530 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



was, therefore, trained amid the stirring events of the American Revolution, 

 and at the early age of fourteen he was placed under the care of his uncle, 

 Col. Mathias Ogden, who, like his ancestors for several generations, was a 

 tanner. In the tan-yard, for several years, William spent his days, while 

 his evenings were devoted to study in the library of his uncle, Gov. Ogden. 

 The tan-yard then consisted of a few oblong wooden vats sunk at the level 

 of the ground. The hides were prepared for tanning by removing the hair, 

 after it had been loosened by means of lime-water; then they were subjected 

 to the bating process, and afterwards placed in the tan-liquor, technically 

 called ooze. The bark from which the ooze was made was crushed in a 

 circular trough of wood, about fifteen feet in diameter, around which wheels 

 were rolled by horse-power. 



In the year 1790, at the age of nineteen, Edwards removed to North- 

 ampton, Mass., and commenced the erection of a tannery on his own ae- 

 eount. The selection of this town was not in accordance with his wishes, 

 but as his father had previously removed to Massachusetts, it wa.s deemed 

 advisable to be near him. 



He selected a clayey side-hill below a spring of water; his first improve- 

 ment was to place below his series of vats a wooden trunk connected with 

 each, so that by drawing a wooden plug in one corner of the vat the liquid 

 contents would be discharged into a lower reservoir, now known as the 

 junk. He then placed a series of leaches one above another, and con- 

 nected the upper one with the junk by means of a suction-pump, so that 

 the spent liquor could be drawn up and discharged into the leach. By 

 means of this arrangement he was enabled to obtain ooze of any desired 

 strength. His beam-house, in which the hides were prepared, was a sub- 

 gtantial building, the gecond story of which was used as a currying-shop, in 

 which the tanned leather was finished and prepared for market. 



Some distance from his tannery Col. Edwards erected the first bark-mill 

 ever driven by water power. The first mill was constructed with crushers 

 of stone ; some time after an iron bark-mill, invented by Toby, of Hudson, 

 was substituted for the old mill, and is the same substantially now in gene- 

 ral use. The success of Edwards was so great that in four years he was 

 enabled to send to Boston the first lot of leather ever received there from 

 his county. 



In 1799 his tannery was destroyed by fire, but his friends rallied around 

 him, and advanced the means for the immediate erection of another. He 

 had thus another opportunity of carrying into efiTect other improvements 

 already contemplated and matured. Knowing that his leather tanned most 

 rapidly in the summer, he determined to try the efi'ect of increased heat. 



After various experiments he perfected the copper heater, which was 

 placed within a wooden reservoir, and served to extract the strength of the 

 bark by heat, without discoloring the ooze. This arrangement has been 

 very generally used by tanners since that time. 



The importation of dry hides was then rapidly increasing ; they had for- 



