Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1886 — Skinning Cattle by Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Skinning Cattle by Electricity.

The depreciation in value of hides from what are known in the trade as “scores,” “snips,” and “cuts,” says the San Francisco Chronicle, is large, and the introduction of improved labor-sav-ing appliances for taking off animal skins without injury to either the hide or the carcass has been so slow and of so unimportant a nature hitherto that the thousands of persons engaged in the industry on this coast can not but experience a certain degree of satisfaction over the introduction in California of an appliance which would appear to be what the trade has been waiting for all along. The invention is called an electric siding-knife, and is, like nearly all other good inventions, simplicity itself, being virtually nothing more than a slight alteration of the Edison incandescent or arc light, with the glass bulb removed. The knife in construction resembles very much the receiver employed in telephone offices, and, like it, has a double set of covered or insulated wires attached to the butt end of the handle, connecting through the body of the same to the cutting, or, more properly, the burning edge or wire, which is composed of platinum. The current is entirely under the control of the manipulator of the knife. After the hide is opened in the usual way with an ordinary knife the current is turned on, and the removal of the hide is begun by long sweeps of the sider. The principle is that of burning, as the platinum edge is brought to an intense white heat, yet the edge is so arranged and protected by non-conducting shields that it is impossible to injure either the hide or the carcass. In fact, the hide seems to be torn or pulled off by some unexplained force of the wonderful agent, electricity. It has been demonstrated that meat will hold its color better and longer where the electric knife is used, this being accounted for by the fact that the pores are closed by the action of the current, which seems to leave a thin, transparent coating over the entire surface. Another advantage is that the beef, after leaving the chill-room, never “sweats,” as under the old system of removing hides. Aside from the increased speed with which the skin is torn off, there is another advantage in the use of electricity. It is stated that the value of hides is increased from %to 1 cent a pound, as the fleshy side is left as smooth and even as the inner side of a sheep’s pelt.