IMPROVEMENTS IN REMOVING THE FUR FROM THE SKINS OF RABBITS, AND IN PREPARING RABBIT, CALF, AND OTHER SKINS FOR TANNING."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud, of Marsh Gate Lane,
Stratford, in the County of Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN REMOVING THE FUR FROM THE SKINS OF RABBITS, AND IN PREPARING RABBIT,
CALF, AND OTHER SKINS FOR TANNING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Marie Leonidas
Caillaud at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th April 1857.
I, JEAN MARIE LEONIDAS CAILLAUD, of Marsh Gate Lane, Stratford, in the
County of Essex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN REMOVING THE FUR FROM THE SKINS OF RABBITS, AND IN PREPARING
RABBIT, CALF, AND OTHER SKINS FOR TANNING," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in removing the fur from the
skins of rabbits, and in preparing rabbit, calf, and other skins for tanning. For
the
purpose of removing the fur from the skins of rabbits, quicklime and red
orpiment are mixed with water and spread on the flesh side of the skins by a
brush or other convenient means, by which the fur of the skins will become
loosened in a shorter or longer time, according to the nature of such skins, and

page_text: may then be readily removed. The skins of rabbits thus freed from the fur
are then subjected to the action of lime in water, and having been cleansed
from the lime, they, as also the skins of calves and other animals, unhaired in
the usual manner, are subjected to the action of a solution of carbonate of
potash to facilitato the removal of the fat. In some cases liquid ammonia is
used to skins where they are hard or stiff. The skins are then subjected to the
action of a solution of potash or soda alum, and when thus prepared are
tanned by soaking in bark liquor, preferring to use only one strength, and to
keep up the same strength of liquor till the skins are tanned, the skins being
often taken out of and returned into the liquor.
By thus preparing the skins and tanning them as above stated, the process
of tanning will be considerably shortened.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
MARIE LEONIDAS CAILLAUD, of Marsh Gate Lane, Stratford, in the County of
Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud, Her special licence that I, the said
Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any timo agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REMOVING THE FUR FROM
THE SKINS OF RABBITS, AND IN PREPARING RABBIT, CALF, AND OTHER SKINS FOR
TANNING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Jean Marie
Leonidas Caillaud, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jean Marie Leonidas Callaud, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in removing the fur from the
skins of rabbits, and in preparing rabbit, calf, and other skins for tanning.
For the purpose of removing the fur from the skins of rabbits, quicklime and
red orpiment are mixed with water and spread on the flesh side of the skins
by a brush or other convenient means, by which the fur of the skins will
become loosened in a shorter or longer time, according to the nature of such
skins, and may then be readily removed. The skins of rabbits thus freed from
the fur are then subjected to the action of lime in water, and having been
cleansed from the lime, they, as also the skins of calves and other animals
(unbaired in the usual manner), are subjected to the action of a solution
of carbonate of potash to facilitate the removal of the fat. In some cases
liquid ammonia is used to skins whero they are hard or stiff. The skins
aro then subjected to the action of a solution of potash or soda alum, and
when thus prepared are tanned by soaking in bark liquor, preferring to uso
only one strength, and to keep up the same strength of liquor till the skins
are tanned, the skins, being often taken out of and returned into the liquor.
By thus preparing the skins and tanning them as above stated, the process
of tanning will be considerably shortened.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
Take off the rabbit skins the long hair (called soldiers) and also the points
of the other smaller hair with a knife in the ordinary manner. Without
making the hair wet, the skin is brought by means of water to the same state
of freshness as when taken off the animal.
In order to obtain such freshness, the flesh side of the skin is brushed with
a hard brush dipped into water until the humidity has penetrated sufficiently
to admit of the removal of the thin skins and the fat by a knife. The
thin skin and fat having been removed, the flesh side of the skin is to be
covered with a preparation consisting of about nine-tenth parts of lime and
one-tenth part of red orpiment, which are mixed with water sufficiently to
admit of the preparation being spread on the skin by a brush. The skin so

page_text: covered is left to the action of the chemicals sufficiently long until the hair can
be taken off by the hand without force.
When the hair is thus removed, the skin is immediately put into fresh cold
water and cleaned in the ordinary way with a tanner's knife, and then put into
a bath of lime (lait de chaux). Whilst the skin is being subjected to the lime
it is taken out twice daily and put in again. When the skin is sufficiently
swollen, and when the fleshy parts adhering to the skin can be taken off
without difficulty, the skin is again washed with clean water and scraped with
a slate knife in order to take off the little young hair, of which some may still
be adhering to the skin; after this operation the flesh is removed lengthwise
and across with a knife. In order to obtain a still softer grain the skin is
once more worked with a slate knife; after this both sides of the skin aro
worked with the tanning knife until all water and lime are completely removed.
When the skins are fatty, the fat is removed either by a solution of carbonate
of soda with water at the rato of about (14lbs. of carbonate of soda to 44
gallons of water) in which the skins are milled or beaten; or in place of such
liquors, a solution of gallon liquid ammoniac to 44 gallons of water may be
similarly used. The lattor solution is suitable for. calf and other skins, but not
for rabbit skins. The skins are left in such solution during cold weather about
2 days, and about 24 hours during warm weather. The skin is again put into
fresh water to cleanse it; when taken out therefrom the water is to be removed
and the skin is to be put into a solution of alum (potass or soda alum)
consisting of about 10 lb. of alum to 22 gallons of water. This solution pre-
pares the skin to absorb the tannin in a stronger degree than when used or
employed at another stage of the operation. The skin when put into tannin
liquor remains in such liquor until the skin is completely colored. The tannin
liquor is then renewed every day until the liquor is no longer rendered muddy.
During this operation the skin is taken out from and returned again into the
liquor twice a day; after this-the skin -is put- into a solution of very clear
tanning water, where it remains until perfectly tanned.
This tanning operation lasts from 10 to 15 days for rabbit skins, and the
same strength of tanning liquor is used throughout, using at the rate of about
1,000 lbs. tannin to 440 gallons of water. The same process of tanning is
applicable to the skins of horses or cows, calves, and other animals, with this
difference, that the hair from the skins is removed in the ordinary manner, and
that the skins are under process for a longer time.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that although I have been

page_text: particular in giving the precise details as practised by me, I do not comme
myself thereto, as the same may be varied without departing from my Invention;
but what I claim, is,
First, the combined process herein described for unhairing, preparing, and
tanning rabbit skins.
And, secondly, I claim the combined process herein described for preparing
and tanning horse, ox, cow, calf, and other skins.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Marie Leonidas Caillaud, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
ATTESS.
CAILLAUD. (L.S.)