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is compounded into leather, it is somewhat singular that chemistry has done so little for the process during all these years. It has pointed out a few new materials and suggested others, but beyond this nearly all valuable improvements have been in the direction of mechanically shortening the time. The hides are first freed from hair and are fleshed. They are then placed in leeches in a bath consisting of a solution of tannic acid and tanner's bark, the proper strength of the solution to obtain best results being determined by practical experience. The first modern improvement was a substitution of a tincture of the bark or "ooze" for the bark itself.

The great problem has always been to get rid of the "ooze” as fast as spent and fill the hide with fresh and strong. Simple as is the proposition, it is now almost as great a difficulty as at first, and almost all the patents have been discarded for the tanner's old friend and coadjutor, time.

It is a curious fact that some of the tools used by tanners and curriers to-day are similar to those which have been used for ages. It seems as though these appliances have escaped the advance of progress and the evolution of genius. To-day skins are soaked and limed and treated in many particulars with chrome tan, just as they have been in past years with sumac or combination tan.

After skins are removed from the tan liquor, a "slicker" is used for striking out water and shaping the skins. This implement resembles, in a sense, an old-fashioned round-cornered hand chopper, excepting that the blade is longer and the edge is flat. It has been used for that purpose from time immemorial.

When skins are removed from the lime, they are taken to the beam house, where they are unhaired and trimmed. The beam of to-day is identical with that which has been in use for decades, excepting that some beams are now covered with sheet metal.

Curriers' knives, used for taking dirt out of skins and for breaking and softening skins after soaking and also for unhairing, are the same to-day as they were when tanning first became a recognized industry. Staking machines, which are used after skins have been tanned, for pulling out and softening the leather to make it pliable, and to extract the seasoning prior to glazing, have not been changed during the past fifteen years at least. Some tanners use handstakes and others machine. The so-called hand-stake, requires the united work of hands and knee. The cost of this method is said to be one-third more than machine work.

Now with fleshing machines it is different. These have been so improved upon as to double their former capacity during the past ten years. Putting-out machines, which were invented fifteen or sixteen years ago, have made rapid strides in improvement. Al

machine will serve as substitute for three men—that is, in morocco work.

The chrome process, which is composed entirely of chemicals, gives insoluble fixation, but the assurance of good leather is mainly in the treatment of skins before and after the application of the chrome. The mechanical manipulation to which much attention is now given in the dressing of skins, cuts a very large figure in the production of a satisfactory article. Physical characteristics, such as flexability, tensile strength, color and durability, are more or less the result of processes which follow the chemical process and are included in the various operations of currying and dressing. Pains have been taken by successful tanners to keep pace with modern improvements in appliances of their craft, and in substituting machinery for hand labor wherever practicable. In making chrome leather, bichromate of potassa solution is used as a steep, the bichromate being by reaction with hyposulphate of soda, subsequently reduced in the tissue to sesquioxide of chronium. This is the process employed in the tanning of goat skins from which is made morocco leather or chrome kid, so popular to-day.

Morocco leather or glazed kid for many years had an uphill pull for equality with other leathers, and it was not until ten or twelve years ago that it gained supremacy over them, and leather for uppers for shoes have appeared and disappeared in this country in the following chronological order: First, it was Pebble and Brush kid, then Dongola, and finally morocco or glazed kid. The morocco or glazed kid industry is supposed to be one thousand years old, having originated with the Armenians, in Morocco, from which it derived its name. Its history in this country dates from about 1807. The industry at that time was an unimportant business, but there has been a gradual development to the present time.

In 1867 a Quaker City firm received the highest prize for Pebble and Brush kid leather at the Paris Exposition. This was the forerunner of the popularity that American leather achieved in France after that date, for we find the morocco men of that period turning their attention from Pebbled and Brush kid to something in the order of French kid, the popular leather of France at that period. The trade wanted something different, however, and experiments on a large scale began, which culminated in the production of Dongola. Then came the experiments in 1885 with tanning extracts, which resulted in the production of Glazed kid.

Enormous quantities of goatskins are consumed every year in the manufacture of leather for footwear. Almost every country on the globe contributing its quota. The best specimens came from South America, and are termed Brazils. Patna skins, from India, are more

exception of Mochas, which came from Arabia, and the smallest number of skins come from the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, but the newly acquired territories, the West Indies and Manila, contribute to the supply of American goat skins. The United States, in some parts, is adapted to the propagation of goats; indeed, there is scarcely a state in the Union where some breeds of goats might not be raised advantageously, if properly cared for. Almost every region of the west and south west possess the peculiar requisites for attaining the best results in raising Angora goats, and this breed is securing a foothold in these sections. Angoras are a cross between sheep and goats, and are covered with long hair. The mohair, or wool, is valuable for weaving braids, etc., and the flesh is said to be palatable and savory as food, and from South Africa are brought Natal goat skins, Capes, Angoras and Kaffirs. The many varieties of goats differ from each other in color and length of hair, and in shape of the horns. They seem to flourish, thrive and propagate freely in almost every climate, and many European countries possess more than one variety. In a state of nature the goat frequents the hills and mountainous places, being naturally adapted to rocks and dry soil, and has a decided preference for elevated situations. But it must not be supposed that it will not thrive in low lands. In some countries the goats run wild, while in others they are herded. In Russia, the peasants domesticate them for food; in Arabia, they are herded by shepherds, who raise them for their milk and flesh. Goats are quite prolific, breeding two or three times a year, and generally produce two or three kids in a litter. The Springbok of South Africa runs wild and has to be shot to be captured; shooting the animal, however, produces shot holes and spoils what would otherwise be an exceedingly fine skin.

In preparing the skins for the market great care has to be taken in curing, in order to prevent decay and infestation with bugs. Various preventative measures are used, different countries using different methods. The Patna skins of goats from Calcutta and India are cured with schluam, a native clay, containing quantities of lime. The lime acts as a disinfectant, destroys bugs and preserves the skins. The Chinese skins are cured with mud, while in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, arsenic is used.

Great improvement has been made in the curing process during the last ten or twelve years. The custom was to dip the goat skins in a vat of liquid poison and then hang them out to dry. This was a tedious process, and it took a long time to thoroughly dry the skins, and they could not be packed while damp. Moreover, the vats were not always available.

powder, and when it is sprinkled into the skins they may be baled at once. It saves labor and time, and does not injure the skins as liquid poison does. The Russians use napthalene.

Countries differ in the manner of baling as well as of curing. The Indian skins are encased in jute bagging, the Arabians wrap them in matting and the Chinese roll their skins in burlap and confine them with iron bands. The other countries use rope to confine the bales. The heavy goat skins are used for making men's heavy glazed kid shoes, while from the lighter stock ladies' and children's shoes are manufactured.

Kangaroo skins are also used for making a superior qualtiy of patent and enameled leather, from which fine shoes for men and slippers for women are made. Kangaroo skins come from Austria and New Zealand, where the animals are found in great numbers and are hunted by men who make a business of it. The skins, which are dried and baled before being shipped, vary in size from three to ten square feet.

Giraffe hides which, in the mature animals, reach great thickness, are largely sought for by natives of equatorial countries, who fashion sandals, shields, whips, etc., from them. In Central Africa the hides of antelopes, harte-beests and zebras are made into leather for use in high-class bootmaking. Horse hides and colt skins are largely used for making enameled leather. Russia and South America are the greatest markets for horse hides and colt skins. Enameled leather is tanned in the usual way, except that it is put through a special process of grease extracting, and afterwards varnished with a specially prepared enamel.

Were authentic statistics available, they would show the quantities of hides of animals, cattle, goats, sheep, horses, kangaroos, etc., required to provide shoes for one year for the entire population of the earth to be enormous. Not a particle of goat skin or cow hide at the tanneries is wasted. Trimmings from the skins are carefully collected and used, with other refuse, in the manufacture of glue. The hair, which was formerly wasted, is now carefully accumulated, and forms an important factor in the commercial world, being used to pack horse collars and saddles, for mixing plaster, etc. Horns and hoofs are polished and either died out by buttonmakers or used for various little nick-nacks and fancy articles. Moreover, the excrement from morocco factories is valuable as fertilizer, good results having been obtained with it by trials recently made.

An enormous capital is invested in the leather industry in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is the glazed kid producing city "par excellence" of the world. Many thousand of dozens are turned out daily. The production of morocco is so immense that it not only

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