A NEW PROCESS OF TANNING LEATHER AND OTHER SKINS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Emile Stanislas Beaux and Edward
Pannifex at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd April 1865.
We, EMILE STANISLAS BEAUX, Tanner, and EDWARD PANNIFEX, Merchant,
both of 18, Rue de l'Isly, Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW PROCESS OF TANNING LEATHER AND
OTHER SKINS," to be as follows:-
The present Invention relates to certain improvements in the tanning
and preparation of leather, by which we obtain a superior produce and a
considerable economy, in part the result of the rapidity with which the
manufacture can be carried on.
The skins are macerated and freed in the usual way from grease and
animal matters, our Invention relating especially to the after treatment,
namely, the tanning, which we effect in the following manner :-A vessel or
drum of suitable dimensions, and having by preference an hexagonal form, is
partially filled with an emulsive liquid herein-after described. The skins to
be treated are introduced, and the aperture well closed, and the vessel which is
supported on suitable bearings is made to rotate or subjected to an oscillatory
motion. In order that the skins may be the more thoroughly impregnated
with the emulsion, bars or ridges of wood are fixed in the interior of the
vessel and the skins falling on them during the rotatory movement become
thoroughly fulled.

page_text: The above apparatus we do not claim as part of our Invention, as several
means may be employed with a like result. The emulsive liquid which we
employ combines in one those hitherto employed separately, it consists,
first, of a tan liquid prepared in a closed vessel, from oak or birch, bark,
catechu or sumach, in the following proportions, which however must vary
according to the nature of the leather for calf and goat skins about 4 lbs. of
oak or birch bark, 4 lbs. of catechu, or 2. lbs of sumach; secondly, of a
decoction of oleaginous seeds such as linseed, colza, lichon or marine moss,
and the like, about 2 lbs., to which tallow, olein, or other fatty matters for
producing a mucilaginous and unctuous mixture are added together with 12
gallons of water, and the whole reduced to a density of 45° Beaum; the third
and last compound forming part of our emulsive liquid consists of a solution
of suitable metallic salts such as chlorid of iron, sulphato of alumina, or
chromium from 2 ounces to 1 lb., to which we add the more recently employed
antiseptics such as pinic acid, creosote, or their equivalents in the usual
proportions, that is to say, from 300 to Taccording to the degree of purity
of the same. The three liquids just described are now mixed as thoroughly
as their natures will permit, and form an emulsive liquid, to the action of
which the skins are subjected, and the vessel or drum containing both put in
motion.
As will be seen from the above our Invention relates more especially to the
simultaneous employment of the various matters hitherto employed separately
tanning and preparing leather, the revolving machine above mentioned
serving to effect more rapidly and effectually the fulling of the leather,
which from constant agitation becomes thoroughly impregnated with the
various matters essential to its preservation and pliability..