LEA THER-MAKING. 3 5 9 



It would be impossible to even enumerate the many inventions 

 that have been made to save hand labor and hasten the various 

 processes of finishing. Among the most serviceable is the scour- 

 ing machine. When the leather is taken from the vats it is usu- 

 ally covered with dust and sediment and stained with resinous 

 matter. Formerly these defects were removed by hand with 

 brush, stone, and slicker; now, however, it is done by "scrub- 

 bers " and scouring machines. There is a variety of these, but in 

 general they consist of a level table or platform which is freely 

 movable in all directions. Mounted above it is a reciprocating 

 frame, in which are fixed brushes and pieces of slate and thin 

 stone. By the movement of this, with a small jet of water, the 

 whole surface of the leather is scoured and brushed. Another 

 invention this to replace the work of the currier in paring and 

 evening and bringing out the grain of the leather is the whitener. 

 Essentially this machine is like a lawn-mower. It performs its 

 work through the cutting action of a small cylinder with sharp, 

 oblique edges. The cylinder itself moves to and fro over the 

 leather while the knives revolve at the rate of two thousand times 

 per minute. In the machine invented by Mr. Charles Korn, one 

 of the most skillful leather-finishers in the country, these knives 

 are fastened to an endless leather belt, and are set diagonally, so 

 that when the cut is made on the beam as it passes down in front 

 of the operator it is a sliding one. The knives are cleared on the 

 edge by an automatic finger and sharpened by an automatic hand. 

 In the Union leather whitener the belt contains thirty-two 

 knives, while the cylinder revolves 2,780 times per minute, and 

 the pendulum swings to and from the operator at a speed of 

 ninety a minute. These machines can do the work of from four 

 to eight men, and do it as well. Still another finishing machine 

 is the stuffing-wheel, by which the tallow and oil are worked into 

 the leather. This was patented in this country in 1855 by L. W. 

 Fiske, of Louisville, Ky., though it had been previously used in 

 France and Germany. The crude idea of a stuffing-wheel is a 

 revolving hogshead into which the leather and grease are put 

 and a current of steam or heated air passed through. The success 

 of this wheel did much to revolutionize the character of the upper 

 leather of this country. By it the oil and tallow were worked 

 into the center of the fiber, thus making the leather soft and 

 yielding instead of stiff and hard as of old. These devices near- 

 ly all had their origin about the time of the civil war, when 

 workmen were scarce in the North, and when manufacturers 

 had to turn their attention to some means of supplying the de- 

 ficiency. 



In point of importance, next to the invention of the splitting 

 machine, stands the discovery of a method for utilizing spent wet 



