SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19889, 28 March 1930, Page 17

SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.

TANNING AND CURING SKINS

"Viewing leather through tbo eyes of Science" was tlio subject of an address by Mr 11. 0. Page, of the Woolston Tanneries, at a meeting of the Canterbury Scientific Society last night. . , . .j. Mr Page briefly reviewed primitive methods of tanning and curing skins, the Eskimo, American .Indian, Tartar, and Chinese processes varying from (Shewing to smoking and fat-curing-The tanning art developed rapidly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The tot assistance given by science was the introduction of chrome tannjng, used for the upper leather in boot manufacture. It was remarkable how little was known • about the chemistry o* tanning and curing processes up to twenty years ago. and it was only, in the last t<?n yeiars that the chemist had been useful to the tanner as tanning processes were extremely complex. The speaker showed how the properties of an article must be known before radical advances could be made in its uses, and how it was necessary to connect the physical properties of leather with their controlling chemical properties. This was necessary in all industries, and the speaker drew the parallel of the glass industry. .He Slowed some lantern slides of sections of hides, and explained their various structures, showing how quality varied in different parts of the hide. The properties required for boot leather were wearing ability, water-resistance, and methods of _ waterproofing, ability to let out perspiration, resilience, and lightness in weight. "It is not your corn that tells you of & change in the. weather," said Mr Page, "it is the contraction of the shoe-leather.". , .. At the conclusion of the address the; speaker was accorded a rote of thanks.