60 Transactions of the 



and leave them there till they become leather. They may remain 

 in the tan-pits sometimes as long as two years. There are other 

 and quicker means of bringing about the desired change ; but these, 

 as a general rule, depend on the same principle, i.e., the addition 

 of tannic acid to the skin, with which its gelatine and albumen 

 combine. 



Chamois or buflf leather is an exception, oil being substituted 

 for the tannic acid. Alum can also be used for the same purpose. 

 What an astonishing difference between the easily-decomposed 

 skin and the tough, durable leather into which it is thus con- 

 verted ! The clippings of hides, the odds and ends of leather, 

 as well as fragments of bones and tendons, are boiled down to 

 furnish glue and the gelatine which has already been mentioned. 

 From the hide let us turn to its appendage the hair. 



The plumes of our ^^soldiers' helmets, and suchlike military 

 decorations, use up a large quantity of the long hairs of the tail 

 and mane. Another portion goes to the stuffing of chairs and 

 mattresses, and for the manufacture of haircloth, with which our 

 chairs and sofas are often covered. A small part is made into 

 fishing-lines. The short hair is chiefly used for mixing with lime 

 to form mortar, but a good deal goes to the maker of Prussian 

 blue. 



At one time the manufacture of crinolines consumed a part of 

 the best hairs, for the real article of dress so called was made, as 

 the name imports, of hair; though, to meet the wants of numbers 

 who could not afford such a high-priced luxury, whalebone, steel, 

 cane, &c., were extensively used. 



The hoof, and its protector the shoe, next claim our attention. 

 The solid part of the hoof goes to the turner to be made into 

 buttons' and articles of a similar kind ; of the remainder a part 

 is converted into gelatine, glue, &c., while the rest goes to the 

 Prussian-blue manufacturer. The shoe and nails can of course 

 be used for the many purposes to which old iron is generally 

 applied ; but the nails have a value of their own, being in high 

 repute in the manufacture of gun -barrels. A rather curious 

 application of old iron may be quoted from an article in the 

 Quarterly Revieiv for April 1868, ' On the Use of Refuse :' — 

 ' Scraps of iron may be made useful in securing the copper that 

 runs away in the streams washing veins of copper-pyrites. In 

 the Mona Company's mines in North Wales old pieces of battered 

 iron are placed in tanks into which these streams are collected; 

 the copper quickly incrusts the iron, and in process of time 

 entirely dissolves it, so that a mass of copper takes the place 

 of the iron.' Cart-horse shoes are often used among the rural 

 population in place of quoits. 



