TAN 
tiers use that lime which is newly drawn out of the kiln, 
and not slacked with water or air. Moxon. 
TANNER’S CREEK, a river of the United States, in In¬ 
diana, which runs into the Ohio; 2 miles below Lawrence- 
burg. It is 30 miles long, and 30 yards wide at its mouth. 
TANNER’S HILL, a post village of the United States, 
in Newberry district. South Carolina. 
TANNERRE, a small town in the central part of France, 
department of the Yonne. Population 800. 
TANNESAR, orTHANAsiR, a town of Hindostan, pro¬ 
vince of Delhi. This place formerly contained the celebrated 
temple of Jug Soom, which was held in the highest estima¬ 
tion by the Hindoos, and innumerable pilgrims flocked to 
it annually from all parts of India. Its riches and celebrity 
attracted the cupidity, or incited the bigotry, of Sultan Mah¬ 
moud of Ghizne, who, in the year 1012, marched against 
it, and having easily captured it, with all its wealth, broke 
all the small idols to pieces on the spot 1 , but the venerated 
Jug Soom, after being decapitated, was sent to Ghizne, to 
form one of the steps of the superb mosque then building by 
the sultan, being conveniently situated on the high road 
from Delhi to Lahore. It is a place of considerable conse¬ 
quence, and still held in high veneration by the Hindoos. 
The ancient city of Hustnapore stood in the vicinity of this 
place, which is also celebrated for having been the scene of 
the Mahabarut, or the great war between the Pandoo and 
Cooroos, at the termination of which, it is fabled, only 
twelve persons, out of an innumerable multitude, remained 
alive. It now belongs to the Seiks, and is principally in¬ 
habited by people of that religion, and Hindoos. Lat. 29. 
55. N. long. 76. 48. E. 
TANNESERIM, a district of the Birman empire, extend¬ 
ing along the sea-coast, from the 11th to the 14th degrees of 
northern latitude, and between the 98th and 99th degrees 
of eastern longitude. The western coast of this territory is 
protected from the monsoons or storms, by a long range of 
islands distant from 15 to 30 miles from the mainland, 
which form an excellent channel for small vessels, but it is 
too dangerous to be entered by large ones, without an ex¬ 
perienced pilot on board. This country has frequently 
changed masters, having been alternately subject to the 
kingdoms of Siam and Pegue; but on the conquest of the 
latter by the Birmans in 1759, it became annexed to their 
empire. 
TANNESERIM, the capital of the above district, and 
formerly a city of considerable commerce and consequence. 
It is situated on the south bank of a large river, distant 
about 20 miles from the sea; but as the entrance of its port 
is prohibited to Europeans, little more is now known of it. 
In the year 1688, the British endeavoured to procure the 
cession of this place from the king of Siam, but the over¬ 
tures were rejected. It was taken by Alompra, the Birman 
monarch, in 1759, and the fortifications demolished. It is 
now governed by an officer from Ummerapoora. Lat. 11. 
42. N. long. 98. 50. E. 
TANNEWANG, a river on the south coast of the island 
of Celebes, which runs into the sea; 5 miles west of Bon- 
thain. 
TANNHAUSEN, a large village of Prussia, in Silesia, 
and the principality of Schweidnitz, near the borders of 
Bohemia, with 1100 inhabitants. 
TA'NNING. s. The process of preparing leather with tan 
or bark. The appearance or stain of a brown colour.— 
Diseases and distempers, incident to our faces, are indus¬ 
triously to be cured without any thought or blame of pride; 
as flushings, redness, inflammations, pimples, freckles, rugged¬ 
ness, tanning, and the like. Bp. Taylor. 
It is difficult to say at what period the art of tanning was 
discovered. It was doubtless known to the ancients in some 
degree of perfection ; and it is highly probable that the skins 
of animals were employed by man as a covering long before 
the art of tanning was known: but they would require in 
this state to be constantly kept dry, as moisture would soon 
bring them into a state of putrefaction. 
The astringent matter, which converts the skin into leather, 
TAN 843 
abounds in so many vegetables in every country, that acci¬ 
dent would soon lead to some method of producing the 
change. Independent, however, of vegetables, many earthy 
and metallic substances have the property of rendering skins 
incorruptible to a certain extent; and some mineral waters 
containing copper or iron, will occasion this change. Hence 
we may conclude, that some means of giving preservation 
to the skins of animals, must have been known at a very 
early period. 
In the present method, the heaviest and stoutest of the bull 
and ox hides are selected, to make what are technically 
called butts or backs, and are manufactured in the following 
manner:— 
When the horns, &c., have been removed, the raw hides 
are laid on a heap for two or three days, and are then sus¬ 
pended on poles in a close room, called a smoke-house, 
which is heated somewhat above the common temperature 
by a smouldering fire: this occasions incipient putrefaction, 
which loosens the epidermis, and renders the hair and other 
extraneous matter easy of separation from the true skin. 
This is effected by extending the hide on a wooden horse or 
beam of a convex form, and scraping it with a large two- 
handled knife, called a fleshing-knife, which is bent, to suit 
the convexity of the beam. 
The hides are then immersed in a pit containing water 
slightly impregnated with sulphuric acid. This operation, 
which is called raising, by distending the pores and swelling 
the fibres, prepares the hide for the reception of the tannin, 
and renders it more susceptible of its action. 
When the hides are sufficiently raised, they are removed 
into a pit, in which they are lain smooth with a stratum of 
oak bark ground to a coarse powder between each. 
The pit is then filled with the tanning lixivium or ooze, 
prepared from oak bark and water, and the hides remain a 
month or six weeks without being moved. At the end of 
this time, the tanning principle being exhausted, the ooze 
and spent bark are taken out of the pit, and the hides put in 
again, stratified with fresh bark, and covered with fresh 
ooze as before. Here they remain about three months, 
when the same process is repeated, at about the same inter¬ 
vals, three several times or more, according to the strength 
of the lixivium and the substance of the hides. When suf¬ 
ficiently tanned, they are taken out of the pit, hung up in a 
shed to dry gradually, and being compressed with a steel 
instrument, and beaten smooth to render them firm and 
dense, the operation is complete; and they are ready for 
sale, and are termed butts or backs. These form the thick¬ 
est and most substantial sole leather for very strong shoes, 
and are chiefly intended for exportation. 
Crop hides are thus manufactured:—The horns having 
been removed, the hides are immersed in pits containing a 
mixture ot lime and water, where they remain three or four 
days, being occasionally moved up and down, that each 
part may be uniformly exposed to the action of the lime- 
water. They are then taken out of the lime-pits, and the 
hair and other extraneous matter being scraped oft' on a 
wooden beam, as before described, are washed in water, to 
free them from the lime and filth adhering. They are now 
immersed in a weak ooze, and by degrees are removed into 
other pits, containing solutions gradually increasing in 
strength, during which time they are taken up and put down 
(technically termed handling), at least once in every day, 
that all parts of the hide may be acted upon by the tanning 
principle equally and uniformly. This is continued for about 
a month or six weeks, when they are put into other pits with 
stronger ooze and a. small portion of ground bark; from 
whence, as the tannin becomes exhausted, they are removed 
to other pits in regular succession, with fresh ooze and fresh 
bark, for two or three months. 
At the end of this period, the hides are put into larger 
vats, called layers, in which they are strati fied, or lain smooth, 
in a lixivium of greater strength, and with a larger quantity 
of ground bark between each fold. Here they remain about 
six weeks, when they are taken up and relaid in the same 
manner, with fresh bark and strong ooze, for two months. 
This 
