6i 9 - 



is then freed from the superflous flesh, consisting of a thin net- 

 work of coarse fibres heavily loaded with fat. This is removed on 

 a similar shaped beam, the knife in this case being kept sharp. 

 This by-product together with the hide trimmings, including the 

 nose, ears, shanks, tail, etc., form the raw material for the manu- 

 facture of glue and gelatine. 



Formerly the hides for sole leather were tanned whole without 

 rounding, and, after colouring from six to twelve weeks in weak 

 sour liquors made from oak bark and water, were frequently hand- 

 led and moved forward trom time to time into liquors of grad- 

 ually increasing strength. With the introduction of ntw materials 

 and the gradual substitution of machinery for hand labour, the old 

 process has been gradually altered. 



Among the newer materials which have come into use during 

 the past century, valonea, the acorn cup of the Turkish oak, must 

 be the first mentioned. Although introduced into England at an 

 earlier period, it is only in the early forties that it began to be 

 used in other than experimental lots to blend with oak bark; its 

 more extended use was chiefly due to the enterprise of some West 

 of England tanners, who having allowed a shipper to store a large 

 quantity of this material in their bark barns until it could be sold, 

 had permission to use what they required in their process. Using 

 a little at a time in more or less homeopathic doses they tound 

 that not only did its use do no harm to their leather, but it ac- 

 tually improved it and made it firmer and more solid. With fur- 

 ther experience came more confidence so that a larger propor- 

 tion of this material was blended with the oak bark, and still the 

 leather appeared to improve, until the whole of the shipment of 

 over 200 tons was used and they became regular buyers. Other 

 tanners in the district followed suit, until in the seventies, Bristol 

 or West of England leather, chiefly tanned with valonea, had achieved 

 a reputation for solid hard wear, especially suitable for heavy wal- 

 king boots and for repairs. It was not long before tanners all 

 over England commenced to blend with this material. 



Myrobalans (often miscalled myrabolams), the fruit of the Ter- 

 minalia Chebula one of the Indian forest trees, which had been 

 used by the native tanners of India for many years, soon found fa- 

 vour when introduced because of its power of rapid penetration, 

 the light colour which it imparted to the leather, and its some- 

 what rapid souring properties. 



" Terra Japonica " or gambier, was early used for the purpose 

 of modifying the sharpness or astrigency of valonea, and in West 



