ELECTRIC TANNING.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4396, 29 June 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELECTRIC TANNING.

Some years ago a number of English scientists reported on, and highly recommended, a system of electric tanning it was proposed to introduce into this country from the Continent. Not only did the electrical process largely diminish the time required by the hides in the pita, but the resulting product was stated to be .relatively superior to the material treated in the normal way. The electrical process was scouted with derision by the London tanners, who found it impossible to understand how any improvement could be made upon a pvocess whose goodness had- been demonstrated by long and time-honoured experience, and the rash innovators soon made an ignominious retreat. The Groth electric tanning system, however, has been working most successfully in various parts of the Continent during the past four or five years, and has even discovered at last a convert in this country. In Shropshire, a short time ago, ten tan pits were converted for electrical tanning, and the result has proved so satisfactory that provision is now being made for twenty more. Meanwhile, the bulk of the tanneries are still persevering in the methods of their forefathers, only advancing upon their ancestors so far as to reduce the time (and therefore the quality of the leather) they give to the impregnation of the skins with the tannic acid, a concession, to the modest spirit of haste in industrial methods that has met with but scant welcome from the public.