Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1876 — Use of Antiseptics in the Trades. [ARTICLE]

Use of Antiseptics in the Trades.

It is a great drawback that in the warm season or the year many branches of industry, whose raw material consists of animal products, such as tanning, glueboiling, catgut-making, etc., have to contend with many difficulties arising from decomposition through heat of organic moist substances. Such Is the case fit the manufacture of glue, in which work has to be stopped when the heat in tlio summer surpasses 88° Fall., as the material is spoiled through putrefaction; great dam. Age also occurs in ttmning through stinking hides, and serious complaints arise in the neighborhood of certain factories on account of foul smells, poisoned atmosphere, and corrupted water. Very small quantities of carbolic acid, used in suck a manner that the wet hides can lay for a few hours in water containing from one to two per cent, of tlie acid, will suffice to protect hides from putrefaction, and put a stop to the further ad. vance oi any destructive process which may have set in, and of w r hich the hides are made susceptible—on the one hand by the transport from a distance, and on the other by their preparation in summer, as also indeed in other seasons of the year. That the preservation of the skins, as far as possible in a soft condition, is of the greatest importance, lias long been recognized, therefore they are sailed. The effect of the salt, however, is only half complete, as it only extracts the water without entering into chemical action with the bodies inducing putrefaotion. In the manufacture of glue, as above remarked, boiling cannot proceed in very warm weather, because the glue already time turned into a stinking, filthy fluid through putrefaction. An addition of from one to two per cent, of carbolic acid obviates this inconvenience, and renders possible an uninterrupted activity, • independent of the weather; and in addition to this, the unpleasant bad-smelling gases which always arise from putrefying substances are destroyed. - If, however, such antiseptics have to be employed for the preservation of food, or of material in winch the tarry flavor and taste would be objectionable, as is tlie case wfth that form of glue called isinglass and gelatin, used for making jellies, etc., sali6ilic acid and thymol may be used, the slightly greater expense being no objection in such a case. —Manufacturer and Builder.