When a hide is lightly limed, it is often easy to remove the long hair, but excessively difficult to get rid of the short under-coat of young hairs, which are found in spring, and which can sometimes only be removed by the dangerous expedient of shaving with a sharp knife. The reason of this difficulty is obvious: not only do the short hairs offer very little hold to the unhairing knife, but, as has been explained in describing the anatomical structure of the skin, their roots are actually deeper seated than those of the old hairs they replace. Several attempts have been made to unhair by machinery, but so far without such success as to lead to their general adoption. The fleshing-machine invented by Garric and Terson, and manufactured in this country by T. Haley and Co., of Bramley ([Fig. 27]), is furnished with a special wheel for unhairing. An American machine for the purpose, invented by J. W. Macdonald, and said to be capable of unhairing 800 sides a day, is shown in [Fig. 28].
Fig. 25.
Fig. 26.
