Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-05-13
LEATHER SHOPS
AT ARSENAL The
FINEST IN WORLD
Rock Island Business Men on
Last Tour of Factories, See
Them in Operation.
PROCESSES ARE EXPLAINED
Visit Also Power and Water Plants
and Small Arms Establishment,
Which Is Now Idle.

What Is said to be the most com
plete and best equipped leather work
ing plant in the world was inspected
yesterday afternoon by members Of
the Rock Island party who took part
in the final tour under the auspices OF
the Business Mems association. The
party completed the trip begun two
weeks earlier. going through the pow
er plant. harness shop. waterworks,
storage rooms. small arms plant and
museum a Rock Island arsenal
Lieutenant 3. o. Lewis, who has
charge of the leather working shops,
escorted the party through them. He
started il the basement, where
the new leather is received. prepared
for use and stored till needed in the
various manufacturing departments.
First. the visitors were shown great
room filed with piles of sides of leath-
ct. some tanned for making the heav-
Ter parts and some so treated as To be
known as rawhide.
The leather when received is coated
with parafin. II is cleaned by ma
chinery. and is then graded by an in
tricate machine which does the work
much mere rapidly and more accurate
Il than could be done by hand. Then
the leather Is stored till needed. In
this room are several hundreds Of
thousands of dollars worth of leather,
each side being valued a from IS to
s.
Is No Waste.
II should be stated here that there
is no waste whatever in the use of
this valuable material. First. the
larger parts OF saddles and other horse
equipment are cut out and then the
scraps are taken to other machines.
where such smaller pieces as possible
are taken from them. When the scraps
PASS through this process till they are
too small to be of further use in this
department they are taken away and
charred in furnaces. the pulverized
charcoal being used in case hardening
metal parts. In this process il IS grad
ually reduced till it is the consistency
of mud and is then spread on the grass
as a fertilizer More of this charred
leather is manufactured than is used
here and a carload of l. is now being
packed for shipment to the Springfield
aTmOry.
Leather parts employed in manufac-
ture are cut out with dies. of which a
great variety are in use. These dies
are made at the local establishment
and are usually quite complicated, being
designed not only 10 cut out the pieces
in the proper shape, but to punch the |
holes which Will be needed later
The rawhide is worked while wet, /!
and is used chiefly to cover saddle 4
trees and scabbards. II is sewed with 1
rawhide strips. the strongest thread i
cutting out when used. The I
scabbard sheath is slipped into place /
while wet and when dry makes an /
ideal covering. being light and capable /
OF withs-anding an immense strain 4
and no end Of wear. The arsenal uses
10000 pounds of lighter leather and !
$4,000 square feet of collar leather
each month.
80 ct Ssddlers' School.
In the sewing room are long lines
Of power machines. each doing as much
work as several men could accomplish
by hand. In the harness department
j. what is known as a saddlers' school,
attended by 80 men picked from the