LEA THER-MAKING. 3 5 1 



challenged upon it, hastening the decay of the vats and boxes, 

 and giving an air of desolation to the tannery. But despite all 

 this crudeness, as Bolles has said, and investigation tends to con- 

 firm, in this way throughout New England and the Middle States, 

 leather, probably equal to that of any European country except 

 England, was made even before the separation, to an extent 

 more nearly approaching a sufficiency than any other article. 



As already noted, the tanner owes more to the mechanic and 

 machinist than to the chemist. In 1793 Deyeux, a French chem- 

 ist, discovered that tannin was a peculiar body, and two years 

 later Seguin proved that it was the active principle demanded in 

 the operation of tanning. This led to something of a study of the 

 properties of tannin and its distribution. In 1801 Banks, an 

 English chemist, found that it was contained in terra japonica 

 or catechu, and since then the list from which it can be extracted, 

 and profitably, too, has been greatly enlarged. The use of liquor 

 containing this active principle of hemlock or oak bark, the 

 " ooze," as it is called, was suggested in England in 1759, but it 

 was first rendered practically successful by Fay in 1790, and 

 Seguin, of France, in 1795. The English had rendered their 

 leather flexible by giving it a thorough beating with hammers 

 by hand. Switzerland, as early as 1800, used water-power ham- 

 mers, and subsequently replaced them with stamps. Berendorf, 

 of Paris, in 1842, invented a pressing stamp, afterward supple- 

 mented by Harvey and Devergue with a roller which accom- 

 plished the same thing by passing it back and forth over the 

 leather. 



These advances in Europe were not duplicated in the industry 

 in this country. They had their counterparts here, however, and 

 in the end the progress of the Americans, which is measured in 

 this case by the shortening of the operations and the cheapening 

 of the product, kept pace with their craftsmen across the water. 

 Accidents are said to play an important part in the development 

 of any industry. Analyses of these incidents, however, usually 

 show that the accident lay simply in the fact that there happened 

 to be an observing man, of suggestive mind and quick applica- 

 tion, about when the occurrence took place. Barrels full of apples 

 probably had fallen before the historic one caught the eye of a 

 Newton. The steam of the tea-kettle might be making music to- 

 day without any further results had not fertile-minded Watts, or 

 his double, heard it and seen it. In the same way these forward 

 steps in the making of leather came from a combination of ordi- 

 nary incidents and practical men who saw in them suggestions 

 for better things. One of the pioneers in bringing about these 

 changes in this country was Colonel William Edwards. He built 

 a tannery at Northampton, Mass., about 1790, selecting the 



