■^^ .^TTVM- . -^jy wi&M ■ V . . i .i i mii; 11 , 



,j 



. ^r-„., ■^^^. 



Figure 15. — Seth Boyden's Patent, 1809. Seth Boyden successfully attacked spe- 

 cific problems of the tanner — namely the practicality of splitting hides by 

 machinery. 



Ideas for the design of splitting equipment proliferated; and by 

 1831 Alpha Richardson had perfected the prototype that, before 

 the century ended, became a standard item in many tanneries.'"'^ 

 Although the splitting machine was used to make fine, showy, 

 grained leather, the fundamental stimulus to its development 

 proved to be not aesthetic but rather, as an early innovator, 

 Phinehas Dow, observed, "to make two skins out of one.'"* At 

 the Crystal Palace the same jurors who had seen little progress in 

 tanning processes during the previous fifty years (1800 to 1850) 

 found the leather industry "very much" improved by "mechanical 



^^ Davis, T/ie Manufacture of Leather, p. 369. 

 88 Restored Patents, vol. 2, p. 474. 



34 



