US9555A - Tanning hides and skins - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

HENRY BRETNEY, 0F SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.

TANNING HIDES AND SKINS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,555, dated January 25, 1853.

To all whom/@'15 may concern:

Be it known that l, HENRY BRETNEY, of Springfield, in the county of Clark and State of Ohio, have invented cert-ain new and useful Improvements in the Process of Tanning Hides and Skins, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, and in which- Figure l is a view in perspective and Fig. 2 is a. vertical section.

Tt is desirable that all the hides in a vat of tan liquor should have their entire surfaces so exposed to the liquor that they will be equally and simultaneously impregnated by it throughout.

To accomplish this more perfectly than hashitherto been done, is the object of my invention which consists of an improved process whereby the hides are spread out, floated and towed horizont-ally in parallel layers, through the liquor which, in circulating between these layers, acts uniformly on both the sides or surfaces of every hide.

Suitablemechanism for carrying this process into eifect may be constructed and operated as follows:

Within a tan vat (B), of any suitable area, depth and shape, a central vertical shaft (A) is erected which is turned by a horse or other animal hitched to the outer extremity of a sweep (D) which projects from the shaft. Or this shaft may be turned by steam or other power. The vertical shaft (A) is litted with four series of parallel radial arms (C) which extend from the c-enter to the circumference of the vat; the arms in each series are ranged one above an other, at four inches (more or less) apart` and the several series are separated at equal angular distances.

The number of these arms, their length, and the area and depth of the vat, or, in other words, the size of the apparatus generally, will be governed by the number of hides it is desired to subject simultaneously to the tanning process, which is conducted as follows. The hides are separately tied or otherwise secured, by one edge, to the horizontal arms; each arm having one or more hides attached to it as there may be room.

The hides thus secured by one edge to the horizontal arms will hang loosely over each other within the vat. l/Vhen the hides are all attached to the arms, the vat is filled with liquor. The vertical shaft with its arms carrying the hides is then set in motion which will cause the several hides to spread out and arrange themselves horizontally and parallel to each other, as in that position they will meet with the least resistance in moving through the liquor. The hides thus rotating in horizontal pla-nes, or separated layers, will have a free circulation of liquor between them, they being towed, edgewise, by the arms through the liquor; and, in being straightened out, having both their surfaces or sides equally exposed to its action, they will be uniformly tanned, which is not the case where the hides are allowed to be in contact one with another so as to exclude the liquor from those portions forming the center of the mass which thus fail to getv impregnated as soon as the more exposed parts.

llllith this apparatus, it will be seen that, by the surface pressure of the liquor on the hides, more or less resistance will'be felt by them in proportion as they are rotated fast or slow, above the necessary velocity required to straighten them. The effect of such resistance will be to stretch them more or less, thereby more perfect-ly straightening them, and, by slightly opening their pores, increasing their absorbent tendency and consequently accelerating the tanning process, no injurious stretch however being put upon them but only so much as is advantageous which may be regulated, to the greatest nicety, by varying the velocity of the towing arms, so that the same apparatus, by simply altering the velocity of the towing arms, is readily adaptable to all descriptions of hides, a thousand (less or more) of which may thus simultaneously have their entire surfaces equally exposed to the action of the liquor in the vat.

The continuous rotation of the hides, during tanning, will be necessary to insure their uniform tanning, for as soon as the motion ceases the hides .will settle together and form into compact masses to the interior of which the liquor would not find access.

The constant motion of the apparatus keeps the liquor so thoroughly agitated that the tanning matter is equally distributed throughout, so that the hides at the top of the vat are tanned as rapidly as those near the bottom.

Having thus described my improved process of tanning hides, what l claim as new large, is equally and constantly exposed to the action of the tanning liquor, and the stretching action upon the hides is adjusted substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

HENRY BRETNEY.

Witnesses C. F. MCWILLIAMS, WM. WHITE.

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