The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1921-05-17
REVOLUTIONlZINC
THE LEATHER
INDUSTRY

Al seattie's door In = resource 20
rich n promises to revolutionizs one
Of tho country's largest Industries
ieather. The sourusa Of raw material
are Puget Sound and the Pacific with
THAR unlimited supplies Of sharks.
How the sharks arc taken from tho
water. brought TO our Edmonds plant
and their skins turned into the fines,
kind Of leather produced anywhere. Ia
q story Of remarkable interest Shoes.
travelling bag~. purses. razor strops.
beautiful patent and other sorts OF
feathers. are made from skins OF
sharks. caught almost within Seat.
ties harbor.
Twenty-four hundred square FRET of
Shark leather In nov produced daily
by our plani--the only ono on the
PHciflr Coa~l The cost Of turning
out this leather b but n mian frac'
ton OF that 10 produos leather from
COW or calf skina This demand for
finished Shark leather. whether az
the heavy. rousher sort or the deli
cato highly finished Kind. Is growing
at such an enormous rate that our
company plans 10 enlarge its plant
at once 30 m to produce 800 tanned
skins q day.
The bureau OF fisherfc=. Depart,
ment of Commerce at Washington.
u. C.. has been doing everything pos.
nible 10 educate the fiAhormen by
showing than how to catch sharks
and by spreading knowledge Of the
use Of the by.proauctA A I. soo.pound
shark II about a. profitable a.
i.2oo pound steer and among the by.
products Of tho shark are gciatins,
giues. stock food. chicken meal. giy.
eerine. chicken scrap. fertilizer and
Ola
The average i..oc.pound mark
gives IS gallons OF fish oil. suitable
for mechanical purposes The cheap
er fiah oils from sharks are used for
paint and soap.
Tho average shark eats 10 pounds
of fiEh q day and consequently the
more sharks killed for their leather
and by products. tho more fish are
saved In manufacturing leather out
OF these fiah tho company In taking
something OF no use In the sea and
making something out OF IL
Tho Edmonds factory IL turning
out at present an average Of ~
rkins. or s.too square feet . day,
However. the plant will be improved
and enlarged considerably within the
nert 20 days and then We expect 70
turn out 500 skins . day. As "
tales 10 days TO complete tanning .
skin into noYeity leather this means
that 1000 SKINS must be In the pro-
cess Of tanning whsn ws arc turning
sims o.r com eomp.ny. a. ~ .ns" e,ssr
Seattle concerns. IL busy making the
leather into merchandise instead Of
selling Ali tho finished product to
Eastern manufacturers
Leather articles are at pre- sent b.
ssa,s. s,es sss ss ssmpss
W. T. voiEt Leather Specially COM
pAny. the Enger-kress Pock.tbook
Company at West Bend. Wis. tha
Kane-Tayior Leather Speciality Com
pany and the Red Wing Leather
Novelty Company OF Red Wing.
MINI. In the course % time all the
manufacturing viii be done at the
Edmonds plant
The company bought the Edmonds
property two years aro and started
TO tan the leather August !. 1890.
The demand for razor strops is so
great that the factory can't make
them fast enough. The leather bags
are made out OF the outside Of the
shark skin. while patent leather 10
out Of the split skins
Tho patent leather IL OF such excel
lent quality that u will not crack.
The vamps and shoe tops Of one
variety Of shoes are made out OF
whale stomach. while the soles and
heels arc made out OF shark asin.
The Washington Shoe Company was
the frat factory to make shoes out
OF this Kind Of leather.
All parts Of shark skin are equally
good. which is untrue Of the hide OF
steers or horses. having only q por-
ton making good leather. The aver
sge deep-sca shark ~ from 10 to 1,
feet long and measures approx
% square feet and the skins
can be split eight times and some
times more. Al present the factory
it's skins by hiring men 20
catch tho sharks and by buying
skins from fishermen