In Order to this, I shall in the first Place beg Leave to place this Affair in the Light it appeared in before the Committee of the House of Commons of Ireland, to whom my Petition was referred by the House, in which Petition it was alledged, that I had established a Method of Tanning, without the Use of any Barks, to as great Perfection, cheaper, and in less Time, than with Bark, by Vegetables of our Natural Produce, and of easy Culture.
The Committee, were pleased, for their greater Satisfaction, to summon a Great Number of Tanners, Curriers, Shoemakers, and others, to attend, to give their Testimony in relation to the several Specimens, and Proofs, that were to be laid before them.
In respect to the Goodness of the Leather, so tanned, the following Specimens were exhibited.
Nᵒ. 1. A Calve’s Skin from the Ooze.
Nᵒ. 2. A Calve’s Skin, uncurryed.
Nᵒ. 3. A Calve’s Skin, curried: each of these, when tann’d and dry’d, weighing about three Pounds.
Nᵒ. 4. A Calve’s Skin, very strong and large, when tanned and dryed, weighing about Six Pounds.
Nᵒ. 5. Seven or Eight Pair of Soles, of a Calve’s Skin, rais’d.
Nᵒ. 6. A Bend of a Bullock’s Hyde for Harness.
These were all proved by Thomas Cooley and Patrick Shale to be tanned without Bark, and with the Roots.