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Jl/WTICUYG ZXATTt&Fi. HIDES ARE STILL HIDES BUT THE FINISHED PRODUCT IS SOMETHING ELSE • • By ROBERT H. MOULTON fllli needs of mankind mul tiply with amazing rapid ity. Were it not that sci entific discovery, creative chemistry and the me chanical arts have some how managed to keep pace with (lie enormous demand for natural prod ucts, or something equal ly good or better, indus t trial progress in many lines would long ago have Aeon halted for lack of raw materials imd manufactured products of many kinds. Titke leather, for example. If tin ■world's requirements for leather were *o be supplied by hide leather as it was made a century ago, the industry would tie paralyzed almost over night. Production simply couldn’t keep up with the demand. Fortunately, ways have been found to multiply the amount of usable leather that can be produced from a single hide. Probably the original process of cur fag skins was that of simple clean ing and drying. In contrast, the mod ern practice, while It involves both of thi •se operations, culls for many other essential operations before hide stock I r made into finished leather. Hides •re still hides, but leather Is a prod- HKt transformed by <he chemical and mechanical means rather than by nal *ral agencies. The processes now used fa making It have been developed through a known period of more than 4jOUO years. For the purpose of a trade defini tion the hide of an animal consists of three layers: the outer, which has no Wood vessels and Is hard and bony; the Inner true skin, which is made up f gelatinous fibers, and the fatty wider tissue in which the perspiratory *nd sebaceous glands are embedded. The inner layer or true skin Is by far the most valuable and serviceable to the leather manfuaeturer. Some Idea f fcw leather is made may be gained .• following In sketchy detail the va rious operations of a large tannery. Cuter first the enormous hide house. 11-re the green, salted hides are un loaded from cars and stored until thej •te 1 Holy to he put through the tan ning process. They are In their or- condition as taken from the ■riwials except that they have been treated with salt for thirty days to preserve them. The nt'xt operation takes place In •hr beam house where the hides are trashed in clean water to remove all ilrt anil salt. Here they are put through the green fleshing machine ■which removes all superfluous flesh thr.t will not ultimately make leather. Fallowing this operation the hides are placed In frames and lowered by means of an electric crane Into con crete tanks containing a solution of Mme and water. After a week’s Im jnerKion in this solution the hides •well and the hair becomes lose. They ®rv next lifted out and put through the nnhairing machine. Then tnoy are passed through the fleshing ma chine again to remove any superfluous ftit missed in the first operation. After a final rinsing they are ready for tan aim:. The scene now shifts to the tan yard, an Immense building equipped with hundreds of huge vats. Here the hides are placed on frames and lowered into a mild tanning liquid, which is strengthened every day for a period of ten days. The tanning jtfuocss is not completed at this time, hut ft is sufficiently advanced to put leather tn condition to he split. Naturally, when the leather is tak en out of the vats, it is thoroughly saturated with the liquors. A coord- "DafYjy& ''Z&477&& Far* ingly, the next operation is to pass It through wringers to remove all excess moisture. This is done in a room called the preparing room. The rough edges are then trimmed and the hides selected by weight for splitting. In the splitting room the leather manufacturer produces three or four sheets of product from a single hide. The operation itself Is of special in terest because of its importance in the Industry. Hides, because they are variable in thickness and irregular in shape, are difficult to split; at least, that was true before the Ingenious belt-knife splitting machine was de vised. The most vital part of this machine is the belt-knife, which trav els hundreds of feet per minute, its cutting edge kept stiarp by two em ery wheels continually grinding. Flex ible rubber rolls hold the guide at a uniform tension under an adjustable gauge-roll as the rapidly moving knife slices the leather in sheets of the re quired thickness. The ldde is passed into the machine on one side and is withdrawn on the other, with one full pattern split off. Each hide is passed through this machine three or four times, multiplying, as it were, the number of hides procurable from a single animal. After the hides are split they are sent to a re-tan room, where they are again placed in the tanning solution until they are completely tanned and also treated with oil—a process which requires only two or three days, be cause the splits are now much tldnner than the original hide. The splits are now stretched on frames and taken to the drying loft where they remain un til all moisture has been removed. This requires about twenty-four hours. It may be noted, In passing, that from the time the stock leaves the drying room up to the finishing point, it is known as russet leather. The next operation takes place in the shov ing, softening nnd russet depart ments, where the leather is made pli able nnd any variations in thickness caused by the splitting machine are shaved oft. When the hides are split, the top piece, or first cut, Is known ns the grain or hair side of the split. The next two pieces, or cuts, are known as splits. grains and splits vary in size, thickness and quality and are therefore sorted before they are sent to the finishing shops. The means em ployed to finish leather vary greatly with the purpose for which It will be used. In the factory under obser vation practically all the grain leather, and a very large proportion of the split leather produced, is used by the automobile trade for upholstery pur poses. The finishing of grain leather, be cause of its smooth and uniform sur face, is accomplished merely by the application of a very light coating of specially prepared and colorless tin seed oil, and then embossed to pro duce whatever design or “grain” may be desired on the finished leather. In the case of split leather, however, a much heavier coating Is required to cover the fibrous character of the THE DANIELSVILLE MONITOR, DANIELSVILLE, GEORGIA. surface. The film deposited by heavi er coatings of linseed oil, which was the original method of finishing split leather, possesses neither great strength nor durability; but perhaps its most serious defect is the brittle ness which develops with age or at low temperatures, which caused the finish produced In this manner to crack very easily. The first improvement over the lin seed oil finish for split leather was the use of a solution made by dissolving scrap celluloid in amyl acetate and wood alcohol, with the addition of castor oil to render the film flexible, and of course the pigments necessary to produce the desired color. It was soon found, however, that a by-product like scrap celluloid was subject to too wide variation to pro duce a reliably uniform finish, and the next step forward was the prep aration of similar solutions from nitro cellulose made especially for this pur pose In place of scrap celluloid. While this improvement overcame the most serious defect of lack of uniformity, objections previously overlooked soon became prominent. By continued experiment, however, a solution composed of ethyl ecatate, denatured alcohol and benzol was pro duced and found to be entirely satis factory. The film or coating depos ited on the leather by this solution Is strong, tough, durable and waterproof, yet sufficiently flexible to meet the re quirements of good upholstery leath er ; it Is not subject to cracking with age or at low temperatures, and pro vides nn excellent medium for retain ing the impressions of embossing plates almost indefinitely. Splits from hides of good quality, properly tanned, and carefully coated with these solu tions are even superior to grain leath er for purposes where the finished product is subjected to weather ex posure nnd particularly rough usage —as, for example, the upholstery of automobiles. After the leather is finally finished It is passed through an automatic ma chine which measures the number of square feet in each piece. Despite Ir regularities in shape this machine does. Its work accurately and quickly, where upon the leather Is rolled In tissue paper and packed for shipment. Commuter in Tight Place. I am a commuter. This day of my life, I had the previous evening been doing some gardening and had occa sion to take out my pocketbook and lay it to one side. Moruing came with the usual hurry to make the train. I managed to get a seat, and was get ting nicely settled, when I thought of my pocketbook, with my ticket with in. My predicament was no ticket, and no money with me. The conduc tor came arouud and I told him the situation. He said I should try ami borrow a ride from someone who lived in my town. I was about to start on this novel, but to me very embarrassing quest, when the gentle man next to me, from another town very kindly rescued me.—Exchange. HD DESIGN FOR TWO-STORY ROUSE Not a Single Superfluous Line to Be Found in This Home. ENTIRE ABSENCE OF FRILLS Has Points Which Put Many More Ex pensive Homes at a Disadvan tage—ls Commodious Home of Eight Rooms. By WILLIAM A. RADFORD Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF C OST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building, for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Editor, Author and Manufacturer, he is. without doubt, the highest authority on all these sub jects. Address all Inquiries to William A. Radford, No. 1827 Prairie avenue, Chicago, 111., and only inclose two-cent stamp for reply. In this home there is not a single superfluous line. There is an entire absence of frills. Yet it gives a more pleasing Impression than many a home costing twice as much and making more claims to pretentiousness. What is the secret? Observe that the lines are pleasing. There are patterned windows, upstairs and down, which carry the eye along In easy verticals and horizontals, and the _ i 8i '' • ~„ . ' . .' ■/* /.<■ ■•'•>'■.< ■.- . :• 'I v% 4 "' . . :■'. .fV ■ .4 ft handling of the cornices and the wide siding used give other lines that struc turally and artistically are all that can be desifed. The use of stucco for the upper story exterior is a happy thought, and It breaks up whatever monotony might have come from too severe handling of the exterior. The overhanging cornice formed by the ex tension of the fairly fiat mansard roof helps out the silhouette of the house. Inside, we find a very commodious home of eight rooms, including sun room. The latter leads out from tlie Porch Dining Jllfi •" I iiLMNGRMIi j I■: Jo ' xl3 ' ij i A I c3unßm. S jj 26'x1l '-6' First Floor Plan. living room, and together these two are quite as attractive a combina tion of the two most used rooms as you could wish to find in a house. The sun room could have a fireplace also, by taking care to have the one flue serve both it and the living room. The glass doors which open from the living room into the sun room ought to be included in this house, rather than portieres, for the placing of them is such that the living room would be apt to be drafty and uncomfortable without them In some of our more severe northern winters. The dining room is immediately off he reception hall and is also acces ible from the living room. It is a very well lighted room and , a compact and a^olia kitchen equipped with wlndowdh?? outside-icing refrigerator and * dowed pantry. a Our stairway to the second s w, compactly arranged and vet hS U orative possibilities, in Hs rein, ** the reception hail it calls t S severe handling if i t is to be made ? most of, but a simple newel post, Via IS '* j 14,11 | Mmm: r: i, J Second Floor Plan. white enameled spindles and a ma hogany stair rail would serve to give it distinction. Upstuirs we have three bedrooms and a sewing room which could be made to serve as an extra bedroom. All these upstairs rooms have fine closet space and are on a hall which leads conveniently to the bathroom, if one wished, two of the bedrooms could be furnished with outside doors to open on the sun porch roof, and by having this roof flat and covered with an awning there would be fine outdoor sleeping accommodations. Naturally one would expect the mit er woodwork of this attractive home to be finished in white. The white siding below the white stucco would give a neat and presentable appear ance always, and with proper land scaping the lot upon which it was built could be made to emphasize the beauty of the house. The blinds, or inner curtains, might be those which have a white outer coating and a green in ner coating, adding to the attractive* ness of the exterior and mak ‘ tb# inner rooms seem more coo long sunshiny days of summer. A house like this emphasizes wisdom of building from a P laa- trary to mistaken Ideas a house does not just grow, like c It must be planned careTuhy. „ proper attention given to eac l d , lder This house follows a plan, its u knew what he was doing am • or-miss judgment was perm; o ■ jt who can deny that the result pleasing? Thought for the Day. Some of the hardest knocks we S are delivered by our supposed £r>en