US55715A - Improvement in preparing hides, skins, furs - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

IMPROVEMENT IN PREPARING HlDES, SKINS, FURS, 840., FOR USE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,715, dated June 19, 1866.

, To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J ones A. ROTH, chemist, of the city of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful chemical process in the art of improving the quality of upper-leather, furs, and other skins on which the hair or wool is fastened by tanning as now practiced in that art, so as to render the same more pliable in texture and more pleasing in their use than has heretofore been done, a clear description of which I give in the following specification.

The customary or known manipulations in converting the hides of animals into a useful material for mankind, in their various stages or qualities as now found in all markets, are generally known, and large productions of that material, either in leather, furs, hides, &c., are produced apparently to the satisfaction of all; but I have discovered that the present modes of tanning allow and require improvement, as the fibers or web of all animal-hides may be made softer, more durable, and substantially more pleasing to the wearer of the same.

When I improve any upper-leather, furs, or skins with their hair or wool on, after they are tanned in the ordinary now known manner, I subject the same to a bath of chemical composition, which I prepare for my purpose, so as to neutralize the adhering tan, lime, acids, 800., by which the leather is kept in a harsh or rough texture, and in the fur and other hides the animal gluten, so as to prevent insects, moths, 8tc.,feedin g thereon after my chemical solution has been applied.

I remove those objections and injurious effects'in leather, furs, and other skins simply by steeping the leather or fur or hides in liquid made as follows: I use about, as a formula,

one pound of fresh lime to ten gallons of water, and add thereto about two pounds of sal-soda. All three I boil together so as to make a clear caustic. The lime will settle to the bottom of the vessel in which the solution is contained. I then draw off the clear liquor and place the same in another vessel for the purpose of again boiling the same. When this caustic is about the boiling-point, or near 200 Fahrenheit, I add lard, tallow, or similar fatty substances, by which I make a liquid saponified solution for my purpose. While this composition is on the fire or heated by steam I stir it well, so as make a more uniform liquid of the whole. After this soprepared composition has been placed into a suitable vat and cooled down to about a milk-warm temperature, I immerse the leather, furs, skins, 8m, to be improved in the same, and allow a time of a few minutes or more, owing to the thickness of the leather or skins, until they are fully saturated with the liquid, when I take the leather, skins, 850., out, and treat the same in the usual manner, known as finishing, &c.

Having described my process of improving leather, furs, skins, 850., so that others skilled in the art may understand and use myimprove ment, I will now state what I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent.

I claim- The softening of leather, hides, furs, and the hair or wool thereon, by treating the same in a saponified solution made in the manner as set forth, and for the purpose specified.

JULIUS A. ROTH.

Witnesses G120. Srnemsr, A. SGHLEITER.