The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-01-13
ELECTRICITY IN THE TANNERy
Perhaps ii was the early Egyptians

who discovered that certain bark
and ve5etaJ'e compounds stopped
decay in skins, leaving the leather
firm strong and soft. Certain it II
that the Romans used plenty of lea
Their, tanning the skins with oil, al
UNI and bark. Even the primitive
natives of the American continents
when first discovered, were wearing
garments made of soft tanned skins
the hides being tanned with oils,
smoke and clay. When the Indians
wanted to tan skins without hair
they first soaked the skins in water
until decomposition loosened the
hairs which were scraped away with
a stone instrument. Then the skins
was hastily tanned. 1t was 1890 be-
fore this primitive way of preparing
leather was improved upon in any
way. In that year lime was intro
duced as an agent to loosen the
hairs. 1t was thirty-five years later
before the English tanners began to
develop ways and means to shorten
the tanning process. Under the old
methods 1t required weeks and month
to turn out the finished leather,
through long and tedious process,
during which all the hard work was
done by hand. But the demand for
leather increased so rapidly that
methods to facilitate the tanning
process and economic on time had
to come.
The first tannery in America was
built in Virginia in 1880, and a few
years later the second was establish
ed at Lynn, Mass. BY 1850 fifty-one
tanners had migrated here from the
old country, setting up their little
shops in New England. The growth
of the leather industry since its be-
ginning in this country, nearly four
hundred years ago, has been phenm-
email until, at the close of the year
1900, there were 4O,751 establish
ments devoted to the various branch
es of leather manufacture. The total
capital invested is now nearly $685.
100000. From the little tan yards
with their piles of oak and hemlock
bark. the industry has grown to nam
moth proportions and the model tan
merry OF today is equipped with high
speed machinery driven by electric
motors, to do the work formerly ac-
complished by strong hands and
arms. Tanning has been simplified |
and electrified and the processes
which formerly required weeks and
months are now a matter of days.
All of us wear shoes and numerous
other little things made of leather
but few know the processes which
turn a green hide into the softest
and finest leather.
The hides of commerce are brought
to the tanneries either sailed or
dried. The first step is to soak the
skins of hides in water, to soften
them, after which every vestige of
adherent flesh is scraped from the
inside. They are then laid in heaps
for short time, and afterwards hung
In heated room, by which means a
slight putrefactive decomposition is
started and the hair becomes so loose
as to be easily detached. This pro-
cess of unhairing, called sweating"
Is mostly followed in America for
sole feathers, while the pro-
cess of lining or loosening the roots
by the milk of lime is used for dress
ed leather; but in Great Britain milk
OF lime is used for depilation of all
feathers. The process may be has
tened by use of sulphuric or other
acid. Hides or skins intended for
dressing purposes, as for shoes
coaches, harness, or bookbinding, af-
ter the hair is taken off by the lime
have to be submitted to a process
called batting for the purpose of re-
ducing the swelling or thickening oc-
casioned by the introduction of the
lime, and for cleansing the skin from
grease and other impurities. Elec-
trically-driven bate wheels are now
part of the standard equipment Of
every modern tannery. This process
does something more than cleanse
the leather; it effects a marked
change in its texture, reducing it to
an extremely flaccid condition. I'll
the old method of tanning is follow
ed the hides, after unhairing are
placed in the tan-pits, with layers of
oak bark or other tanning materials
between them, and when as many
layers of hides and bark are arranged
as the pit will hold, water is let in