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  Transcriber’s Notes

  Text _between underscores_ represents text printed in italics, text
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  THE PRINCIPLES
  OF
  LEATHER MANUFACTURE


[Illustration: _Frontispiece._

PLATE I.

SECTION OF CALF-SKIN. (For key, see Fig. 9.)]




  THE PRINCIPLES
  OF
  LEATHER MANUFACTURE

  BY

  H. R. PROCTER, F.I.C. F.C.S.

  PROFESSOR OF LEATHER INDUSTRIES AT THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE, LEEDS;
  PAST PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
  OF LEATHER TRADES CHEMISTS

  [Illustration]

  =London:=
  E. & F. N. SPON, LIMITED, 125 STRAND

  =New York:=
  SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 123 LIBERTY STREET

  1903




  =Dedicated to=

  PROFESSOR F. L. KNAPP

  GEHEIMEN HOFRATH, DR. PHIL. AND DR. ING.

  THE PIONEER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
  IN LEATHER MANUFACTURE




PREFACE.


The origin of the present work was an attempt to prepare a second
edition of the little Text-Book of Tanning which the Author published in
1885, and which has been long out of print. Though persevered in for
years, the work was never brought to completion, partly owing to the
constant pressure of other duties, but still more to the rapid advances
which have been made in our knowledge of the subject, and in the
scientific thought which has been devoted to it. For his share in the
initiation of this work, much credit is due to Wilhelm Eitner, Director
of the Imperial Royal Research Institute for Leather Industries in
Vienna, but the advance he began has been energetically carried forward
not only in Vienna, but in the Tanning Schools and Research Institutes
of Freiberg, Leeds, London, Liège, Copenhagen, Berlin and elsewhere, and
to a less extent in private laboratories.

Under the pressure of this rapid growth, as it was impossible to
complete the work as a whole, the Author published an instalment dealing
with the purely chemical side of the subject in 1898, under the title of
the ‘Leather Industries Laboratory Book’; which has been translated into
German, French and Italian, and of which the English edition is rapidly
approaching exhaustion.

The present work, which should by right have preceded the Laboratory
Book (and which frequently refers to it as “L.I.L.B.”), attempts to deal
with the general scientific principles of the industry, without
describing in detail its practical methods (though incidentally many
practical points are discussed). To complete the subject, a third volume
ought to be written, giving working details of the various methods of
manufacture; but apart from the difficulty of the subject, and the
weariness of “making many books,” the methods of trade are so
fluctuating, and dependent on temporary conditions that they have not
the same permanent value as the record of scientific advance.

As the present volume is intended to appeal both to the chemist and to
the practical tanner, it must to a certain extent fail in both, since
many matters are included which are already familiar to the former, and
it is to be feared, some, which may prove difficult to the latter. For
these and other imperfections the Author claims the indulgence of his
Readers.

The Author must here acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. TOM GUTHRIE and
to Mr. A. B. SEARLE for assistance in writing several of the chapters;
to Dr. A. TURNBULL and Mr. F. A. BLOCKEY for much help in reading proofs
and preparing the MS. for the press; and to the many gentlemen who have
furnished or allowed him to use their blocks and drawings in
illustration.

  THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE,
  LEEDS.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER I.

  _INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL._

  Primitive methods of leather manufacture -- Use of leather by the
  ancients -- Progress of leather manufacture in England -- Methods of
  production of leather -- Vegetable tannages -- Combination tannages --
  Use of aluminium, iron and chromium -- Oil- and fat-leathers --
  Difficulties of scientific treatment                            PAGE 1


  CHAPTER II.

  _INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF LEATHER MANUFACTURE._

  The object of tanning -- Washing and soaking -- Removal of hair by
  liming -- Unhairing by putrefaction -- Unhairing and fleshing --
  Deliming -- Bating, puering and drenching -- The vegetable tanning
  process -- Currying -- Alum, chrome and chamois leathers        PAGE 7


  CHAPTER III.

  _THE LIVING CELL._

  The structure of cells -- White blood-corpuscles -- The yeast-cell --
  Epidermis cells -- The building up of plants                   PAGE 10


  CHAPTER IV.

  _PUTREFACTION AND FERMENTATION._

  The nature of ferments -- Organised and unorganised ferments --
  Classification of organised ferments -- General properties of ferments
  -- The alcoholic fermentation -- The action of enzymes or unorganised
  ferments -- The destruction of ferments by heat and antiseptics -- The
  products of fermentation -- The fermentations of the tannery --
  Fermentation in bating and puering -- Fermentation in the tanning
  liquors -- Moulds and mildews -- Control of fermentation       PAGE 15


  CHAPTER V.

  _ANTISEPTICS AND DISINFECTANTS._

  Distinction of antiseptics and disinfectants -- Lime -- Sulphur
  dioxide -- Manufacture of sulphuric acid -- Bisulphites and
  metabisulphites -- Boric acid and borates -- Mercuric chloride --
  Mercuric iodide -- Copper sulphate -- Zinc salts -- Arsenic --
  Fluorides -- Phenol -- Use of carbolic acid -- Eudermin -- Creasote --
  Creolin -- Salicylic acid -- Benzoic acid -- Cresotinic acid --
  Anticalcium -- “C.T.” bate -- Naphthalene sulphonic acid -- Naphthols
  -- Hydronaphthol -- Oxynaphthoic acid -- Carbon disulphide --
  Formaldehyde -- Triformol -- Camphor and essential oils        PAGE 21


 