AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF PREPARING HIDES AND SKINS FOR TANNING
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Haseltine, of the "International Patent
Office," Southampton Buildings, London, Doctor of Laws, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF PREPARING HIDES AND SKINS
FOR TANNING." -A communication from abroad by James Davis and
John Armstrong, both of Pittston, Pennsylvania, United States of
America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said George Haseltine at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 8th July 1873, pursuant to the 9th Section_
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE.
HASELTINE, of the "International Patent Office," Southampton Build-
ings, London, Doctor of Laws, send grecting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
PROCESS OF PREPARING HIDES AND SKINS FOR TANNING," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: Declaration that it has been communicated to me from abroad by
James Davis and John Armstrong, both of Pittston, Pennsylvania,
United States of America,
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Haseltine, do hereby 5
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement:-
The nature of the Invention consists in preparing hides and skins for 1
tanning, by immersing them in certain liquid compounds, as will be
herein-after more fully set forth.
After the hair has been taken off from the hides, either by liming,
sweating, or by any other known process, we place the hides in a vat
containing twenty barrels of water, thirty pounds sulphuric acid, seventy- 1
two pounds of salt, and six pounds of alum, making a solution in which
the hides or skins are to remain twenty-four hours, and then taken out
and tanned in the usual manner.
This bath is kept renewed and fit for a second or any subsequent
charge by adding water to make up for loss of quantity, and also adding 2
fifty pounds of salt, twenty pounds sulphuric acid, and four pounds of
alum, and by thus replenishing it may run on indefinitely.
By preparing the hides or skins in this manner before tanning they
are made perfectly clean and bleached, and rendered soft and pliable
without any brittleness.
Strong tanning liquors may be used without injury to the leather, and
thereby considerable time saved. Tanning liquor made from hemlock
bark will, after having prepared the hides by our process, make the
leather equally as good as if liquor of oak bark had been employed.
I do not confine myself to the precise proportions of the ingredients
herein mentioned, as they may perhaps be varied according to the cir-
cumstances.
2
Having thus fully described the Invention, what I claim as new
and desire to secure by Letters Patent is, the described process, con-
sisting in the application of the compound described to the hides and a

page_text: skins, before the introduction of tanning extracts, as described and for
the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haseltine, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
JAMES EDWARDS,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
GEORGE HASELTINE. (L.S.)