US511301A - Tanning hides - Google Patents

Description

UNIT D STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

' WILLIAM LAWLEY, OF KENNEDY, ALABAMA.

TANNING HIDES.

$PEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 511,301, dated December 19, 1893.

Application filed July 31,1893. Serial No. 481,977. (No specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Beit known that 1, WILLIAM F. LAWLEY, a citizen of the United States,.residing at Kennedy, in the county of Lamar and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tanning Hides; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The special object of the invention is to dispense entirely with bating in the tanning of hides, the said hating being productive of damage to the hide; secondly to preserve the fiber of the hide by the use of salt in the liming process so as to make the leather more strong and durable; thirdly to work the lime out of the hide instead of attempting to soak it out.

My treatment ofhides is as follows: I first soak, break, spread out with the flesh side up, sprinkle with dry fresh-slaked lime to a depth of one sixteenth of an inch and over this about an equal thickness of unleached wood-ashes.

I then wet the lime and ashes with Water, rub them well into the hide and then double or fold it with the flesh side in. Next, I soak the folded or rolled up hide in a solution, formed of soda one part, salt ten parts and Water thirty parts, for four or five hours; then draw out and air for ten minutes, then soak again for four or five hours and continue this for twenty-four to thirty-six hours. After the hair is removed,theliineis worked out with a flesher and sleeker, and not soaked out in the usual way, the latter leaving considerable of lime in the hide to rot and impair the strength of the fiber. When the lime has been Worked out, I make'an ooze of oakbark or sumac, with two and one-half pounds of saltpeter, ten pounds of salt, five pounds of alum and one quart of acetic acid, to be added thereto. The saltpeter, salt and alum are dissolved in two gallons of water and the acid poured in, the whole being then putinto theooze. Thehides, being put in, are stirred well, drawn out and aired every day from three to five days; the fiber being saturated and well swollen at the end of that time. I now strengthen the ooze with the barks or sumac and handle twice a day until thoroughly tanned.

By the above treatment, sheepskins may be tanned in three to five days, calf-skins in eight to ten days and heavy hides in sixty to ninety days.

What I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is-

The tanning process which consists in rubbing the flesh side of an ordinary well broken hide with wet lime and ashes and folding it up with the flesh sidein; secondly soaking the rolledhide in a solution of salt and soda for twenty-four hours, airing the hide at inter.- vals of four or five hours; thirdly working out the lime with a flesher and sleeker instead of soaking the hide in a hate the usual way; and fourthly soaking and stirring the hide .in a

suitable ooze from three to five days; all substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM F. LAWLEY.

Wi tuesses ROBT. MILES, HOLLAND M. BELL.