LEA

LEA

putrefy for a given time, as is eafily perceivedby the flrong ammoniacal odour which iffuesfrom them when the door is opened. Duringthis procefs a thick filthy flime works up to thefurface of the ikin, by which the regularity ofthe procefs is judged of; and the wool is looien-ed l’o that it readily comes off with a flightpull. Each fkin is then returned to the beam,the wool taken off and preferved, and all theflime worked off with the knife, and the roughedges pared away. The fkin is then put into apit filled with lime water and kept there fromtwo to fix weeks more or lets according to thenature of the fkin, which has the efi'ebt of check-ing the further putrefaction, and produces a veryremarkable hardening and thickening of its fub”-ftance, and probably alfo it detaches a furtherportion of the flime. The fkin is again well work-ed upon the beam, and much of its fubftancepared down, and all inequalities fmootlied withthe knife. Much pains and judgment are requir-ed in thefe operations on the one hand not to en-danger the fubftance of the fkin by the putre-faction (which if carried on too long wouldfoon reduce it to an incohefive pulp) and on theother hand to work out every particle of theflime, the leaft of which if retained wild preventthe fkin from dreffing well in the fubfequentproceffes, and from taking the dye uniformlyand well. The fkin is then again foftened andfreed from the lime by being thrown into a vatof bran and water, and kept there for fomeweeks in a flate of gentle fermentation, beingoccafionally returned to the beam. All thethickening produced by the lime is thusremoved, and the fkin is now as highly purifiedas poffible, and is a thin extenfible white mem-brane called in this flate a pelt , and is now fitfor any fubfequent operation of tawing or dye-ing, or oil dreffing, or ffiammoying.

The method of bringing kid and goat’s fkinsto the flate of pelt is nearly the fame as forlambs, except that the liming is ufed before thehair is taken off, the hair being of no greatimportance, and only fold to the plaiflerers, butthe lamb’s wool, which is more valuable,would be injured by the lime. Kids’ fkins willtake a longer time in tanning than lambs’.

If the pelts are to be taiued they are then putinto a folution of alum and fait in warm water,m the proportion of about three pounds of alumand four pounds of fait to every 120 middle-lized*y™ s > an d worked about therein till they haveabiorbed a fufficient quantity. This again giyesthe 'in a remarkable degree of thicknefs andtoughnefs.

The fkins are then taken out and waflred inwater, and then again put into a vat of branand water and allowed to ferment for a time,till much of the alum and fait is got out andthe unufual thickening produced by it is forthe mofl part reduced. They are then takento a lofty room with a flove in the middle, andflretched on hooks and kept there till fully dry.The fkins are then converted into a tough, flexi-ble, and quite white leather, but to give thema gloffy fmifh, and to take off the harfhnefs offeel flill remaining, they are again foaked inwater to extract more of the fait, and put intoa large pail containing the yolks of eggs beatup with water. Here the fkins are trodden fora long time, by which they fo completely im-bibe the fubftance of the egg that the liquorabove them is rendered almoft perfectly limpid,after which they are hung up in a loft to dryand finifhed by gloffing with a warm iron.There are other fmaller manipulations, whichneed not be here mentioned.

The effential difference therefore betweentanning and taiving is, that in the former cafethe pelt is combined with tan and other vegeta-ble matter, and in the latter with fomethingthat it imbibes from the alum and fait (poffiblyalumine) and which certainly is never again ex-tracted by the fubfequent wafhing and branning.

The (fo called) Morocco leather, preparedfrom fheep-fkinS chiefly, and ufed fo largely forcoach-linings, pocket-books, and the befl kindof book-binding, is thus made. The fkin,cleanfed and worked in the way already de-feribed, is taken from the lime-water, and thethickening thereby occafioned is brought down,not by bran liquor as in tawing, but by a bathof dogs’ or pigeons’ dung diffufed in water,where it remains till fufficiently fuppled, andtill the lime is quite got out and it becomes aperfeftly white clean pelt. If intended to bedyed red it is then fewed up very tight in theform of a fack with the grain fide outwards(the dye only being required on this fide) andis immerfed in a cochineal bath of a warmthjuft equal to what the hand can fupport, and isworked about for a fufficient time till it is uni-formly dyed, a procefs that demands much fkilland experience. The fack is then put into a largevat containing fumach infufed in warm water,and kept for fome hours till it is fufficientlytanned.

The fkins intended to be blacked are merelyfumached without any previous dyeing. Afterfome further preparation the colour of the finered fkins being finifhed with a weak bath ofE 2