Bulletin - United States National Museum . ch hide required twice its weight in barkplus 12 gallons of water.^ The hides at the bottom were alwayssubject to the strongest action of the tan. Therefore, during themonths that they lay immersed it was customary to shift them orhandle them, so that over a given period each hide would be exposedto equal amounts of tannin. If three vat combinations were used,which as in liming was often the case, hides were moved from vatto vat, or from a solution of diminished strength to one that wasmore concentrated. It was estimated that to produce superiorleathe
Bulletin - United States National Museum . ch hide required twice its weight in barkplus 12 gallons of water.^ The hides at the bottom were alwayssubject to the strongest action of the tan. Therefore, during themonths that they lay immersed it was customary to shift them orhandle them, so that over a given period each hide would be exposedto equal amounts of tannin. If three vat combinations were used,which as in liming was often the case, hides were moved from vatto vat, or from a solution of diminished strength to one that wasmore concentrated. It was estimated that to produce superiorleather required twelve to eighteen months. The entire operationwas terribly time consuming, and new methods were badly neededto shorten it without injuring the durability and beauty of theleather. David Macbride, a Dublin physician, was one of the earliestto introduce a significant improvement in the method of tanningleather, and it is of interest to quote at length from his important « Ibid., p. 203.« Ibid., p. 164.^ Ibid., pp. 208, 210. 21. Figure the Tan Pit Manual labor, hard and frequently unpleasant,long characterized American as well as Euro-pean tanning methods. These vignettes arefrom The Art of Tanning, Currying and LeatherDressing that appeared in Philadelphia in 1852,translated from the French by CampbellMorfit.
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
