ART. 9. HISTORY OF INVENTIONS HOUGH. 19 



PRIMITIVE SKIN DRESSING. 



Plate 19. 



Sioux Indian women dressing hide,s. — The Indians of the Great 

 Plains were excellent skin dressers. Two classes of operations were 

 employed; one pertained to the dressing of robes and the other to 

 the tawing of hides. In the first operation the hair was not removed, 

 but in the case of the larger animals the inner part of the skin was 

 split off, so as to render the hides soft and pliable. By the other opera- 

 tion the skin, after being sweated, was depilated by means of scrapers 

 of bone. 



The Sioux Indian woman here shown is engaged in thinning a hide 

 with an iron-tij^ped scraping tool after the preliminary process of 

 unhairing has been completed. 



SERIES 4. — SCBAPEB. 



Plate 20. 



The scraper is a tool with an edge for abrading by pressure and 

 friction. A knife, a piece of glass, or any edged tool may become a 

 scraper if dragged over a proper surface at a proper angle. Stone or 

 shells are primitive scrapers; they undergo modifications of form to 

 suit the materials scraped, whether they be hides and other soft sub- 

 stances or harder materiais, as wood, horn, bone, or ivory. The pri- 

 meval mechanic employed scraping processes extensively in his work. 

 The Eskimos scrape ivory and antler into shape with flint stones 

 chipped to an edge. The Pacific coast tribes remove the super- 

 fluous wood, in excavating canoes and dishes, with scrapers. Sav- 

 age women rely on the scraper to reduce the thickness of hides. 

 Simple forms of the scraper are still employed, but are made of 

 steel, by butchers, cabinetmakers, and other craftsmen for precisely 

 the function it had in the beginning. The scraper has not, in the 

 progress of industry, become to any extent a machine tool. 



No. 1. Scrapers; spalls of bard stone with natural edges 99,610 



No. 2. Spalls of hard stone with chipped edges for scraping 99,310, 10,910 



No. 3. Chipped scrapers with steep edges, specialized ; notched for hafting, 



146,229, 99,311 

 No. 4. Chisel-edge scrapers of fine-grained material. If worked with a blow 



and not by friction these become adz blades 36.290, 127,719 



No. 5. Eskimo scrapers set in grips of wood or ivory that fit the hand, 



63,847, 63,852, 24,361 

 No. 6. Chipped scraper fitting in handle of antler, working like an adz. 

 No. 7. Chisel-edge scraper of fine-grained stone fitted into the end of a curved 



handle. Pits at the manual end to fit the fingers 43,927 



No. 8. Scraper with iron blade, toothed slightly to render more efficient in 



special work of hide dressing 89,926 



No. 9. Currier's tools for scraping and scouring hides 104,688 



