SOME CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF TANNING OF LEATHER, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAN YARDS FOR THAT PURPOSE, BY WHICH MEANS MUCH TIME AND LABOUR WILL BE SAVED, AND THE ARTICLE PRODUCED AT A MUCH CHEAPER RATE THAN BY ANY OF THE MODES NOW IN USE
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTHONY
FAY, of Bateman's Buildings, in the Parish of Saint Ann, Soho, in the County
of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of July, in the thirtieth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Anthony Fay, His especial licence,
that I, the said Anthony Fay, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "SOME CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE ART OF TANNING OF LEATHER, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TAN YARDS FOR
THAT PURPOSE, BY WHICH MEANS MUCH TIME AND LABOUR WILL BE SAVED, AND THE
ARTICLE PRODUCED AT A MUCH CHEAPER RATE THAN BY ANY OF THE MODES NOW IN
USE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Anthony Fay, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery,
within three calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and
at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Anthony Fay, do hereby declare, that my said Invention of Improvements
in the Art of Tanning Leather, and in the Construction of Tan Yards for that
Purpose, by which much Time and Labour will be saved, and the Article
produced at a much Cheaper Rate than by any of the Modes now in Use, is
described in manner following, that is to say:-
That any bark or barks used in tanning leather (particularly oak bark)
should be ground to a fine grain in such mill or mills as are used to grind
starch or drugs; that such bark or barks so ground be put into a boiler
proportioned to the quantity of bark to be boiled, allowing about two or three
gallons of water to every pound weight of bark; but to be exact in this respect
is of no great consequence, only that the more water the more time is required
in the decoction to concentrate and bring the bark to a strong extract, as
nothing is lost of the qualities of the bark essential in tanning leather by such
decoction; the aquaous parts only are discharged by the steam, and the decoc-
tion must be repeated two, three, or four times till the substance boiled
becomes tasteless, and all the particles or qualities essential for tanning of
leather shall be thoroughly extracted, which will be easily known by the
remaining substance becoming tasteless. This extract, by mixing with water,
may be reduced to any degree of weakness, whereby an immense saving may
be made in the carriage of bark by obtaining the above extract where the
bark or barks are stripped, or in the vicinity of such place or places; and with
respect to the operation of tanning, it will be found that leather tanned by
strong woozes produced from the above extract, will fill the pelts better than is
done by any of the methods hitherto used, and it will render the offal of the
pelts (hitherto of very inferior value) almost as good as any other part of the
pelt, giving the leather a compactness, grain, strength, and additional weight,
superior to the methods hitherto used, and on that account is peculiarly useful
in tanning horse and seal skins, together with all other pelts of a loose and
spongy nature, besides that in proportion to the strength of the wooze made
from the above extract, it will accelerate the tanning of leather, doing it at
least in one half of the time hitherto used in tanning the same with less than
one half of the quantity of bark hitherto spent in the operation of tanning;
and as a considerable portion of the qualities essential for tanning leather
remain unspent in the refuse of bark called dry tan, by decoctions as before
described very considerable quantities of wooze may be obtained, but it must
be observed, that such wooze must be perfectly cold before they are used.
With respect to the formation and construction of tan yards, they should be
covered, and a crane placed in the centre of the building, whose jib or arm

page_text: should extend round the whole area of the building, whether round or square.
The standard of the crane, a few inches above that part of the jib which is
inserted in the standard, should have an axis, and the same at the foot or
lower extremity of the standard, so as to make a revolution round its own
axis at pleasure. The block through which the pulley or rope passes should
have a brass sheeve, which should have one or more friction wheels or castors
placed between its centre and the axis on which it turns. The block contain
ing the above sheeve should be so made as to pass freely on castors backwards
and forwards along the jib or arm of the crane from one extremity of the jib
to another, and placing two small brass pullies, one at each extremity of the
jib and fastening a small cord to the block, which, passing through these
small pullies, will move the block at pleasure. As to the wheel or wheels
near the lower part of the crane's standard, their situation and uses in raising
weights are so commonly known that a particular description of them is un-
necessary, by means of the above crane, whose size and power may be made
in proportion to the weights to be raised. It need not be added, that in very
extensive yards more cranes on the same construction may be erected. As to
the pitts I would recommend them to be circular, and a wheel placed in each,
of the following form:-Suppose the two wheels of a carriage, with their axis
placed horizontally in the pit, making the lower extremity of such axis of such
length as to keep the sweep of the lower wheel at least six inches from the
bottom of the pit a fan, of twiggs, equal in length to a semidiameter or spoke
of the wheel, which should be fastened to one of the lowest semidiameters, so
as to sweep the bottom of the pit at every revolution of the wheel. The
diameter of this wheel should be eight inches shorter than the diameter of the
pit, so that the outer or extreme circumference of the wheel should be four
inches from the inner circumference of the pit. The pelts should be placed
on the semidiameters of the wheel, either longitudinally or crossway, the spoke
passing under the middle of the pelt, and so on; round the wheel, fastening
the lower parts of such pelts so placed to spokes or semidiameters below,
answering in situation to the upper spokes, so that there may not be the least
or not much contact between any of the pelts. The upper circumference of
the wheel should be furnished with equidistant cogs, answering to the cog's of
a small pinion wheel placed on the side of the pit, which may turn by a winch
so as to move the wheel in the pit, or it may be set in motion by a screw
placed vertically on the side of the pit, making in that case the cogs of the
wheel bevil to fit the sloping hollow of the screw which may be put in motion
by a winch, or by attaching a barrel similar to the barrel of a jack.
It may
be set in motion by a pulley or pullies and weights, as a jack is, and wound up

page_text: in the same manner.
I would have the screw made of sycamore (being not
liable to warp), and would have the cogs of the wheel made of the best oak.
The depth and diameter of the pit need not be defined, as every tanner will
make them so as to suit his own convenience; neither is it very necessary
to say that the wheels should be placed at such distances from each other on
the axis as to suit the depth of half the pelt, and that every spoke or semi-
diameter will take one or more pelts, according to the lengths of such semi-
diameters. There should be fixed to the upper extremity of the axis of the
wheel a strong iron ring, which, being hooked by the crane, will raise or lower
the whole wheel and its contents at pleasure. By these means the wooze is
kept in motion as often as the tanner pleases, which will greatly accelerate the
process of tanning: such cranes will be very useful in old tan yards. These
circular pits and wheels should be placed in circular lines round the crane, not
sunk in the earth, but elevated some feet above its surface, and so placed as
the seats of galleries are, one higher than another, that they may be discharged
into each other readily, as liquor casks are, by a crane or syphon, and each
circular pit furnished with a cock at the bottom to draw off the wooze. The
covering the tan yard will prevent weakening the wooze by rain, snow, &c.,
and so far from leaving the pits always exposed to the air, it will be found
much better to have them close covered. In the pits hitherto used it will be
found a great advantage to frame the pelts so that the leather may appear as
the canvas does in a window blind, and place them in the old square pits, so
as not to touch each other, at least as little as possible, whether placed horizon-
tally, vertically, or obliquely in such pits; these (either the whole contents of
the pit, or any one or more of such frames) may be raised and lowered as
easily by the crane as the wheel and its contents above described. This will
greatly accelerate the process of tanning in the present tan yards, for the hori
zontal pressure of such ponderous bodies as large hides one over another, ex-
ceedingly prevents the action of the wooze on the pelt. As no bark or dry
tan will be brought into these new tan yards, the essence or extract of the
bark or barks being only necessary, much room will be thereby spared, and
the essence or extracts, water and woozes easily conveyed to and from the pits
by leather or other pipes. The caput mortuum, or wood, which remains after
the essence is taken or extract made from the bark or barks, will be more
than sufficient as fuel for making the decoction or decoctions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Fay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of October, One thousand seven
hundred and ninety.
A. FAY. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the said Fifteenth day of October,
in the year above written, the aforesaid Anthony Fay came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
5 Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifteenth day of October, in the year above mentioned.