IMPROVEMENTS IN TANNING. HIDES AND SKINS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
SQUIRE, of Warrington, in the County of Lancaster, Tanner, 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 Twenty-ninth day of October, in the eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Squire, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Thomas Squire, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas Squire, my exors, adñiors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TANNING. HIDES
AND SKINS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Thomas Squire, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, 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
Thomas Squire, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:
My Invention has for its object a mode of using a slowly revolving open
frame or wheel, which is divided into compartments, so that the hides or skins
undergoing the process of tanning are slowly but constantly, changing their
positions in the tan liquor. And in order that my Invention may be fully
understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means
Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 is a side section of the apparatus used.
It consists of an open cylindrical frame a, a, made up of bars placed a small
distance apart so as to allow a constant and free flow of liquor to and from the
frame, and yet keep in the hides and skins under process of tanning. This
open-framed cylinder a, a, is divided into compartments by partitions b, b, com-
posed of bars by which the skins or hides in one compartment of the apparatus
are kept separate from those in another compartment. To each compartment
of the apparatus there is a door c, c, through which the skins or hides are
introduced, the doors being kept closed during the working of the apparatus.
d is an axis which turns in suitable bearings within a suitable vat or tan pit,
deep enough to allow of the whole apparatus to be immersed in tan liquor; for
I prefer that the apparatus should revolve slowly below the liquor, the effect of
which is that the skins and hides under process are constantly moving in the
tan liquor, changing their positions, producing a somewhat similar effect to
what might be imagined to result from constantly handling the hides or skins
in a pit below the liquor, constantly changing the positions of the hides or
skins in the liquor, without bringing them into contact with the atmosphere
above the liquor in the tan pit; and I have found that such mode of working
produces a very decided benefit in the process of tanning hides and skins, with
this advantage, that there is at no time any considerable amount of pressure
on the hides or skins as in the old process of the pits, or in handling and
piling, and in many other modes of process which. persons have of late years
had recourse to; but I believe pressure to hides or skins when in the process of
tanning is prejudicial. In order to give motion to the revolving cylinder a, I
have formed or affixed at one end teeth or cogs, into which the cogs of a
pinion (driven by a suitable shaft from a steam engine or other power) take
and give motion to the cylinder a at a slow rate of about one revolution in

page_text: from two to three minutes; the cylinder a used by me being about seven feet
diameter, and, as before stated by preference, wholly immersed in liquor; at
the same time, if the tanner using my process desires to do so, he may only
immerse the wheel up to the axle, and then the skins or hides will be for a
time immersed in tanning liquor, and then for a time exposed to the atmo-
sphere, which many tanners consider to be of importance in tanning hides and
skins. In pursuing the process of tanning according to my Invention, the
tanner will from time to time examine the progress of the process, as is well
understood.
I would here state I am aware that it has been proposed by others to
use revolving barrels in some cases, with perforations at the sides, revolv-
ing with considerable speed, so as by centrifugal force to cause the hides to
be pressed outwards, and be compressed, the momentum throwing off the
liquor from the hides or skins so treated, the liquor being pumped over
the outer perforated surface, or else into the ends of the cylinder, such appa-
ratus revolving above a cistern; and I mention this circumstance in order to
state that I do not claim the use of revolving apparatus containing hides
generally, but only when constructed and worked in the manner herein
described, whereby the hides and skins under process are, by being constantly
yet slowly changed in their positions in the tanning liquor in which they are
immersed, tanned without violence or forceable pressure.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Squire, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord