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fide uppermoft, pour a fourth part of the tinging liquor, pre- 

 pared as above direfted, over the upper or grain-fide, fpread- 

 ing it equally over the flcin with the hand, and rubbing it 

 well in. Afterwai-ds do the like v.-it'i the other three flcins, 

 for which the mixture firft made will be fufficient. 



This operation muft h" repeated twice more on each Ikin 

 feparately, with the remaining eight ounces of the powder of 

 the berries and alum, with the above-mentioned due propor- 

 tions of hot water, put to tliem as before direfted. 



The Ikins, when dyed, are to be hung up on a wooden 

 frame, without being folded, with the grain-fide outwards, 

 about three quarters of an hour to drain ; when they muft 

 be carried to a river or flream of running water, and well 

 wafhed therein fix times or more. After this they muft be 

 put under prefTure for about an hour, till the water be well 

 fqueezed out ; afterwards the ikins muft be hung up to dry 

 in a warm room. 



This being done, the fl<ins are to be dreffed and grained 

 as before direfted for thofe dyed red ; except the oiling, 

 which muft be omitted. 



The procefles for dreffing and preparing the (Idns of 

 lambs, fneep, goats, and other thin hides are various, ac- 

 cording to the nature of the article. This branch of the 

 manufafture fupplies the large demand of white and dyed 

 leather for gloves, the leather called morocco of different 

 colours and qualities, ufed for coach-hnings, book-binding, 

 pocket-books, &c. This leather is applicable to a variety 

 of other purpofes. The white leather is not tanned, but 

 finifhed by the mere procefs of tawing ; but the coloured 

 leather receives a tanning, generally by fumach, indepen- 

 dent of the other materials. The previous preparation of 

 each, or that in which the (Itin is thoroughly cleanfed and 

 reduced to the ftate of fimple membrane, in which it is called 

 pelt, is elTeBtially the fame, whether for tawing or dyeing. 

 It is thus performed at the beft manufaftories at Bermond- 

 fey, near London, a place long celebrated for all branches 

 of the leather bufmefs. 



By far the greater number of the fkins are imported : if 

 lambs, they are thus prepared ; the fliins are firft foaked for a 

 time in v^'ater, to cleanfe them from any loofe dirt and blood, 

 and put upon the beam commonly ufed for the purpofe, 

 which is a half cylinder of wood covered with ftrong leather, 

 and fcraped on the flefh-fide with the femicircular blunt 

 knife with two handles, ufed in this operation. They are 

 then hung up in confiderable numbers in a fraall clofe room 

 heated by flues, where they remain to putrefy for a given 

 time. During this procefs a thick filthy flime works up to the 

 furface of the Ikin, by which the regularity of the procefs 

 is judged of; and the wool is loofened, fo that it readily 

 comes off with a flight pull. Each ikin is then returned to 

 the beam, the wool taken off and preferved, and all the 

 flime v?orked off with the knife, and the rough edges pared 

 away. The fldn is then put into a pit filled with lime-water, 

 and kept there from two to fix weeks, according to the na- 

 ture of the fkin, which has the effeft of checking the fur- 

 ther putrefaftion, and produces a very remarkable harden- 

 ing and thickening of its fubftance, and probably alfo it 

 detaches a further portion of the flime. The fkin is again 

 well worked upon the beam, and much of its fubftance 

 pared down, and all inequalities fmoothed with the knife. 

 Much pains and judgment are required in thefe operations, 

 on the one hand not to endanger the fubftance of the fkin 

 by the putrefaction (which if carried on too long would 

 foon reduce it to an incohefive pulp), and on the other 

 hand to work out every particle of the flime, of which the 

 leaft, if retained, will prevent the flcin from dreffing well in 

 the fubfequent proceffes, and from taking the dye uni- 



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formly and well. The (kin is then again foftened and freed 

 from the lime by being thrown into a vat of bran and water, 

 and kept there for fome weeks in a ftate of gentle ferment- 

 ation, being occafionally returned to the beam. All the 

 thickening produced by the lime is thus removed, and the 

 fkin is now highly purified, and is a th;n extenfible white 

 membrane, called in this ftate a felt, and is fit for any fub- 

 fequent operation of tawing or dyeing, or oil dreffing, or 

 fhammoying. 



The method of bringing kid and goat's fkins to the ftate 

 of pelt is nearly the fame as for lambs, except that the 

 liming is ufed before the hair is taken off, the hair being of 

 but little importance, and only fold to the plaifterers ; but 

 the lamb's wool, which is more valuable, would be injured 

 by the lime. Kids' fkins will take a longer time in tanning 

 than lambs'. 



If the pelts are to be tawed, they are put into a folution 

 of alum and fait in warm water, in the proportion of three 

 pounds of alum and four pounds of fait to every 1 20 middle- 

 fized fltins, and worked about therein till they have ab- 

 forbed a fufBcient quantity. This again gives the fkin a 

 remarkable degree of thicknefs and toughnefs. 



The fkins are then taken out and wafhed in water, and 

 then again put into a vat of bran and water and allowed to 

 ferment for a time, till much of the alum and fait are got 

 out, and the unufual thickening produced by it is for the 

 moft part reduced. They are then taken to a lofty room 

 with a ftove in the middle, and ftretched on hooks and 

 kept there till fully dry. The fkins are then converted 

 into a tough, flexible, and quite white leather ; but to give 

 them a gloffy finifii, and to take off the harflinefs of feel 

 ftill remaining, they are again foaked in water to extraft 

 more of the fait, and put into a large pail containing the 

 yolks of eggs beat up v.rith water. Here the fkins are 

 trodden for a long time, by which they fo completely im- 

 bibe the fubftance of the egg, that the liquor above them is 

 rendered almoft perfedtly limpid, after which they are liung 

 up in a loft to dry, and finifhed by glofling with a warm iron. 

 There are other fraaller manipulations, which need not be 

 here mentioned. 



The elfential difference therefore between tanning and 

 taming is, that in the former cafe the pelt is combined with 

 tan and other vegetable matter, and in the latter with fome- 

 thing that it imbibes from the alum and fait ( poffibly alu- 

 minel, and which is never again extrafted by the fubfequent 

 wafhing and braiming. 



The morocco leather prepared chiefly from fheep's fkins 

 and ufed for coach-hnings, the beft kind of book-binding, 

 &c. is prepared by the following procefs. The fliin, cleanfed 

 and worked in the way already defcribed, is taken from the 

 lime-water, and the thickening thereby occafioned is brought 

 down, not by bran liquor as in tawing, but by a bath of 

 dogs' or pigeons' dung diffufed in water, where it remains 

 till fufBciently fuppled, and till the lime is quite got out, 

 and it becomes a perfeAly white clean pelt. If intended 

 to be dyed red, it is then fewed up very tight in the form 

 of a fack, with the grain fide outwards (the dye only being 

 required on this fide), and is immerfed in a cochineal bath 

 of a warmth juft equal to what the hand can fupport, and is 

 worked about for a fufficient time till it is uniformly dyed, 

 a procefs that demands much fliill and experience. The 

 fack is then put into a large vat containing fumach infufed 

 in warm water, and kept for fome hours till it is fufficiently 

 tanned. 



The fkins intended to be blacked are merely fumached 

 without any previous dyeing. After fome further prepara- 

 tion, the colour of the fine red fkins being finifhed with a 



weak 



