[9] Pictures by courtesy of Endicott, Johnson & Co.
Where Does Leather Come From?
Leather is made by treating the hides of various animals such as the
calf, cow and horse. These are the principal animals from which we
obtain hides for making leather to make shoes. Before the hides are
fit for making shoes, they must be taken to a tannery where they are
prepared and tanned.
In viewing a tannery, we enter first the enormous hide house. It is
long, damp and dark. Here the hides are collected from all over the
world and stored, awaiting their turn for tanning. We follow a small
car of these hides into the beamhouse. We see the hides loaded into a
vat. They are soaked, resoaked, softened and split into sides. This
operation, while simple, holds your attention longer perhaps than any
of the others. Several hides after being softened are thrown over
a sort of saw-horse, the lot number is stamped on the hide in such
a manner that it appears on each side after being split. With an
unusually long bladed knife the workman quickly cuts down through the
center and the hides which are now called sides, fall to the floor.
They are next hooked together and pass on through vat after vat of lime
solution which loosens the hair and superfluous flesh. At the end of
this long chain of vats, we see the sides awaiting their turn at the
first unhairing machine, where all the hair is removed and then to the
fleshing machine, where the flesh is taken off and the sides are again
loaded in a car and pass on to the tanyard.
[Illustration: HOW THE HIDES ARE TREATED