
are very expensive. 1t would not be posi-
BILE, on account of their scracity, to get a
buffalo hide for less than 5000. These
hides here said the dealer, pushing some
with his foot, I'VE sell for % or "a cents
a pound, and they range in weight from
twelve to fourteen pounds"