LEATHER, MOROCCO 01 



cess requiring a space of twenty-four hours. The skins are now unstitched, rinsed, 

 fulled with beetles, drained, rubbed hard with a copper blade, and lastly hung up 

 to dry. 



Some manufacturers brighten the colour by applying to the surface of the skins, in 

 a damp state, a solution of carmine in ammonia with a sponge ; others apply a decoc- 

 tion of saffron to enliven the scarlet tint. At Paris, the morocco leather is tanned by 

 agitation with a decoction of sumach in large casks made to revolve upon a horizontal 

 axis, like a barrel churn. White galls are sometimes substituted for sumach ; a pound 

 being used for a skin. The skins must be finally cleaned with the utmost care. 



The black dye is given by applying with the brush a solution of red acetate of iron to 

 the grain side. Blue is communicated by the common cold indigo vat ; violet, with a 

 light blue followed by cochineal red ; green, by Saxon blue followed by a yellow dye, 

 usually made with the chopped roots of the barberry. This plant serves also for 

 yellows. To dye olive, the skins are first passed through a weak solution of green 

 vitriol, and then through the decoction of barberry root, containing a little Saxon 

 blue. Puce colour is communicated by logwood with a little alum ; which may be 

 modified by the addition of a little Brazil wood. In all these cases, whenever the 

 skins are dyed, they should be rinsed, wrung, or rather drained, stretched upon a 

 table, then besmeared on the grain side with a film of linseed oil applied by means of 

 a sponge, in order to promote their glossiness when curried, and to prevent them 

 becoming horny by too rapid drying. 



The last process in preparing morocco leather is the currying, which brings out the 

 lustre, and restores the original suppleness. This operation is practised in different 

 manners, according to the purpose the skins are to serve. For pocket-books, port- 

 folios, and case-making in general, they must be thinned as much as possible upon the 

 flesh side, moistened slightly, then stretched upon the table, to smooth them ; dried 

 again, moistened, and lastly passed two or three times through the cylinder press in 

 different directions, to produce the crossing of the grain. The skins intended for the 

 shoemaker, the saddler, the bookbinder, &c., require more pliancy, and must be dif- 

 ferently curried. After being thinned, they are glazed with a polisher while still 

 moist, and a grain is formed upon the flesh side with the roughened lead plate or 

 grainer of the curriers, called in French pommelle ; they are glazed anew to remove 

 the roughness produced by the pommel, and finally grained on the flesh side with a 

 surface of cork applied under a pommel of white wood. 



TAWIKG OF SKINS. (Megisserie, Fr. ; Weissgerberei, Ger.) The kid-, sheep-, and 

 lamb-skins, are cleaned as has been already described. In some factories they 

 receive the tanning power of the submuriate of alumina (from a solution of alum and 

 common salt) in a large barrel-churn apparatus, in which they are subjected to violent 

 agitation, and thereby take the aluming in the course of a few minutes. In other cases, 

 where the yolks of eggs are added to the above solution, the mixture, with the skins, 

 is put into a large tub, and the whole trampled strongly by the naked feet of the 

 operator, till the emulsion of the egg be forced into the pores of the skin. The tawed 

 skins, when dry, are ' staked/ that is stretched, scraped, and smoothed by friction 

 against the blunt edge of a semi-circular knife, fixed to the top of a short beam of wood 

 set upright. The workman holding the extremities of the skin with both hands, pulls 

 it in all directions forcibly, but skilfully, against the smoothing ' stake.' 



In an entertaining article on tanning in the llth vol. of the 'Penny Magazine,' at 

 page 215, the following description is given of one of the great tawing establishments 

 of London : 



' In the production of " imitation " kid leather, the skin of lambs is employed ; and 

 for this purpose lamb-skins are imported from the shores of the Mediterranean. 

 They are imported with the wool yet on them ; and as this wool is valuable, the leather 

 manufacturer removes this before the operations on the pelt commence. The wool is 

 of a quality that would be greatly injured by the contact of lime, and therefore a kind 

 of natural fermentation is brought about as a means of loosening the wool from the 

 pelt.' The following is a description of one of the buildings : ' On the ground floor, 

 a flight of stone steps leads down to a range of subterranean vaults or close rooms, 

 into which the lamb-skins are introduced in a wet state, after having been steeped 

 in water, ' broken ' on the flesh side, and drained. The temperature of these rooms 

 is nearly the same all the year round, a result obtained by having them excluded as 

 much as possible from the variations of the external atmosphere ; and the result is, 

 that the skins undergo a kind of putrefactive or fermenting process, by which the 

 wool becomes loosened from the pelt. During this chemical change ammonia is 

 evolved in great abundance ; the odour is strong and disagreeable ; a lighted candle, 

 if introduced, would be instantly extinguished, and injurious effects would be per- 

 ceived by a person remaining long in one of the rooms. Each room is about ten 

 feet square, and is provided with nails and bars whereon to hang the lamb-skins. 



