The Story in a Piece of Leather

Where Does Leather Come From?

Leather is made by treating the hides of various animals such as the calf, cow and horse. These are the principal animals from which we obtain hides for making leather to make shoes. Before the hides are fit for making shoes, they must be taken to a tannery where they are prepared and tanned.

In viewing a tannery, we enter first the enormous hide house. It is long, damp and dark. Here the hides are collected from all over the world and stored, awaiting their turn for tanning. We follow a small car of these hides into the beamhouse. We see the hides loaded into a vat. They are soaked, resoaked, softened and split into sides. This operation, while simple, holds your attention longer perhaps than any of the others. Several hides after being softened are thrown over a sort of saw-horse, the lot number is stamped on the hide in such a manner that it appears on each side after being split. With an unusually long bladed knife the workman quickly cuts down through the center and the hides which are now called sides, fall to the floor. They are next hooked together and pass on through vat after vat of lime solution which loosens the hair and superfluous flesh. At the end of this long chain of vats, we see the sides awaiting their turn at the first unhairing machine, where all the hair is removed and then to the fleshing machine, where the flesh is taken off and the sides are again loaded in a car and pass on to the tanyard.

HOW THE HIDES ARE TREATED

Man rolling a hide

HOW UPPER SHOE LEATHER IS TANNED

Men handling hides near rolling drums