with a sharp knife, and the skin is again immersed in fresh water. . . . 

 The hair side is then well rubbed and smoothed down with a stone, similar 

 to that used for sharpening knife-blades, but which is set in a wooden handle. 

 This done, the skin is dipped for the third time in fresh water. Both sides 

 are well scraped and smoothed with a knife having a curved blade, so as to 

 equalize the surfaces and remove all foreign particles. 



This work was exhausting, and in the course of a day one man 

 normally beamed only a dozen hides.^^ 



After the liming and dehairing but prior to beaming, hides were 

 frequently placed in a vat containing a substance known as bate — 

 a mixture of hen dung, salt, and water intended to restore the 

 pliability of the hide. Immersion in the bate vat was followed by 

 a thorough washing in pure and preferably soft water. In the 

 preparation of skins (cow, calf, horse, or pig) the average duration 

 of the liming process was tour months.^'' 



With the preliminaries of washing, raising, and beaming over, 

 hides were, in the parlance of the tanner, ready to be "put into 

 tan" — a process that required several steps and much time, but 

 one that was greatly improved by three men: David Macbride, 

 Armand Seguin, and Sir Humphry Davy. 



The ancient method of tanning was to fill a pit with alternate 

 layers of prepared bark, hides, and water, then cover it. When 

 placed in the tan pit, each hide required twice its weight in bark 

 plus 12 gallons of water. ^' The hides at the bottom were always 

 subject to the strongest action of the tan. Therefore, during the 

 months that they lay immersed it was customary to shift them or 

 handle them, so that over a given period each hide would be exposed 

 to equal amounts of tannin. If three vat combinations were used, 

 which as in liming was often the case, hides were moved from vat 

 to vat, or from a solution of diminished strength to one that was 

 more concentrated. It was estimated that to produce superior 

 leather required twelve to eighteen months. The entire operation 

 was terribly time consuming, and new methods were badly needed 

 to shorten it without injuring the durability and beauty of the 

 leather. 



David Macbride, a Dublin physician, was one of the earliest 

 to introduce a significant improvement in the method of tanning 

 leather, and it is of interest to quote at length from his important 



« Ibid., p. 203. 

 « Ibid., p. 164. 

 ^' Ibid., pp. 208, 210. 



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