CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING SKINS AND HIDES, AND IN CONVERTING THEM INTO LEATHER
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIUS
BORDIER, of Austin Friars, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of January, in the fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant. unto me, the
said Julius Bordier, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Julius Bordier, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Julius Bordier, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, an Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING SKINS AND HIDES,
AND IN CONVERTING THEM INTO LEATHER;" being a communication from a
Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Julius Bordier, by an instrument in writing under my

page_text: hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Julius Bordier, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say) :-—
The Invention of Certain Improvements in Preparing Skins and Hides, and
in converting them into Leather, which has been communicated to me from
a certain Foreigner residing abroad, consists in a novel mode of conducting
the process of tanning, and in the employment of certain mixtures or com-
positions in place of the ordinary tanning liquid, by which means a very con-
siderable economy in time, labour, and cost of material is effected. And
another advantage resulting from this. Invention is, that skins or hides pre-
pared in the manner hereafter described are rendered impermeable or nearly
so to water. And further, the cuttings and parings of skins and hides dressed
in this manner, and also the leather itself, after being used for various opera-
tions, may be applied to other useful purposes, whilst the cuttings and parings
of skins and hides prepared in the old manner would be perfectly useless..
The Invention is described in the following manner by the Inventor :—
I take skins and hides previously washed, the hair having been removed, and
the skins and hides being swollen as usual, I prepare them for leather by sub-
mitting them to the action of such metallic saline and earthy substances as
may be decomposed by the said skins and hides, or may combine with the
same. Among these substances the one that seems preferable is the bibasic
sulphate of sesquioxide of iron, or the basic red sulphate of iron, or the sub-.
sulphate of peroxide, of iron. In order to prepare the basic red sulphate,
boil fifteen and one quarter gallons imperial of water in a copper boiler, dis-
solve therein two hundredweight of green copperas (protosulphate of iron).
To effect this dissolution in a proper manner, proceed as follows:-The
copperas must be pounded by beaters and sifted through a sieve with apertures
of about one inch square; the above quantity of pounded copperas is intro-
duced little by little in the fifteen and a quarter gallons of water, the bottom
of the boiler being stirred and the ebullition being kept up. When the whole.
of the copperas is dissolved and the liquor boiling, pour it into a deal tuh or
vat of the capacity of about forty-four gallons, but not very deep, add to it

page_text: about forty-four pounds of sulphuric acid, concentrated at 66 degrees, or
specific gravity 1.848, agitate the whole, and add by degrees about forty-four
pounds of peroxide of manganese of good quality, and reduced to fine powder,
stir up the mixture in every direction, and as it gets greatly heated continue
to agitate until the swelling has ceased; allow the mixture to cool, taking
care to agitate it from time to time until completely cold; dissolve it then
with cold water, and thus lower the solution to the degree fit for use. Instead
of using sulphuric acid at 66 degrees, the two hundredweight of copperas
may be dissolved in a mixture of sixty-six pounds avoirdupois of non-concen-
trated sulphuric acid, at 50 degrees, or sp. grav. 1-530, and one hundred and
thirty-two pounds of water. But then the dissolution must be effected in a
boiler made of lead, in order to resist the action of boiling sulphuric acid.
This process may be also conducted in the following manner:-Pound the green
copperas, sift through a sieve with holes of about one third of an inch square,
take twenty-two pounds of this copperas, put it in a great stone jar, and add
thereto a mixture of two and a quarter pounds of nitric acid at 36 degrees, or
sp. gr. 1-838, and about three pounds and one ounce of sulphuric acid at
.66 degrees, or sp. gr. 1-848, agitate with a wooden spatula, heat the jar by
steam, continuing the agitation until the cessation of nitrous vapours and the
complete dissolution of the copperas take place; remove the jar and continue
to stir the mixture from time to time until it coagulates into a paste, or, at
least, until it is perfectly cold, let it rest for about twenty-four hours, add to
it water, and mix it carefully; pour in a sufficient quantity of water to bring
the mixture to the degree it ought to be for use, add then to it a sufficient
quantity or excess of hydrate of peroxide of iron recently prepared; agitate the
liquor well every two hours during two or three days, and then it may be
employed for the preparation of skins and hides. The yellow precipitate
obtained when the liquor is prepared by the first process may be employed
instead of the hydrate of peroxide of iron to finish the preparation of the
liquor. This precipitate may, moreover, be easily-converted into a solution of
bibasic sulphate of red oxide of iron. It is sufficient for that purpose to take
it in a pasty state and to add thereto a sufficient quantity of concentrated
sulphuric acid; the mixture becomes very much heated, all the basic salt is
dissolved, and it is only necessary. to add unto it, when cooled down, a sufficient
quantity of water to bring down the liquor to the proper density, and enough
of the yellow precipitate or of hydrate of peroxide of iron to render it as much
basic as possible. When cold the mixture is to be stirred from time to time
for two or three days; it is allowed to settle, and the liquor thus obtained may
be immediately used for the preparation of skins and hides.
The liquor

page_text: employed, from which the skins and hides have extracted all the bibasic sul-
phate of sesquioxide (red oxide) of iron, and which contains only sulphate of
manganese and a little protosulphate of iron, may be decomposed either by
milk of lime, or magnesia, or caustic, or carbonated soda operations, by which
colours of various hues are produced, and also saline substances of low price, as
chemical products, for which there is a daily demand. By several of those
means the greatest part of the manganese employed might be recovered, which,
being brought back again to the proper degree of oxidation by simple means,
would lessen the expence occasioned by the purchase of that substance. From
these various compositions results a reddish liquor, which is to be lowered
down to the proper density by the addition of water. In this liquor are
immersed the skins and hides, previously washed, swollen, and freed from hair,
by the ordinary processes. Three days suffice for thin skins such as calf skins;
the ox skin requires from six to eight days. At the expiration of that time
the skins and hides are completely imputrescible, but they are as permeable
to water as the leather tanned by ordinary processes. The currier's process
and other known means of rendering the leather impermeable must now be
employed to give to the skins prepared as above stated what they still want,
namely, the proper degree of tenacity, solidity, and impermeability. Thus, in
fifteen or twenty days, or even, if necessary, in a shorter space of time, leather
of all kinds may be obtained, and especially thick leather for soles of shoes and
boots, which is more salubrious and durable than that produced by the ordinary
means. It may be added, that the skins thus prepared have besides this
advantage, that when worn out by use they may be easily freed from the basic
salts and the fatty substances which render them imputrescible and imperme-
able, and that they may then be used for the making of glue, as is now done
with the parings and cuttings of raw skins and hides before they are tanned.
This advantage may be made immediately available on the cuttings and parings
from the skins and hides which have been rendered imputrescible by the above
process. These cuttings and parings, which amount to about thirty per cent.,
and up to fifty per cent., on the primitive weight of the skins, may be imme-
diately freed from the tanning substance, which may be employed in other
operations of the same kind, and the bits or scraps of skins and hides may be
converted into glue by the ordinary process. By comparing the price of the
substances used as substitutes for tan, it will be easily perceived that on this
point alone a considerable saving is obtained. Moreover, as fifteen or twenty
days are sufficient for completing an operation which generally requires a long
period of time, and which lasts even two years when thick leather is prepared,
it will be obvious how many times the same operation may be repeated while

page_text: the tanners by the ordinary process will make only one. Experiments have
fully established the fact that leather prepared in the above way wears much
better than that prepared by the ordinary process. The impermeability
imparted to the sole leather will render the use of it more healthy for the soles
of boots, shoes, &c., and the reduction in price of the said leather will benefit
the consumer. Although some attempts have been made to prepare leather
by using metallic salts instead of tan, the means adopted were not such as
could be used on a large scale, and have necessarily been limited to insignifi-
cant trials made in laboratories, and widely different from the simple, complete,
and economical system herein-before described.
In conclusion, I claim, as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, the preparation and application of the above-
mentioned combination of chemicals to the preparation of skins and hides in
the place of the tanning liquor heretofore employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julius Bordier, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
JULIUS (L.B.) BORDIER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighth day of July
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Julius Bordier came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of July, in the year above written.