342 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ing and similar manipulation. Ten days later this same manu- 

 facturer was in Peabody, Mass., in one of the most complete of 

 modern tanneries, and, though the space of time intervening was 

 only a little more than a week, yet in it he had traversed the 

 whole gamut of the art. 



In order of development after these crude methods came the 

 discovery that certain astringent barks and vegetable substances 

 possessed the property of condensing and arresting the septic 

 tendency of animal membranes. This discovery must have been 

 made very early, however, as the knowledge of it appears among 

 many of the ancient nations. But, whatever the time, from it 



dates the beginning of the tan- 

 nery. The Egyptians were 

 probably among the first to 

 become proficient in this pro- 

 cess of preparing what had 

 come to be such an important 

 article of personal economy. 

 Among the tapestries and 

 sculptures that remain to us 

 from them are several which 

 picture the operations of cur- 

 rying, working, and stretching 

 leather. One in viewing them 

 might almost imagine himself 

 in a small country tannery. 

 Figures are seen using the fa- 

 miliar awl, polishing - stone, 

 and the semicircular currier's 

 knife, while the processes de- 

 picted are very suggestive of 

 the present day. But the Egyp- 

 tians are by no means to be 

 given all the credit for this 



Fig. 3. Tanner's Beam and Knives. The hide ^, ,^^ rp-i TT ^^U^l,r 



was thrown over this beam after the hair had progress. They Undoubtedly 



been loosened, and with the working-knives obtained many of their most 



(a and C ) and the iieshing-knife (6) was scraped va l ua ljl e suggestions f rom the 

 tree of both hair and refuse. Machinery has c ' c ' . 



very largely superseded these now. Arabs. Those roving Bedou- 



ins were by no means botanists 

 in the modern sense of the word, but they had a thorough knowl- 

 edge of all the peculiarities of such plants and shrubs as marked 

 the desert, one of the most common of which was the acacia. 

 That this knowledge was a practical one is proved by the fact 

 that they were acquainted with the tanning properties of the pods 

 of this plant. They were experts, too, in the methods of depila- 

 tion, so that the Egyptians, by making a short excursion, had at 



