CHAPTER IV
LEATHER WORKING MACHINERY
When it is considered that the construction of machinery for the leather trade had barely started thirty years ago, the wonderful variety and utility of modern machines are remarkable, and it is a moot point whether engineering science has not played as great a part as, or even greater than, applied chemistry.
Excepting the bark mill, various kinds of tumblers, the fulling stocks, glazing and rolling machines, there were practically no efficient mechanical aids to lighten the exceedingly laborious operations incidental to leather manufacture two decades ago; but so many improvements have lately been made in the construction of machinery for practically every operation in the trade that most of the machines require very little skill to work them, and can be operated by intelligent youths after a few weeks' experience.
The change has been of great benefit to the health of the workers, for the continual stooping over beams and sloping tables, combined with the arduous nature of the work, was very injurious. The reputation that tanning had as a healthy occupation was due more to the work of the labourers than that of the skin workers. (The old-fashioned lime-yards and tan-yards were generally in the open, whereas modern tanneries are roofed.)
Leather trades machinery was not a success at first, probably because it was very difficult to get the necessary information from leather manufacturers. However, as the engineers gained more experience of the methods of leather-making, the defects were gradually remedied until it may be truly said that the machines now reach a high state of perfection. It was no uncommon thing for workmen to lose a finger or two in a machine, but such accidents are now rare, owing to improvements in the construction of the machines.
Most of the machines used in the leather trade are of the cylinder type, the raw skins or leather passing between two rollers, of which the upper one performs the operation while the lower one helps to draw the material through the machine. To prevent accidents and control the working of machines, a third roller is often used, which serves to "feed" the leather or skins to the working cylinders. Of this type of safety roller, the Seymour-Jones attachment to the shaving and buffing machine is of great importance.
Fig. 5