A NEW AND CHEAP PROCESS FOR CURING HIDES, &c.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9966, 31 March 1894, Page 2

A NEW AND CHEAP PROCESS FOR CURING HIDES, &c.

Two citizens of Napier have just patented a process for curing pelts, hides, and skins -which" is worth more than passing notice. The present process involves the use of sulphuric acid and salt. The former ingredient costs £20 per ton, and the latter is expensive. In addition to this casks are needed of red or white pine. Thus it will be seen that the preparation and exportation of cuticles is attended with expense. The patentees do away with these expenses by preparing skins, &c, and packing them in bales. They engage to prepare and pack in, pressed bales of 500 the same articles. In addition to this they engage to prepare and pack 150 ox-hides, or 300 hides of mixed cattle, for £2 2s. The curing of skins is a speciality, and the patentees invite owners to bring even decomposed and maggoty skins. So perfect is their process that they appeal to sheepfarmors, as a matter of economy, to take up their invention. On stations it is customary to throw the skins of sheep over the fonco and let them dry or rot. The patentees would paint all skins with their solution and let them dry and afterwards bo dealt with. They bfcato that 2000 sheepskins can be dealt with with a 30s tin of the solution. Besides, (though this is a supplementary recommendation) cuts and wounds in man and beast can be healed with the solution. For the shearing shed it is, they say, invaluable. Tho patentee is a Mr Harrold, a veteran analyst, and he has with him Mr Verschaffelt, and a third partner, Mr G. W. Proctor. A trial has been held at the Birt Company's yards, Napier, in the presence of several reprerentatives and others. The modus operuiuli is simple enough. The preparation which is of the consistency of " size," is contained in tins, and on these being opened it is soen to be of a volatile character strongly _ influenced by the atmosphere. Five* pelts were operated upon, and about a couple of ounces of the preparation were dissolved in half a gallon of boiling water. To this was added a gallon or two to make the liquor sufficiently cool to admit of the operator's hands working izi it. Tho pelts were then put in and well bathed in the mixture. The operator then brought forward two or three skins which, when ho obtained possession of them, Avere maggoty and unpromising. They had been treated in the manner indicated, and were exactly like sheets of parchment, Tho success of tho preparation is evident, and there i* no doubt tho art of curing ■will bo completely revolutionised. Those present — all capable of forming an opinion on the merits of tho preparation — expressed astonishment and admiration. The preparation defies analysis by the eye or nose. It is an odorless "size" — that is tho only way in which I can describe it. That it contains some volatilo ingredient is evident irom tho fact that on the (fin being opened tho stuff shrinks.— Lyttclton Times.