the skins; second, the longer processing to loosen the hair, soaking 

 and scraping the skin, lasting a year; third, the tanning by immers- 

 ing the dehaired hides in a bath of oak bark; and, finally, the drying 

 and finishing of them to perfect the quality and appearance of 

 the leather/' 



The method of raising with lime was the oldest method of dis- 

 tending the pores and fibers in order to loosen the hair. In early 

 tanneries milk of lime was the swelling agent, and it was contained 

 in lime vats made either of wood or masonry. Lime vats were 

 usually above the ground, were either round or square, and their 

 size was "proportional to the number of hides to be soaked." ^- 

 The average square vat measured 125 cubic feet (5 feet on a side) 

 with a peck of lime required for each large hide immersed. Nor- 

 mally the tanner used his vats in combinations of threes or in what 

 was termed a raising series. 



The vats are distinguished as dead^ -jceak^ and li'ce vats. The dead vat is 

 that which has been nearly exhausted of its strength; the %:i:eak is that which 

 has only been used enough to deprive it of a portion of its force; and the 

 fresh or li'ce vat, is that which has not yet been worked. In the progress of 

 operations, the live vat passes successively into the weak and the dead vat.^^ 



Raising with lime had disadvantages, however: first, it altered the 

 texture of the hides by impregnating them with caustic lime, which 

 was difficult to remove, and secondly, the lime impeded the action 

 of the tan liquor, causing an improper combination of the tannin 

 with the skin. In time, as a result of these disadvantages, Ameri- 

 can tanners tried other methods of raising — among them raising 

 by acids, depilation bv steam, cool sweating, and raising by barley 

 dressings. ^^ 



After being limed, the hides were beamed to remove any hair, 

 surplus tissue, or fat (see fig. 8). When beaming a hide, the 

 tanner made 



a kind of pad of two or three folded skins, which he places upon the horse, 

 and over which the skin to be operated upon is laid with the hair side up; 

 and he then scrapes the surface strongly from above downwards, with the 

 scraper. After the hair is completely removed, the skin is washed and 

 soaked in a trough, or vat full of water, and is then subjected to the following 

 operations. The flesh and other parts not properly belonging to the skin, 

 are removed with a sharp knife called t\\&flesher, and the skin is again washed 

 and soaked in fresh water. The projecting filaments or shreds, and those 

 parts of the borders of the skin which are thicker than the rest, are cut off 



^' Julia dE Fontenelle and F. Malepeyre, The Arts of Tanning, Currying and Leather Dressing, 

 edit, and transl. Campbell Morfit, p. 19. Hereinafter to be cited as Morfit. 

 ^-Ibid., p. 162. "Ibid., p. 163. ''■'Ibid., p. 168, et passim. 



19 



