The Leather of the Egyptians

1910

The ancient Egyptians were skilled in the art of tanning leather and manufactured it in various ways and for various purposes besides that of furnishing covering for the feet. Indeed, it is to those builders of the pyramids that we are indebted for the first artistic forms of footwear, and, so far as can be ascertained from history and the researches of archaeologists, the Egyptians were the first shoemakers who were worthy of that name.

It is a fact, too, that tanners of today employ very much the same methods as did the ancients. About the same materials are used, and the processes are almost precisely similar to those in vogue hundreds of years ago. It is true that tanners of the present day have found a means of greatly shortening the time required to convert a hide into leather and that steam power and modern machinery have done much to expedite and improve the processes of finishing the leather; but, after all. the principals of tanning remain the same as they have been from the first. — London Globe.

Too Many Horse Hides

1896

The hide of the horse has always been valuable for making ladies' fine shoes and thongs for belt-lacing. It is much finer than the hide of the beef, and when split makes a very fine and soft leather.

A few years ago the market could not get enough of them. That was in the days when a horse was a horse, and worth something, before the electric motor drove him from the street car service. As high as $5 was paid for a good hide, and it was a very poor one that would not bring $2.50. But as the horse got cheaper and the advocate of horseflesh as food was reinforced by the butcher who could palm it off for beef, things slowly began to change. Prices went down steadily, until now it takes a No. 1 hide to bring $1.50, while fair ones go for fifty cents and the poorer ones are thrown away.

The consumption of horseflesh in Europe, particularly in Paris, seems to have increased wonderfully, judging from the heavy importation of hides to this country, while in this country it is said there is not a large city where the horse is not slaughtered for the market and sold either openly or secretly. The meat-canning establishments are also credited with using a great many broken-down animals.

Thus, while the beef hide market has its fluctuations and days of glut and scarcity, the horse hide market is completely stagnated, and there does not seem to be any possible hope for a revival of it. — St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Real Gratitude — Guilty Man Happy With Not-Guilty Verdict

1914

When Blaine was a young lawyer and cases were few, he was asked to defend a poverty-stricken tramp accused of stealing a watch. He pleaded with all the ardor at his command, drawing so pathetic a picture with such convincing energy that at the close of his argument the court was in tears and even the tramp wept. The jury deliberated a few minutes and returned the verdict "not guilty." Then the tramp drew himself up, tears streaming down his face as he looked at the future "plumed knight" and said: "Sir, I have never heard so grand a plea. I have not cried before since I was a child. I have no money with which to reward you, but (drawing a package from the depths of his ragged clothes), here's the watch; take it and welcome." — Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph.


New Idea for Belting

Those who buy belting for machinery will not have to worry about the price of leather in the years to come if a certain sort of belting which is being manufactured by a firm in Connecticut proves to be a success. The new product is called flexible steel belting and is really a step further than the chain and sprocket idea. The belting is made in a complicated series of links and can be used on all pulleys of from two inches in diameter to the largest size. It has been designed especially for service where atmospheric conditions are bad for leather and rubber belts.

Various Kinds of Leather

1878

Morocco leather is made from goatskins, tanned in sumach, dyed in the ordinary way, having been previously immersed in a solution of sulphuric acid; and the grain or stamping upon it is done either by hand or by machinery, similar to that for the purpose of dicing or graining. Very fine small skins for gloves are often prepared by immersion in a solution of alum and salt, instead of tannin, flour and the yolk of eggs being afterward applied to soften and whiten.

Buff leather, not now quite as much in request as in former days, was at first made from the skin of an animal called the buffe, or urns, which was then common in Western Europe. When new, the leather was always a tawny yellow, and the skins gave the name to the color.

Cordovan leather was first made at Cordova, in Spain, from hides dressed to be used with the grain side outward. It was from this leather that the title of cordwainer came.

Russia leather is tanned in an infusion of willow or birch bark, and derives its peculiar and long-enduring odor from the birch oil with which it is dressed.

Levant leather is first "struck out" in warm water on a mahogany table, "blacked" with logwood and iron liquor, then polished by revolving rollers, and "grained up" by the workman with a "corking board" on a table. The grain is set into the leather in a hot stove, and after this it is oiled with cod-oil.

In finishing japanned leather the japanning mixture is worked by the hand aloop. This mixture consists simply of linseed-oil and Prussian blue, the last coat being of linseed-oil and lampblack, put evenly over the surface as it lies spread out on a table. No machine has, as yet, been made to supersede the hand in this part of the work. In the blacking of skins a mixture of ox blood and acetate of iron is now very often used.