EDITORIAL. 
LEATHER STANDARDIZATION. 
Some interesting facts were put before the Executive Committee 
of the Advisory Council last month by Mr. Marcus Bell, of the Com- 
monwealth Arsenal, relative to the possibility of grading Australian 
leather. He pointed out that the standardization of sole leather would 
entail the standardization of methods of production; and the materials 
used, other than hide, would have to be well known. Mr. F. A. Coombs, 
of the Technical College, Sydney, had expressed doubt whether wattle 
bark could produce a good sole leather under normal conditions. It . 
was to be assumed that by “normal” conditions, were meant good 
factory conditions, and that being the case, inquiry would first have 
to be made whether wattle bark could produce a satisfactory sole 
leather under any method whatsoever. If it could be shown that a 
satisfactory sole leather could be produced with wattle bark it would 
then be necessary to ascertain whether the leather could attain to a 
certain standard degree of wearing. These points would involve a 
laboratory test, and some actual test on the feet. One difficulty of 
standardizing such tests would be in the valuation of the samples. 
Good sole léather depended less obviously on the method of tanning 
than on the part of the hide from which the sole leather was cut, there- 
fore it would be necessary to control the utilization of certain portions 
of the hide, and this might re-act against the small business man who 
soled boots with leather from any part of the hide. A wearing test 
would be difficult to apply. He knew of no specification which laid 
down the chemical property of leather, and to ascertain this it would 
be necessary to discover what amount of tannin, combined with a given 
proportion of hide substance, and the amount of water soluble extractives. 
Australian tanned sole leather had a proportion of tannin substance of 
from 50 per cent. to 55 per cent., as compared with 100 per cent. of 
hide substance. According to English and American authorities (Dr. 
Proctor, in the one case, and the Bureau of Chemistry in the other), 
good sole leather should combine 75 per cent. of tannin with 
100 per cent. of hide substance. That estimate was based upon experi- 
ments with oak and hemlock, and might not apply to wattle bark. If 
a 70 per cent. to 75 per cent. figure were to be insisted upon for the 
Australian product a great deal more investigation would be necessary, 
and if grading of Australian sole leather were to be carried out in 
accordance with the expressed opinion of recognised authorities in 
other countries, no Australian sole leather which he had examined could 
be placed in a high grade because of the low proportion of combined 
tannin and the high proportion of water soluble constituents. 
AUSTRALIAN AND ENGLISH LEATHER COMPARED. 
Mr. Bell added that when it was suggested that the Defence Depart- 
ment. should amend its specifications in order to raise the amount of 
tannin substance, it was then found that there would be no prospect 
of securing leather, as it could not be left long enough in the tan-pit. 
It would be necessary also, in grading leather, to get samples of the 
best leather that other countries could produce. He had obtained a 
sample of the best grade of imported English sole leather, which was 
about 1d. per lb. dearer than the best Australian, and if analysis were 
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