Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1874 — New Mode of Tanning. [ARTICLE]

New Mode of Tanning.

It has been discovered that puverized charcoal applied to sheep skins produces the depilation of the hair. Charcoal, as is well known, has the property to take up large quantities o! oxygen from the atmospheric air, and the oxygen in this form seems to exert a chemical influence on the fatty substance present in the neighborhood of the glands of the hair roots. >\n oxidation takes place in the pores of the skin, which destroys theglands and loosens the hair. Finely powdered charcoal is mixed with suflicent water to make a thin paste, and the hides immersed for 4 or 5 days and well turned, over in the meantime, when the hair can be taken off at once. Hides treated with charcoal do not require further treatment, as is the case now with the lime process, and after being washed with water, they are ready for tanning. This will be a great advantage to the tanning trade, as leather treated in this way possesses more toughness, solidity, -and flexibility. The other advantages of this treatment are great saving in time and labor, each hide weighs | to 1 pound more, and has less spots, the work is more pleasant and healthy, the splitting with the machine is" more easily accomplished, and the cost price is the same as with lime, as the charcoal can be used over again. Animal or vegetable coal can be used in any quantity, having no deleterious property whatsoever; and for each hide 6 or 10 pounds, with the necessary quantity of water, sufficient. The temperature should be 61° 0r.70° Fah., and .can easily be maintained by introducing steam into the vats. The tanning process is facilitated, as no lime is left behind to neutralize the tannic acid.