Popular Science Monthly 



727 



The skin is laid over a 

 rounded board and thor- 

 oughly buffed with a 

 buffer which slips over the 

 hand like a loose mitten 



albumen and water or skim- 

 med milk, which makes them 

 very supple. They are then 

 glazed and grained. 



Experiments which have 

 been made with it indicate 

 that shark leather may be 

 used for practically every- 

 thing now made of cattle 

 leather. Shark hides have 

 one great advantage over 

 cow hides in that the "splits" are amazingly 

 strong. A "split" is simply a peeling of the 

 hide — something like the veneer cut from 

 a slab of wood. 



All the leather that you see is not made 

 of the whole skin. Hides are split, and 

 each split is finished to resemble, as closely 



At various stages of the 

 tanning process the skins 

 must be dried. Here are 

 two on drying frames 



On the grain side of the skin the buffing 

 is done with an electric buffing machine 



A thoroughly cured shark 

 skin being glazed by elec- 

 tricity. The skin is held 

 taut and the glazing ma- 

 chine is passed over it 



as possible, the skin of the 

 hide. If all leather were 

 made of the skin side there 

 would not be nearly enough 

 to go around. Present de- 

 mands for leather are so 

 heavy that even with the 

 use of splits leather is grow- 

 ing alarmingly scarce. 



No matter how carefully 

 a cow-hide split is treated 

 it will not wear as well as the first, or skin 

 layer. If the split is creased it immediately 

 roughens, and the surface cracks. This is 

 due to the grain of the skin. 



Shark hide is not grained like cow hide. 

 In the shark hide the grain runs in such a 

 way as to form what might be termed a 

 web, which prevents the splits from 

 cracking. A split of shark hide may 

 be creased, folded, flattened and 

 pressed down, yet it will retain all 

 the smoothness of the outer layer. 



Shark leather costs less per foot 

 than cow leather. Therefore articles 

 made from it will be cheaper than 

 those manufactured from cow hide. 

 In these days of high-priced 

 leather the family's shoes are no 

 longer a small item of expense. Let 

 worried fathers take hope for the 

 future. Next year they may be able 

 to purchase shoes for themselves, 

 theirwivesand their children at about 

 three dollars a pair for the grown- 

 ups, and somewhat less for the 

 children, all made from shark hide. 



