The next may be described as Towle’s process, or improvement in tanning. Issued Oct. 7, 1851.
What I claim as my invention or discovery, as a new and useful improvement, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the use of arsenic or arsenious acid, substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein set forth; the peculiar properties of arsenic, by which it tends to suspend the natural tendency of the animal fibre to decomposition upon the extinction of animal life, are well known, and of course they are not patentable; but their application to the processes of tanning, and otherwise preparing skins and hides for useful purposes, by which they are rendered stronger and more durable, is believed not to have been heretofore known and used.
I do not, therefore, intend to limit my claim to any particular mode or period of using the article; but I shall apply it in such form, or in such strength of solution, as the nature of the case may require, to effect the objects named. Workmen should guard against the absorption of the poisonous qualities of the arsenic, while immersing or handling the skins in the liquor, by using tools or wearing India-rubber gloves. After the skins are taken out of the liquor and rinsed thoroughly, the danger ceases.
N. C. TOWLE.
A patent for the following method of tanning was issued March 22, 1853, to Roswell Enos & Bela T. Hunt, of St. Charles, Ill.
We claim the process of tanning with the use of lime, salt, bran, sumac, and cutch, or any other tanning in room of cutch, substantially in the manner described, whereby we commence tanning, at the same time that we commence reducing, as the salt and bran overpowers the lime, the tan takes the place of the lime, and converts the hide into more perfect leather, and in less time than can be made in any other way.
Hides are not liable to get damaged by our process, as we do not use an article that is injurious to leather.
It is not on the materials used that we claim letters patent, but on the manner of applying them to the hide, as set forth.
The next is to Roswell Enos. Improvement in the process of tanning leather for soles. Patented July 18, 1854.
The improvement and claim consist in commencing the tanning operation upon the sides, by the use of a salted infusion of sumac, and then completing said tanning operation by the repeated use of the strong oak or hemlock bark liquor, substantially as set forth. It is stated that solid sole leather may be produced by this process in an unusually short time.