The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-09-28
HOW HIDES ARE TANNED.


I
Fresh Skin to tho Finished Article.
The lenther man was busy hosting
bundles of leather up from the cellar
by means of pulley rope, weighing
il and loading it on the cart which
stood at the door ready TO carry tho
| load 10 the shoe manufacturers. He
looked up, however, at question and
paused to wipe the perspiration from
his brow.
'TeIl you about leather? Well,
that's a long story You see, there
are fifty different kinds of leather il
there is one, aud the processes
through which the hides 80 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 Che
grent stock yards in Chicago and
Kansas City to the tannery, which is
generally built on the bank of pure
stream and near woodland. At the
tannery the hides are at once placed
in great vats filed with fresh cold
water, aud 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 q
sort OF slide, while heavy hammers
pound them to greater softness and
pliability. Water is played on them
in steady stream. When the work
in the trough is finished the hides are
placed back in the vats, and they oak
there n little more; for 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 dangerous for u
man to stay in one of these pits, ow-
ing to the fumes of ammonia which
issue from the hides after they have
been confined for little while. They
are powerful enough at times to over
come person. 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 trained tanner to know just
how long to keep them in the sweat
pits. When the thing is dono right
the hides should be just about ut 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 shred of it left Each
skin is gone over thoroughly and
tossed into still another vat filed
with a liquid in which there are small
strips of hemlock bark. The hemlock
bark has hardening tendency on the
skins. In some cases acids are used
in addition to the bark.
Tanners have an instrument they
call a barkometer 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 weak solu-
ton. The bark Juice, or whatever
you want to call it, permeates the
skin through every pore. The next
process is that of drying. Then tue
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
- Il ha.n ,r.t iNs, ~,
and send them oil to the shoemen.
That is the way that sole leather is
prepared New York Sun.