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SMITHSONIAN
INSTRU row

UNE ED Sa.AIvES
NATIONAL MUSEUM
BULLETIN 242

WASHING TON, D.C.

1964

Publications of the United States National Museum

The scholarly publications of the United States National Museum include two
series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum and United States National
Museum Bulletin.

In these series are published original articles and monographs dealing with the
collections and work of the Museum and setting forth newly acquired facts in the
fields of Anthropology, Biology, Geology, History, and Technology. Copies of
each publication are distributed to libraries and scientific organizations and to
specialists and others interested in the different subjects.

The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication, in separate
form, of shorter papers. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the
publication date of each paper recorded in the table of contents of the volume.

In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear longer, sep-
arate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in several parts) and
volumes in which are collected works on related subjects. Bulletins are either
octavo or quarto in size, depending on the needs of the presentation. Since 1902
papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum have been published
in the Bulletin series under the heading Contributions from the United States
National Herbarium.

Frank A. Tayior

Director, United States National Museum

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C., 20402 - Price $1.50

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Woodcut from Hans Sacks, Eygentliche Beschreibung

kunstreichen Figuren by Jost Amman.

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Abrary of Congress.

TANNING
IN THE
UNTTED S TAPES

EONS so

cA Brief History

PEARS. WEISEL

Curator, Department of Civil History

MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WASHINGTON : 1964

Contents

eee resasic! lncuistry.s es eee es ass ey
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Ackhn owledgm ents

For much of the material cited in this study I am indebted to three Delaware
institutions, the Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, the Longwood Founda-
tion, and the Historical Society of Delaware. It is to the first that I attribute my
interest in the subject itself, prompted mostly by the partial remains of an early
nineteenth-century tannery that once flourished on what are now the grounds
of the Hagley Museum. The museum staff, together with former Hagley Museum
Fellows, particularly Ralph Gray and Carroll Pursell, provided generously of
their time and information. I am grateful, too, to the Longwood Foundation’s
Eleutherian Mills Historical Library for the privilege extended me of using their
extensive manuscript holdings at a time when such use occasioned a serious
burden to the library’s professional staff. The courtesy of the Historical Society
of Delaware in allowing me to reprint material from their journal Delaware History
is but a token of the many kindnesses extended me by the Society.

Peter C. WELSH

681-431—64—_2

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TANNING
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Figure 1.—Grinding Bark, Mid-18th Century. The bark mill illustrated in 4
New and Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences published at London in
1764 suggests the simplicity of tanning techniques. American experience
introduced little change.

Chapter |
A Basic Industry

“The tannery did not usually . . . tarry long
behind the first occupants of a new town.”

— ]. Leander Bishop, 1861

Now that most of the necessities of life are mass-produced, it is
dificult to imagine an earlier period in which artisans and crafts-
men meticulously shaped a variety of raw materials into useful
goods. Shoes, boots, aprons, and harness, all were needed, and
it was the tanner’s task to produce the feseher GP arbich) ener
articles were made.

The mysteries of the tanner’s art had evolved from antiquity,
and by the 11th century leather production had been reduced to
well-established techniques, but the chemical principles involved
were not defined until the 19th century. The tanner, unlike the
flour miller or the iron founder, was slow to utilize power-driven
machinery (see fig. 1); yet leather played an important part in
many early machines, and it was just as essential to everyday life
in the New World as it had been in the Old.!

Just how essential to everyday life was America’s early leather
industry? Tench Coxe provided an impressive summation in
1812 when he wrote: ‘The uses of leather are of the utmost
importance to health, the facilitation of industry, the diffusion of
knowledge, and the military operations of the United States by
land and sea.”” Coxe’s list of the uses of leather contained only
‘‘real necessaries or plain conveniences.’ Of these it named “‘shoes,
boots and slippers, saddles and briddles, harness, carriages (many
of which have leather boots, tops, curtains, and aprons), drums,
gloves, leathern breeches, rigging and other hides for ships and
vessels, bound books, manufacturing cards and carding machines,
military equipments, and other leather goods.”

In addition, Coxe notes, the tanner’s essential place in society
was strengthened by the significant fact that “the manufacture
of hides and skins are of great importance to agriculture.” For
example, “bark, abundant every where, is redundant in new settle.

1 WaTereER, “Leather,” pp. 147-187 in vol. 2 of History of Technology; BisHop, History of Ameri-
can Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, vol. 1, pp. 424-464; Charles H. McDermott, ed., History of
the Shoe and Leather Industries of the United States.

ments, where the tanning business facilitates the destruction of
the forests, which obstruct agriculture.” The embarrassment of
riches augured well for the future of an industry, if not for the
conservation of resources. Here, then, neatly told by Coxe stood
a century and a half of leather-making experience in America—a
basic industry, meeting the needs of an essentially agrarian society;
and it had been precisely so ever since the arrival of the first
settlers.”

In the first settlements, along with sawmills, gristmills, and other
machinery, a need for the leather crafts had soon developed.
Hides were available everywhere either as a result of the fur trade
or from the slaughter of domestic animals. In Virginia alone by
1649 there were twenty thousand head of cattle along with two
hundred horses, three thousand sheep, five thousand goats, and
many swine; and from “A Perfect Description of Virginia,” as
transcribed by Peter Force, it 1s apparent that tanning was a
common practice carried on at all well-managed plantations.’ In
addition to a steady supply of hides from colonial farms, tanning
was further aided by the forests which provided quantities of
excellent tanbark.

Natural conditions were abetted by colonial legislators who
encouraged the manufacture of leather. Virginia, in 1680, ruled
that tanhouses be erected in every county with tanners, curriers,
and shoemakers provided to convert hides into leather. By 1682,
Virginia forbade the export of any “wool fells, skins or hides, or
any manner of Leather, tanned or untanned, or any deer, oxe,

steer, bull, cow or cali... except only sucha hides. — .vas shall
appear by the oath of the owner that it is to be directly trans-
porting to some tan house . . . to be wrought-up.”* In other

colonies legislative action promoted the making of leather. Mary-
land, in 1681 , placed an export duty on leather and hides hoping to
encourage tanning and shoemaking.”

In the northern colonies at this. time, leather manufacture was
a well-established branch of domestic industry. Public records

2 Coxe, Statement of the Arts and Manufactures of the United States of America for the Year 1810 .
part 1, pp. xiv, xv.

3 Force, compil., Tracts and Other Papers Relating Principally to the... Colonies in North America,
vol.2, no. 8, pp. 3, 7-8.

4 Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, vol. 2, pp. 471,
476, 494.

5 Kilty, ed., Laws of Maryland.

and local histories attest the early beginnings of leather manu-
facture in New England, where well before 1650 tanneries were
being operated at Lynn, Salem, Boston, Charlestown, Watertown,
and Newbury.° In 1642, Massachusetts passed the first regula-
tory law governing the production of leather and appointed
searchers in every town that supported a tannery. “ Connecticut
as well as Massachusetts attempted to control its tanneries and
to regulate by legislation the unpleasant aspects of the craft.
The price of raw hides and finished leather was fixed, and the
depositing of foul-smelling animal remains in “tann hills” was
forbidden, a regulation most likely impossible to enforce.®

By i1653;.a New England tanyard, tanning West Indian hides,
was eed at $2000. But the domestic hides were more impor-
tant than the imports, since the early leather business was depend-
ent on stock husbandry. In mid-17th-century New England,
“Towns began to increase roundly” and Edward Johnson in his
Wonder-l¥ ‘orking Providence noted the increasing “trade by sea”
and the flourishing conditions of tanners and shoemakers who
seemed capable of producing leather in quantities and at prices
beyond what they had commanded in England. The leather
workers were high on Johnson’s list of those whose labors had
turned “one of the most hideous, boundless and unknown Wilder-
nesses in the world” into “‘a well-ordered Commonwealth.” Two

6 Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company: of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, vol. 1,
pp. 238, 256; vol. 2, pp. 18-20, 31, 168, 215-216; vol. 3, pp. 11, 85, 225; vol. 4, part 1, pp. 41-42, 93;

vol. 4, part 2, pp. 147, 303, ots, 564. Corrin, Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West
Newbury, p. 52. Hovcuron, “Leather, Tanned, Curried, and Finished,” p. 703 in vol. 9 of Twelfth
Census... . (1900). Bryant, Shoe and Leather Trade of the Last One Hundred Years. DEwson,

Tanning Industry of the South Shore of Massachusetts, p.6. “Town Records of Salem, 1634-1659,” pp.
89-90 in vol. 9 of Historical Collections of the Essex Institute. Lewis and NewHatt, History of Lynn,
vol, 1. p. 112. Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, p. 126.

7 Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 2, p. 19.

8 Trumbull, ed., Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. 1, pp. 285-287. Connecticut's first
action (p. 60) to govern the supply and dressing of hides occurred in February 1640. See also vol. 2,
p. 325; fol. 3, pp. 14, 23, 236; vol. 4, pp. 74-75, 82-83. See Phillips, compil., Tow Records of Derby,
Connecticut, 1655-1710, pp. 219, 262; and Dexter, ed., Ancient Town Records: New Haven... 1649-
1684, vol. 1, pp. 131, 159, 161, 189, 219, 338, 366; vol. 2, p. 50. The General Court at New Haven
in these years heard with great frequency complaints against Jeremiah Osborne, the town tanner;
accusations included the sale by Osborne of spoiled and poorly tanned leather and the unlawful
felling, on the Commons, of trees for tanbark. By 1653 New Haven hides and leather were com-
modities of trade between the town and “‘Vergenia and other places.”

° CLark, History of Manufactures in the United States, vol. 1, p. 167. Cites the Suffolk Probate
Records.

10Tn Original Narratives of Early American History . .., ed. J. F. Jameson, p. 248.

hundred years later, in the 1840" s, John Kinch, an ardent Owenite,
unequivocably stated that “‘tanners, curriers, and leather-cutters
will find more employment in the State of Massachusetts than in
any other.’’"!

In New York, as in New England, tanning was encouraged—
first by the Dutch and later by the E nolish. Ten Eyck is the best
known of the early New York tanners, and by the 1660’s he and
several associates had laid down tanpits and built a bark mill —an
adjunct of tanning that begins to be mentioned in the 1660’s,'
although probably in use before that date.

Laws passed in New York regulated as well as encouraged the
tanning trade and Governor Andros in 1676 gave to the colony’s
tanners and leather workers a trade monopoly stipulating that:

no butcher be permitted to be [a] currier, shoemaker, or tanner; nor shall

any tanner be either [a] currier, shoemaker, or butcher; it being consonant

to the laws of England and practice in the neighbor Colonys of the Massa-
chusetts and Connecticott."

The endeavors of Ten Eyck and other early tanners were in a
locality referred to as the “Swamp’’—an area historically associated
with the leather trade of New York City.™

In nearby New Jersey the demand for food products in the
markets of New York and Philadelphia stimulated stock raising
which, in turn, yielded a large number of hides for tanneries at
Newark, Trenton, and Salem. An abundance of hides, plus large
quantities of bark, made New Jersey one of the leading leather-
producing colonies. As early as 1681 an anonymous account of
West Jersey had cited the propensity of the colonists there to
“Tan Leather” as well as to “‘make Shooes and Hats.” ?

William Penn’s account of the “Province of Pennsilvania” in
1681 echoed the sentiments of the region’s first administrators,
the royal governors of New Sweden. It listed hides among the

“Commodities that the Country is thought to be capable of” and
tanners among the several representatives of the ““Laborious Handi-

11 Commons, ed., Documentary History of American Industrial Soctety, vol. 7, p. 65.

1 Bisuop, vol. 1, p. 440. Srokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, 6 vols. In-
dispensable guide to location, dates and owners of early New York City tanneries and bark mills.

13 Bisuop, vol. 1, p. 441. See also Colonial Laws af New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution,
vol. 1, pp. 71-73, 193, 266-268.

14 Norcross, History of the New York Swamp.

15 Myers, ed., “Present State of the Colony of West-Jersey, 1681,” p. 191 in Narratives of Early
Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707. See also Weiss, Early Tanning and
Currying in New Jersey.

crafts” most fitted for life in the new province. Two years later,
in a letter to the Free Society of Traders, Penn reported a tannery
at Frankford so plentifully supplied with bark that only God’s
blessing was required to assure its “Reputation and Profit.” And
in 1685, in a “Further Account” of his proprietary, Penn enumer-
ated among the colony’s useful tradesmen, tanners, shoemakers,
glovers,and fellmongers. Gabriel Thomas’ account of Pennsylvania
in 1698 specifically mentioned tanners and gave an exact prospectus
of the business. ‘“Tanners,’’ wrote Thomas, “may buy their
Hides green for Three Half Pence per pound and sell their leather
for Twelve Pence per pound,” while the currier, whose job it was
to finish the leather, received * ‘Three Shillings and Four Pence
per Hide for Dressing it.”’ Francis Daniel “Pastorius, with his
flock suitably settled at Germantown, also appraised the advan-
tages of tanning; hides were abundant “indeed two raw for one
dressed,” and there seemed every likelihood for “great profit.”'°
In the fast-growing city of Philadelphia the early tanyards were
on Dock Creek where, by 1739, six were in operation."

Pennsylvania as well as New York by 1700 had passed laws to
insure the quality of leather. These statutes prohibited the sale
of an ill-tanned product and in addition fixed and controlled prices.
In 1721 another act, for “The Well Tanning and Currying of
Leather,”’ was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature and, like
most laws dealing with industries closely connected to the public
welfare, it was restrictive. The pattern of close governmental
control continued throughout the 18th century, as well as the
extremely simple production methods employed even in the very
best leather factories. The regional characteristics that affected
other institutions from New England to Georgia had little effect
on the appearance of tanvats, beaming sheds, or bark mills, and
only the use of the tanning agent—hemlock bark in the north and
oak bark in the middle and southern provinces—varied from
place to place."

16 Myers, ed., “Some account of the Province of Pennsilvania,” pp. 207, 209, 241n, 261, 327, 409, in
Narratives of Early Pennsylvania ....

1 Bisuop, vol. 1, p. 445.

18 Mitchell and Flanders, eds., Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, vol. 2, pp. 90-91;
vol. 3, pp. 257-263. Crark, History of Manufactures . . . , vol. 1, E> BP 32-72; shows effect of colonia]
legislation on manufactures. Hening’s Statutes at Large, vol. 3, pp. 75-80; good elaboration of
official interest and control in another colony at about the same period as the Records of the Governor and
Company of the Massachusetts Bay, and the Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut. Hoover, Location
Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, pp. 130-132; defines the oak and hemlock forest regions

A

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Figure 2.—Pryor’s Bark Mill. This patent drawing of May 21, 1805, reveals
that the earliest mechanical adjunct of leather manufacture had femeined basi-
cally unchanged from 1660. John Bigelow in 1842 described a mill in which
bark was either “cut with knives, beaten with hammers, and ground with
stones or cylinders,” but even then the bark mill used by the American tanner
retained its early form.

This widespread abundance in tanning essentials is illustrated
by a 1731 description of South Carolina that primarily bemoaned
the Colony’s lack of skilled artificers but at the same time stressed
the plentitude of tanning materials. Most leather goods, accord-
ing to the author, came from England, and the reasons: ““Not
oe that they have Hides enough, ad very cheap, an Ox’s Hide
being sold for 20s. neither are they destitute of the Means to Tan
them; for they make very good Lime with Oyster-shells, and the
Bark of Oak-trees is so plentiful, that it costs nothing but the
trouble of gathering.” Unlike the settlements to the north, the
South Carolinians of the 18th century lacked “‘a sufficient pares
of good Tanners and Shoemakers.” !"

ie most areas trade quickened after 1700, and where leather
workers were plentiful the extended commerce brought increased
quantities of hides, imported to supplement the domestic supply
either from the West Indies, Lisbon, the Azores and Canaries, or,
much later, directly from South America. The term “Spanish” or
“Barcelona” or “Buenos Aires” as applied to hides became the
common nomenclature in importers’ advertisements. Tanners in
the vicinity of seaport towns eagerly scanned notices of ship
arrivals , hoping to strike a bargain for a cargo of heavy hides in
exchange for a consignment of finished leather.2°

Knowledge of Old World developments came to America either
firsthand or in books. ‘The secrets of the tanner, although omitted
from Moxon’s Mechanic Exercises or Doctrines of Handy-Iv ork,”
had already received some attention by the Royal Society in
1674.7? Perhaps a few colonists knew of the Transactions or of the
various dictionaries of the arts and sciences that followed, such
as the one published at London” in 1764. English works were
not the only accounts of the trade, or necessarily the best, par-
ticularly when compared with the “Art du Tanneur,” so fully de-
scribed and illustrated by Jérome Lalande for Duhamel’s Deserip-
tions des Arts et Métiers, or with Diderot’s encyclopedic coverage

sa=r

19 Commons, ed., Documentary History, vol. 2, p. 175, “Description of the Province of South Carolina
drawn up at Charlestown in September, 1731.’ Force, compil., Tracts, no. 11, p. ts

20 Advertisement of Broom, Hendrickson, and Summer! in Delaware Gazette, Wilmington, October
13, 1792. See also Hoover, Location Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, chapt. 8.

21 The 3rd edition, 1703.

22 “Brief Directions How to Tan Leather according to the New Invention of the Honourable
Charles Howard of Norfolk,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1674), vol. 9, pp. 93-96.

2% New and Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences; Comprehending all the Branches of Useful
Knowledge, 4 vols.

Higure 3.— ‘Art du Tanneur,” 1764. The 18th century’s most definitive inves-
tigation of the prema ieee of leather was provided by Jérdéme Lalande’s “‘ Art
du Tanneur,” compiled for Duhamel’s Descriptions des Arts et Métiers.

of the leather industry of mid-18th-century France “ (see fig. 3).

Later, recognition of the tanner came from a growing number
of do- it-yourself books everywhere available before 1840. Some,
like Edward Hazen’s Panorama of Professions and Trades, were
“written for the use of Schools and Families,” conceivably to
interest children in careers as tanners, or in other useful endeavors.”
A few, like the Book of Trades, first published in America in 1807,
were popular in scope, but the illustrations must have seemed
lacking to anyone with a superficial knowledge of a special craft,
even children *® (see fig. 4). Others, however, were extremely
useful and presented detailed texts that approached the level of
the modern technical journal, if not in content, at least in tone.
Thomas Martin’s Circle of the Mechanical Arts, published in 1813,
is a good example; and his treatment of tanning as one of
“the arts connected with, or depending upon, or, at least, which

* See also Encyclopaedia: or, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; REES,
Cyclopedia; or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and Literature; and Shaw, compil., Engineer-
ing Books Available in America Prior to 1830.

°° Hazen, Panorama of Professions and Trades, vii, pp. 60-67.

6 Book of Trades, vol. 1, pp. 91-97, 223-231.

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are materially benefited by the principles of modern Chemistry,”
pointed the way to an entirely new concept of an ancient craft
and reflected the contemporary work of men like Sir Humphry
Davy.”’

But none that followed the encyclopedist prior to 1840 was
more philosophical in his approach to the status of those employed
in the basic industries than the writer-chemist Andrew Ure. The
preface to his Dictionary must have been most appealing to an
egalitarian United States. Here was a work intended ‘“‘to instruct
the Manufacturer, Metallurgist, and Tradesman, in the principles
of their respective processes, so as to render them in reality the
masters of their business, and to emancipate them from a state
of bondage to such as are too commonly the slaves of blind preju-
dice and vicious routine.” *® Ure’s words, so pleasing to the
general public, must have been small compensation to the tanner
for the hours of toil amidst the fleshings and remainders that
littered the tanyard.

The establishment of a national government continued an official
interest in the status of domestic industries akin to that first
shown by colonial proprietors and later by crown officials, and
after 1790 the leather industry begins to take shape statistically;
the picture derived, although spotty, is one of great decentral-
ization and ancient practice. Alexander Hamilton compiled his
“Report on Manufactures” on the basis of reports submitted from
New England, the Middle States, and the South; and every reporter
from Connecticut to the Carolinas mentioned the manufacture of
leather. He learned that “‘thro’out’”? Middlesex County, Connecti-
cut, there were tanners enough to “‘supply Leather for almost if
not quite every Use, for which it is wanted.” Rhode Islanders
on the other hand complained that increased West Indian imports
depressed leather production in local tanneries; but in Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, and Delaware, tanners were “very prosperous:
indeed. At Norfolk in Virginia there was “a very extensive
Tannery” that supplied the town and much of the back country
as well, and on every plantation in the Old Dominion the owners
tanned what was needed to supply “the slaves shoes for winter.”
From South Carolina, Hamilton heard an oft-repeated story:
precisely as had been the case in the 1730's, there were in 1791 still
too few skilled workmen to make a success of the State’s leather

27 MartTIN, pp. 542-546.
28 Ure, 4 Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, pp. 4-5.

TZ

industry. This condition, however, was an exception, for Hamilton
listed tanning first among the industries that flourished in the
United States and capped this summary by announcing that there
were “scarcely any manufactories of greater importance.””

Following the pattern set by Hamilton, the Government solicited
data for Albert Gallatin’s “Report on Manufactures,” °° for the
first census of manufactures (in 1810) and the next (in 1820),*! for
the McLane Report in 1832,°* and for the census of 1840.°° With
each enumeration, information became more voluminous and
progressively more accurate and meaningful. Although the strict
statistical value of the several reports was marred by error and
inconsistencies, the raw material gathered for analysis frequently
contained detailed descriptions of manufacturing processes not
readily available elsewhere.

Obviously the several reports are prime sources, indicative of
manufacturing in general and tanning in particular; and when
equated collectively, along with the census of 1840 and its rough
estimate of 8229 tanneries in the United States, the picture of the
early leather business is more sharply focused. In the report, even
if but partially complete, is firsthand evidence of a widely scat-
tered industry, with small operations taking place in small towns
and employing mostly local labor. J. Leander Bishop captured
the essence of this when he wrote that the tannery—

was a necessary appendage to every village, as communication between places

was imperfect, and Leather perhaps relatively a greater dependence than in

our time. Transportation and travel in new settlements were exclusively
by means of packhorses. As roads became improved, the heavy and cumber-
some four-horse wain became the medium of transport. The gear and
equipments of these conveyances required frequent renewal . . . . For vari-
ous other purposes in Agriculture and the mechanics Arts, Leather was
much depended upon. The cost of freight from the seaports to the interior,

and of hides thence to the older maritime towns, was saved by the early
establishment of a tannery by some member of each newcommunity.. .- -

29 Cole, ed., Industrial and commercial correspondence of Alexander Hamilton, Anticipating His
Report on Manufactures, pp. 25, 82, 117, 96, 93, 90-91, 279, 305.

30 American State Papers ..., Finance, vol. 2, p. 425.

31 American State Papers . .. , Finance, vols. 2 and 4.

32 McLane, compil., Documents Relating to the Manufactures in the United States, Executive Docu-
ments, 22nd Cong., 2nd sess., Ne. 308, Washington, 1833. Hereinafter cited as McLane Report.
As a descriptive account of individual manufactories this source is invaluable.

33 Statistics of the United States of America, 1841; Georce Tucker, Progress of the United States,
and Eighty Years Progress of the United States.

es

Tanneries, however, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and several parts of New
England soon became very numerous. The cheapness of hides and of bark,
furnished in the process of clearing land, the abundance of suitable streams
for carrying it on, and the demand for Leather . . . rendered the business
profitable. The operations were conducted in a routine way, with little
regard to the chemical principles involved, and the usual amount of technical
skill was soon acquired.**

Nor should this failure to apply new techniques in any way
diminish the tanner’s historical importance, since the leather indus-
try, unlike others, remained largely unaftected by the machine.
Thus, as late as the 1840's, tanning continued to be a craft that
functioned chiefly as an adjunct of an agricultural society. What
were the techniques of this omnipresent but highly decentralized
craft? Before looking at tanning in one State, Delaware, and
examining the fate of one tannery, A. Cardon & Co., let us review
the techniques that produced a leather that was “probably equal
to that of any European country except England.” **

34 Brsuop, vol. 1, pp. 445-446.
3 Tbid., p. 453.

14

Chapter II

r ° > e
The Techniques of Lanning

“Tt is generally a manufacture dy hand,
and not machinery.” —Tench Coxe, 1812

In a special report on the American leather industry nearly a
century after Coxe, George C. Houghton concluded that not until
about 1880 had tanners to any degree attempted to replace manual
labor with machinery; and, even worse, many refused to avail
themselves of the new methods proffered by the advent of modern
chemistry and instead chose to follow the time-honored techniques
“handed down for generations from father to son.” *° Nowhere
are the reports of Coxe and Houghton more colorfully confirmed
than in J. Leander Bishop’s picturesque view of American tanning
practice:

The rude appointments of a tannery [wrote Bishop] . . . embraced a greater

or less number of oblong boxes or hogsheads sunk in the earth near a small

stream, and without cover or outlet below, to serve as vats and leeches. A

few similar boxes above ground for lime vats and pools, an open shed for a

beam house, and a circular trough fifteen feet in diameter, in which the

bark was crushed by alternate wooden and stone wheels, turned by two old

blind horses, at the rate of half a cord a day, completed in most cases the
arrangements of the tanyard.”'

Here was the typical tannery visualized by Houghton—simple,
poorly equipped, and almost haphazard in arrangement. But
America’s tanning industry, despite such testimony, was not
without progress. Change occurred, but it did so slowly and
without the fanfare associated with the cotton gin or the clipper
ship. Steam, for example, dramatic in its application to textile
machinery, land transport, and watercraft, came late to the leather
factory and, when it did, it was used most routinely “in grinding
bark, for softening foreign hides, and in giving motion to many
machines for washing, glazing and finishing leather’ **—in short,
steam was quite unspectacularly applied to old techniques and
not to new ones. Iron and steel were likewise of small consequence
to the tanner, and the prospect of rapid transport seemed unessen-
tial to a process that required up to two years to transform raw

36 “Teather Tanned, Curried and Finished,” in Twelfth Census, vol. 9, p. 704.
37 Op. cit. vol. 1, p. 453.
38 Great Exuisirion . . . 1851 .Reports by the Juries. . ., p. 388.

Ls

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16

Figure 6.—Tanner’s and Currier’s Knives, ca. 1800. The leather workers’ knives
shown above are from Pattern and Design Book 87 of Furniss, Cutler and
Stacey, Sheffield, England. Original in the Victoria and Albert Museum
(M631).

materials into finished products. Lastly, as Siegfried Giedion
suggests, the unsuccessful application of the machine to organic
material, such as an animal’s hide, proved vexing; *® so much so
that perhaps it is safe to conclude that, though ideas for improve-
ment were prolific, accomplishment remained so remote that few
commercial interests would disrupt their slow but successful
methods merely to “modernize.”

Some Americans, it is true, tried chemically and mechanically
to speed and to ease the manufacture of leather, although generally
it was from Europe that ideas for advances came. But what of
the majority of tanneries? How, for instance, in their “rude
appointments” amidst scattered hogsheads and blind horses was
leather tanned? From the earliest times, the rudimentary facilities

39 Mechanization Takes Command, pp. 229-232.

iy)

Figure 7.—Tanner’s Tools, 1876. From Schultz, The Leather Manufacture in
the United States.

for washing, fleshing, liming, beaming, tanning, and drying had
been universally the same. What was true of the physical plant
was also true of the tanner’s tools: so long as the craft persisted
as a manual operation, the basic tools—the beam, the fleshing
knife, and the tanner’s hook—remained unchanged (see figs. 5, 6,
and 7). Even the bark mill, tanning’s first mechanized accessory,
showed little change, and grinding by horsepower continued far
into the 19th century.

Odious, dirty, and no task for an aesthete, tanning as defined in
the mid-18th century entailed “the preparing of skins or hides in
a pit, with tan and water, after the hair has been first taken off,
by putting the skins into lime-water.”’*°

To prepare a hide, the tanner practiced four regular operations:
first, the preliminary washing, which took about 30 hours to clean

0 4A New and Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, vol. 4, p. 3154.

18

the skins; second, the longer processing to loosen the hair, soaking
and scraping the skin, lasting a year; third, the tanning by immers-
ing the dehaired hides in a bath of oak bark; and, finally, the drying
and finishing of them to perfect the quality and appearance of
the leather."!

The method of raising with lime was the oldest method of dis-
tending the pores and fibers in order to loosen the hair. In early
tanneries milk of lime was the swelling agent, and it was contained
in lime vats made either of wood or masonry. Lime vats were
usually above the ground, were either round or square, and their
size was “proportional to the number of hides to be soaked.” ”
The average square vat measured 125 cubic feet (5 feet on a side)
with a peck of lime required for each large hide immersed. Nor-
mally the tanner used his vats in combinations of threes or in what
was termed a raising series.

The vats are distinguished as dead, weak, and live vats. The dead vat is

that which has been nearly exhausted of its strength; the weak is that which

has only been used enough to deprive it of a portion of its force; and the

fresh or Jive vat, is that which has not yet been worked. In the progress of
operations, the live vat passes successively into the weak and the dead vat."

Raising with lime had disadvantages, however: first, it altered the
texture of the hides by impregnating them with caustic lime, which
was difficult to remove, and secondly, the lime impeded the action
of the tan liquor, causing an improper combination of the tannin
with the skin. In time, as a result of these disadvantages, Ameri-
can tanners tried other methods of raising—among them raising
by acids, depilation by steam, cool sweating, and raising by barley
dressings.**

After being limed, the hides were beamed to remove any hair,
surplus tissue, or fat (see fig. 8). When beaming a hide, the
tanner made

a kind of pad of two or three folded skins, which he places upon the horse,

and over which the skin to be operated upon is laid with the hair side up;

and he then scrapes the surface strongly from above downwards, with the
scraper. After the hair is completely removed, the skin is washed and
soaked in a trough, or vat full of water, and is then subjected to the following
operations. The flesh and other parts not properly belonging to the skin,
are removed with a sharp knife called the fresher, and the skin is again washed

and soaked in fresh water. The projecting filaments or shreds, and those
parts of the borders of the skin which are thicker than the rest, are cut off

41 Jutta de Fonrene ce and F. Maepeyre, The Arts of Tanning, Currying and Leather Dressing,
edit. and transl. Campbell Morfit, p. 19. Hereinafter to be cited as Morfit.
#2 Tbid., p. 162. $3Tbid., p. 163. 44Tbid., p. 168, et passim.

we)

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“JaYILI] 0} Saply JO UOISIaAUCD JY} UI sdajs juvsvajdun Auvur Jo awos

puv 3sapivy ay3 paaosd wrraq ay} Suryiom ‘Assuuv3 oy} UT “PL/] IOsapiq “peys Sururvag eyf,—'g as

Tt SETI Tr SS a — 4 P ne

20

with a sharp knife, and the skin is again immersed in fresh water.

The hair side is then well rubbed and smoothed down with a stone, similar
to that used for sharpening knife-blades, but which is set in a wooden handle.
This done, the skin is dipped for the third time in fresh water. Both sides
are well scraped and smoothed with a knife having a curved blade, so as to
equalize the surfaces and remove all foreign particles.

This work was exhausting, and in the course of a day one man
normally beamed only a dozen hides.*°

After the liming and dehairing but prior to beaming, hides were
frequently placed in a vat containing a substance known as bate—
a mixture of hen dung, salt, and water intended to restore the
pliability of the hide. Immersion in the bate vat was followed by
a thorough washing in pure and preferably soft water. In the
preparation of skins (cow, calf, horse, or pig) the average duration
of the liming process was four months."

With the preliminaries of washing, raising, and beaming over,
hides were, in the parlance of the tanner, ready to be “put into
tan’”’—a process that required several steps and much time, but
one that was greatly improved by three men: David Macbride,
Armand Seguin, and Sir Humphry Davy.

The ancient method of tanning was to fill a pit with alternate
layers of prepared bark, hides, and water, then cover It. When
placed in the tan pit, each hide required twice its weight in bark
plus 12 gallons of water.‘’ The hides at the bottom were always
subject to the strongest action of the tan. Therefore, during the
months that they lay immersed it was customary to shift them or
handle them, so that over a given period each hide would be exposed
to equal amounts of tannin. If three vat combinations were used,
which as in liming was often the case, hides were moved from vat
to vat, or from a solution of diminished strength to one that was
more concentrated. It was estimated that to produce superior
leather required twelve to eighteen months. The entire operation
was terribly time consuming, and new methods were badly needed
to shorten it without injuring the durability and beauty of the
leather.

David Macbride, a Dublin physician, was one of the earliest
to introduce a significant improvement in the method of tanning
leather, and it is of interest to quote at length from his important

45 Tbid., p. 203.
46 Tbid., p. 164.
7 Tbid., pp. 208, 210.

Dal

Figure 9.
Preparing the Tan Pit

Manual labor, hard and frequently unpleasant,
long characterized American as well as Euro-
pean tanning methods. These vignettes are
from The Art of Tanning, Currying and Leather
Dressing that appeared in Philadelphia in 1852,
translated from the French by Campbell
Morfit.

Figure 10.
Working the Beam

ZZ,

Figure 11.
Swelling the Hides

Figure 12.—Handling the Hides

9
vo

681—431— 64

essay because it not only outlines clearly the old, slow process
common wherever leather was tanned, but also, in feeling, it
conveys the retarded technical state of the leather industry in a
country whose textile mills and foundries were the envy of the
world. In presenting his findings to the Royal Society in 1778
Macbride wrote: *®

The tanners prepare their bark by gently drying it on a kiln, and grinding
it into a very coarse powder. They then either use it in the way of infusion,
which is called ooze, or they strew the dry powder between the layers of
hides and skins, when these are laid away in the tan-pits.

The ooze is faade of macerating the bark in common water, in a particular
set of holes or pits, which, to distinguish them from the other hole in the tan-
yard, are termed letches.

The first operation of the tanner is to cleanse his hides from all extraneous
filth and remove any remains of flesh or fat which may have been left behind
by the butcher.

The hair is next to be taken off, and this is accomplished, either by steeping
the hides for a short time in a mixture of lime and water, which is termed
liming; or by rolling them up close, and piling them in heaps, where they
quickly begin to heat and putrify. The hair being loosened, is scraped off,
and the tanner proceeds to the operation called fleshing which consists in a
further scraping with a particular kind of knife contrived for the purpose ....

The raw leather is then put into an alcaline ley [bate], in order to discharge
the oil, and render its pores more capable of imbibing the ooze. The tanners
of this country generally make their ley of pigeon’s dung . . . or potash.

The oil being sufficiently discharged, the leather is ready for the ooze, and
at first, is thrown into smaller holes, which are termed handlers; because
the hides and skins, during this part of the process, are taken up, from time
to time, and allowed to drain; they continue to work the leather in these
handlers, every now and then stirring it up with a utensil called a plunger,
which is nothing more than a pole with a knob at the end of it, until they
think proper to lay it away in the vatts. In these holes, which are the largest
in the tanyard, the leather is spread out smooth, whereas they toss into the
handlers at random, and between each layer of leather they sprinkle on some
powdered bark, until the pit is filled by the leather and bark thus laid in
stratum super stratum: ooze is then poured on, to fill up the interstices; and
the whole crowned with a sprinkling of bark, which the tanners call a heading.

In this manner the leather is allowed to macerate, until the tanner sees
that it is completely penetrated by the ooze: when this is accomplished
(which he knows by cutting out a bit of the thickest part of the hide) the
manufacture is finished, so far as relates to tanning, since nothing now
remains but to dry the goods thoroughly, by hanging them up in airy lofts
built for that purpose. Such in general is the process for tanning calf skins
and those of lighter sorts of hides which are called butts; but the large,

48 MacpripE, “Instructions to Tanners,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1778),
vol. 68. The paper was delivered by Sir John Pringle in 1778, and the essay appeared subsequently
in the Repertory of Arts and Manufactures (1795), vol. 2, pp. 341-354, 382-388.

thick, heavy hides, of which the strongest and most durable kind of soal-
leather is made, require to have their pores more thoroughly opened before
the ooze can sufficiently penetrate them. For this purpose, . . . they
are thrown into a sour liquor, generally brewed from rye, in order that
the effervesence which necessarily ensues may open the pores.

The tanners term this operation raising, as the leather is considerably
swelled, in consequence of the conflict between the acid and alcali. This
is an English invention; for it appears from M. de la Lande, who was em-
ployed by the Royal Academy of Sciences to write on the art of tanning,
that the foreign tanners know nothing of this branch of the business: indeed,
their whole process, according to his account, is slovenly, and even more
tedious than our common method, and must make but very indifferent
leather.

When the raising is accomplished, the leather is put into the handlers,
and worked in them for the requisite time; then laid away in the vatts,
and there left to macerate until the tanning is found to be completely fin-
ished which, for the heaviest kind of leather, such as this of which I am
now speaking, requires from first to last full two years. At least, the tanners
of this country cannot make soal-leather in less time; what they are able to
perform in England, I am not so thoroughly acquainted with.

It is this tediousness of the process which enhances the value of leather;
and the returns being so slow, the trade of tanning never can be carried on
to advantage, but by persons possessed of a large capital; therefore, one
sure way of increasing the number of tanners, and of course of bringing
down the price of their manufacture, is to shorten the process; and if at
the same time we can improve the quality of the leather, and save some-
what in the expence of tanning materials, the public will be essentially
benefited in respect to one of the necessary articles of life.

All this, I will venture to say, can be done by pursuing the method which
is laid down in the inclosed paper, and which may be introduced into any
common tanyard.

With respect to time it is possible, in the way that I have found out, to
finish leather in a fourth part of what is required in the ordinary process;
for I have repeatedly had calf-skins tanned in a fortnight or four weeks,
which in the common way would not be done in less than from two to four
months.

I shall not pretend, however, to affirm, that that business can be carried
on in the large way with such expedition; because a great deal of this abridg-
ment of time was probably owing to frequent handling and working of the
leather; but I am confident, and know it from four years experience, that in
the ordinary course of business, and in a common tan-yard, the tanner may
have at least four months out of twelve, produce better leather, and find
his bark go much farther than in the old way of tanning.

What was Macbride’s new process? For butts and calf skins it
was simply “that lime-water extracts the virtues of oak bark
more completely than plain water.” ®

49 MacsrIDE, vol. 68, p. 120.

2

It is this lime-water which is now to be used in making your ooze, instead of
plain common water; and this is all the difference between the old and the new
method of tanning. . . . Every thing that relates to the cleaning, liming,
fleshing, &c. is to be conducted precisely as in the old or common method
of tanning; and the goods are to be worked in the handlers for the requisite
time, and then laid away in the vatts, with layers and headings of bark, just
as you now practice.

For sole leather, Macbride recommended altering the process of

steeping or raising which swelled the pores of the hide. Previously
this had been done by immersion in sour liquors of rye or other
grain or milk of lime. To improve the steeping process, Macbride
suggested that tanners “imitate the bleachers of linen who make
use of a sour prepared by diluting the strong spirit of vitriol
(H)SO,) . . . with a sufficient quantity of plain water” in the
strength of one wine pint of acid to fifty gallons of water.” The
hides remained in the sour until sufficiently raised, and then were
put “directly into the ooze.” ‘Tanning continued as usual after
this step, which hastened penetration of the hide by the ooze.
Macbride wrote further of his new method:

Though it is possible to tan small parcels of leather . . . by the use of lime-
water ooze, in a fourth part of the time which is required, if only common
ooze be made use of; yet the business of a large tan-yard cannot be carried
on with so much expedition; but even in large works, and in the common
course of business, sole-leather can be completely tanned and finished, in,
from eleven to fifteen months, according to the different weights and thick-
ness of the hides. Butts in, from eight to twelve months and calf-skins in
from six to twelve weeks; in general, the tanner may save at least one third
of the time that has hitherto been required.”!

A contribution equally as significant as Macbride’s was made
in 1794 by Armand Seguin who succeeded not only in speeding but
also explaining “the combination of tannin with the gelatin and
fibrine of skins.’ He speeded the tanning process by placing the
hides in tannin of “‘a liquid and concentrated form.” Seguin, the
friend and colleague of Lavoisier, made “known the distinction
between gallic acid and tannin, and the property which the latter
possesses “of combining with various animal substances, especially
gelatins, forming with it the unalterable basis of leather.”

Seguin’s method of proceeding was described in detail by
Julia de Fontenelle and Malepeyre in their volume on The Arts of
Tanning, Currying and Leather Dressing. Campbell Morfit edited

50 Ibid., pp. 125, 126.
51 Tbid., pp. 127, 128.
5? Morfit, pp. 211, 243. See also McKie, Antoine Lavoisier (New York, 1952), p. 146.

26

and translated this in 1852 in Philadelphia and the method which

was to be so important for that time is here reprinted:

Seguin’s Process, 1794

Seguin’s mode of proceeding was as follows: His preliminary processes
were the same as those of others, excepting, according to Dessables, that he
directed the skins, after soaking and fleshing, to be rinsed in running water,
so that all parts of them should be exposed to contact with it. He first
deprived them of hair by means of lime, and then deposited them in tan-juice,
with which was mixed one-five hundredth, and sometimes one-thousandth
part of sulphuric acid. For raising the hides, he first used a vat lined with
a cement containing a little lime, and filled with water acidulated with one-
fifteen hundredth part of sulphuric acid; but this did not answer the intended
purpose, as the acid, instead of mixing with the water, combined with the
lime. He therefore substituted wooden tubs for vats, filled them with water
charged with one fifteen hundredth of concentrated sulphuric acid, which
was gradually increased to one-thousandth part, and by this arrangement
succeeded, according to the report made by him to the committee of public
welfare, in raising hides in forty-eight hours. He asserted, however, that
this operation of raising was not essential, and that he procured excellent
leather from skins which had not been submitted to the treatment.

He did not stratify the skins in tan-vats, but placed them in vats filled
with ‘“‘ooze.” For procuring this solution, a number of tubs were placed
in a row, and filled with ground tan. A certain amount of water was then
emptied into each tub, and filtering through the tan, dissolved out its soluble
particles, and descending, ran into receiving vessels beneath. The liquid
from the first vat was then thrown into the second one, and so on through
the range, until it became saturated. As a considerable quantity of avail-
able material still remained in the tubs, they were affused with fresh water,
which by a process of displacement, continued extracting the soluble matters
until the tan was entirely exhausted.

Seguin placed the skins, after being taken from the acid bath, in a very
weak infusion of tan, and there allowed them to remain only an hour or
two for the purpose of giving color to the hair sides. They were then taken
out and immersed in a stronger solution, and again and again deposited in
infusions, increasing each time in strength until the tanning was entirely
completed.

Oak Tanning—A patent was taken out in London, in the year 1804, for
a tanning process, which is founded upon the principles established by
Seguin. The oak bark is boiled for four hours, in a copper boiler, and
when the tan is perfectly exhausted, the decoction is allowed to flow off
through tubes into the vats, where it is cooled. The skins are deposited in
this after being soaked and pressed, and if they exhaust the liquor before the
close of the process, a fresh decoction is substituted. If it is desired to have
the hair side whiter than ordinary, tan is mixed with the liquor. By this
means a great amount of tannin is concentrated in a small quantity of ma-
terial, and much less labor is required than in common; ten or twelve days
producing as great an effect as eight or nine months of exposure by the old
method. It is believed, however, that the skins are not thoroughly tanned

7

by it, and that the leather is of deficient quality. The great quantity of
tannin presented to the skins, tans their surfaces rapidly, and prevents the
entrance of the liquid into the interior.

The patentees use, besides the ground oak-bark, the chips and sawdust of
the wood, and ordinary furze, and recommend the employment of young
shoots, the roots, and superfluous branches of the oak, by the use of which
they say that they procure a stronger decoction than that from the bark of
the trunk which contains a thick matter incapable of being separated.

In 1819, additional improvements were introduced. The trunks, roots,
branches, and leaves of oak being asserted to contain enough tannin to war-
rant their employment in tanning, were reduced to the state of chips or
coarse powder, boiled in water, and used in the following manner:

For the tanning of calf or other light skins, one hundred pounds of the
middle parts or branches of the oak in chips, is boiled in a copper boiler, with
fifty-two gallons of water until the latter is reduced to thirty-nine gallons.
This liquid is decanted, and upon the residue, is poured a second quantity of
thirty-nine gallons of water, which is boiled away to twenty-one gallons.
This decoction is set aside and serves for the first bath of the calf-skins after
they have been cleaned upon the horse, while the first liquor is used for the
second bath.

To tan common skins, a hundred pounds of the middle parts or branches of
oak in chips, seventy-five pounds of fresh coarse tan, and twenty-seven and
a half pounds of the root, are boiled in sixty-six gallons of water, until the
latter is reduced to two-thirds. The decoction is then decanted off from
the partially exhausted matter, and fifty-two gallons more of water are poured
upon it and boiled until reduced to one-half. This liquid is used as the first
bath for the skins, and the one previously obtained as the second; and when
they have been exposed long enough to both, enough fresh bark or tan-
liquor to complete the tanning is added. This method seems to be very
incomplete throughout and the inventors have failed to make known the
proportions of tanning material to the number of skins, and the length of
time required for the completion of the processes.

In these tannings, the skins were not thrown promiscuously into the
vats, but were suspended vertically at intervals of about an inch from each
other, so as to prevent the surfaces from touching; and to facilitate this
mode of suspension, they directed the heads of the skins to be cut off, and
bands on each side having attached to them the legs and parts of the bellies,
to be removed. The bodies of the skins were to be divided into pieces pro-
portioned to the depth of the vats, which pieces were to be suspended in
them, while the other parts, being of less value, were thrown together into
the bottom.

In tanning skins for uppers, after washing and fleshing them, Seguin
directs that they be freed from hair by soaking in clear lime-water, and
then, without being raised, tanned in weak solutions of bark made into a
kind of ooze. The strength of these solutions was to be gradually increased,
but not to the point of complete saturation, as in the case of strong hides.
He succeeded in this way in tanning leather for uppers in three or four days.

The method of tanning proposed by Seguin are rapid in the extreme, but
they have not been generally adopted, since the leather made by them is
inferior to that by the old process, and is less merchantable. It is possible,

28

that if public business had not drawn away the attention of Seguin from his
investigations, he might have succeeded in effecting a complete revolution
in the art of tanning. As it is, he has numerous followers, many of whom,
in England and elsewhere, have patented and used variations of his process;
but the essential objection to this mode of operating still attaches to all of
them, namely, that the combination of tannin with the gelatine and fibrine
upon the surfaces of the skins, takes place so rapidly, that the superficial
layer of leather thus formed prevents the passage of the liquor into the
interior of the hide, and consequently its perfect tanning.

By Seguin’s method the hide was first washed and thoroughly
cleaned, then the hair was removed by means of lime. After clean-
ing, Pik and other light skins were put directly in tan vats contain-
ing a solution of bark, water, and one five-hundredths part of
sulphuric acid. Where others had stratified their vats with
alternate layers of bark and hides, Seguin employed an immersion
technique. By having a series of connecting receptacles, the acid
tan juice was recirculated through an entire range of vats. If,
in the case of sole leather, raising or swelling was deemed necessary,
Seguin, as had Macbride, recommended baths of sulphuric acid
and water. This removed the hair in 48 hours where previously
months had been required. For the lighter variety of hides,
raising usually was not required. By his process Seguin could
produce finished leather in three or four days.® At a time when
French armies were in dire need of leather for shoes, boots, and
saddles, this accelerated technique won Seguin the praises of his
government.” But in the speed of the reaction quality was sacri-
ficed, because only a superficial layer of leather was formed during
the short time that the hides were in the tan vats.

Sir Humphry Davy, in a series of lectures begun in 1802 on the
“Chemistry of the Arts,” not only defined chemically the transi-
tion of raw hide to eee but also revealed the cardinal principle
in the economics of tanning: to make a profit, tanners had to give
hides the greatest possible weight in the shortest possible time.”
Davy viewed tanning as an extremely simple chemical process

“of great importance to society” with the proper procedures already
(1802) reduced to scientific principles; but, alas, “the improvements,
resulting from new investigations have not been uniformly adopted
by manufacturers.” This was not because of miscalculation or

53 Morfit, pp. 243-248.

54 McCoy, French Inventions of the Eighteenth Century, pp. 82, 82 (fn. 33).
55 Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, edit. John Davy, vol. 2, pp. 416-420.
*6 Crow, The Chemical Industries, p. 496.

ay

error by the “chemical philosophers” who propounded the new
concepts, but rather it appeared to be “‘the difficulty occurring in
inducing workmen to form new habits, to a want of certain explana-
tions of the minutia of the operations and perhaps in some measure
to the common prejudice against novelties.” ”’

The chemistry of the tanning process as it was understood in the
early 1800’s is described in detail in Thomas Martin’s Circle of the
Mechanical Arts, London, 1813. This description, which discusses
Seguin’s process in the light of Davy’s discoveries, is reproduced
in the appendix (p. 75).

By 1812, Tench Coxe and other American lobbyists for expanded
manufacturers echoed Davy’s remarks as well as those of native
innovators. Although “every description or variety of leather’’
was already made, still “much utility and profit” could be gained
“from superior tanning, coloring, dressing, workmanship, fancy,
taste and economy, in the whole range of the operations of the
leather manufacture.” But too often Americans took fine “bark,
lime, and water-sites”” and other resources for granted; however,
Coxe believed, even with the waste of these natural riches, “were
chemistry in particular, and the general science’’ applied to domes-
tic production, the excellence and quality of American leather
goods would be assured. Yet some dissented and cautioned care
in the employment of faster methods. In his Brief Retrospect of
the Eighteenth Century, Samuel Miller agreed that “pressing neces-
sity” might demand speed but noted that the results were fre-
quently expensive and in fact “injurious to the leather.” ™”

Whether a reaction to novelty or not, the chemistry of tanning
simply failed to excite enthusiasm. In 1851 at London’s Crystal
Palace, while the world marveled at such products of industrial
ingenuity as Colt’s revolver and McCormack’s reaper, the jurors
surveyed the exhibitors of leather and reported that “though
numerous experiments have been tried, and many patents granted
for new processes, there has been no decided improvement, no
marked progress, to show that better results have been obtained
than by the old methods of tanning.”

57 Davy, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 317.

58 Coxe, Statement of the Arts and Manufactures of the United States of America for the Year 1810,
part 2, pp. XXXV, XXXVI.

59 Vol. 1, pp. 399, 542.

60 Great Exutsirion . .. 1851, Reports by the Juries ..., p. 388. In the preface to the American
section in the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue (London, 1851), vol. 1, pp. 1431, 1432, no

mention is made of domestic leather production.

30

——_

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Figure 13.—William Edwards’ Patent, 1812. Some American tanners kept
abreast of the latest European improvements.

31

681—-431—64——_4

Among the numerous experiments between the year of the
Davy lectures and the world’s first great fair were a considerable
number suggested by Americans, and it should be no surprise
that most of these merely rephrased procedures previously tried
and published abroad. For example, note the patent claim
of William Edwards (see fig. 13), who, seeking to improve
the tanning of sole leather, in 1812 advocated the application of heat
to the tanning solution. To European tanners, the Edwards
formula had been familiar practice since at least the 1790's.
And Fessenden, in publishing Anthony Fay’s English patent
in 1808, anticipated Edwards’ efforts “‘to entirely extract the
tanning principle from the bark” thereby to produce “‘a saving
of bark and time in the process.”’™

Samuel Parker, more original than Edwards, hopefully patented
(see fig. 14), besides a splitting machine, two Oliver Evans-_like
systems in 1808 to reduce the work in both tanning and currying ”
by means of machines designed to do “every part of the business
at once.” Parker, like so many manufacturers, foreign and do-
mestic, sought with equally poor success to save at once time,
labor, and ingredients. Certainly for Parker to have curried
leather mechanically by “extending, smoothing, consolidating,
splitting, scouring, cutting, cramping, oiling, stuffing, stamping,
or printing, blackening, sizing, sticking, striping, polishing, glazing
or finishing’ would have been no less a technical contribution
than Evans’ automatic flour mill, Blanchard’s profile lathe, or
Whitney’s system of manufacture based on a process of inter-
changeable parts.

Less fanciful than Parker’s patent were those for leather split-
ting devices conceived, but sparsely employed, by Americans
before 1850. Seth Boyden, the father of one of the country’s
leading early machinist-inventors, patented in 1809 the first
workable splitting machine, and quite naturally he knew it would
be “highly useful to Tanners and Curriers.”"* Boyden pointed

61 For Edwards’ patent see Restored Patents, vol. 3 (1811-1816), p. 171, in the National Archives,
Washington, D.C. In addition see Fessenpen, Register of Arts, pp. 15-18; and Brsxop, vol. 1,
p- 453. For a list of tanning patents issued through 1883 see Depew, ed., /795-/895. One
Hundred Years of American Commerce, vol. 2, p. 496.

62 Restored Patents, vol. 2 (1804-1810), pp. 233-237, 241-244. In addition see Bryant, Shoe and
Leather Trade of the Last One Hundred Years, p. 127.

83 Restored Patents, vol. 2, p. 474.

64 Restored Patents, vol. 2, pp. 331-332. For additional material relating to the Boydens, see
Bisuop, vol. 2, p. 311; the American Machinist (Feb. 13, 1886), vol. 9, pp. 2-3; and the Dictionary

of American Biography, vol. 2, pp. 528-529.

sa oe : G IEF OA BERS bOZELOUOWETEOS Fe enact”
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Figure 14.—Samuel Parker’s Patent, 1808. Americans early in the nineteenth
century patented machinery designed to speed the production of leather. Some,
like Samuel Parker, hoped wishfully to mechanize the entire operation from raw
hide to leather.

out that the advantage of sucha machine, besides saving labor, was
that it allowed a hide to be split fresh from the lime pits and thus
to “be tanned sooner, with less bark and more thoroughly.”” The
entire production of the so-called fancy leathers—for book bind-
ing, for boots, for chaise and carriage tops, and for trunks and
hats— promised to increase. Now, wrote Boyden, “a man or a boy
of eight or ten years of age will shave eight or ten” hides by ma-
chine “to one the usual way” (see fig. 15).

35

ARE SF

es
‘«
4
-
\
.
~“
y
‘ s AS . -
ete Ast Rs «+

Figure 15.—Seth Boyden’s Patent, 1809. Seth Boyden successfully attacked spe-
cific problems of the tanner—namely the practicality of splitting hides by
machinery.

Ideas for the design of splitting equipment proliferated; and by
1831 Alpha Richardson had perfected the prototype that, before
the century ended, became a standard item in many tanneries.”
Although the splitting machine was used to make fine, showy,
grained leather, the fundamental stimulus to its development
proved to be not aesthetic but rather, as an early innovator,
Phinehas Dow, observed, ‘‘to make two skins out of one.” At
the Crystal Palace the same jurors who had seen little progress in
tanning processes during the previous fifty years (1800 to 1850)
found the leather industry “very much” improved by “mechanical

65 Davis, The Manufacture of Leather, p. 369.
6 Restored Patents, vol. 2, p. 474.

34

means,” particularly by the invention of “‘very ingenious machinery
for splitting hides and skins.”"*’ However, this was the only aspect
of the craft’s mechanization that warranted comment, and a quarter
of a century later at Philadelphia’s Centennial Exhibition in 1876,
the leather industry exhibited “little machinery” that was new;
and what was shown was classed “‘so deficient’’ in labor-saving
advantages that none could “be recommended for general use.””™
Nevertheless, ideas, sometimes bizarre, continued to be patented
by American tanners, and some were eventually adapted to use.
Josiah Bonney, for example, in 1834 suggested the use of the
ubiquitous waterwheel, both as an agitator and as a washing
machine™ (see fig. 16); by the 1850’s more reasonable, workable
versions of his idea could be seen turning in some of the country’s
largest tanneries.” Yet despite minor advances, tanning persisted
much as Tench Coxe described it in 1812: “generally a manufacture
by hand, and not by machinery,”” an empirical craft, not a
chemical industry.

67 Great Exursition . . . 1851, Reports by the Juries. . ., p. 388.

68 Francis A. Walker, ed., United States Centennial Commission International Exhibition, 1876,
Reports and Awards, vol. 10, Group 12, p. 13.

59 Restored Patents, vol. 18 (1834), pp. 483-484.

70 Kennepy, The Art of Tanning Leather, pp. 80, 120, 132; Davis, Manufacture of Leather, figs. 112
and 234.

™l Statement of the Arts and Manufactures. . ., part 1, p. xv.

‘saldojovy Jayzva] Jadavl ayy ur yuowidinba psepurys ‘Q¢gy] tore “Woy poy!powl Ul suUrvI9q TOYSEM
puv J0yvIBv uv sv jasxyMsoyVM ay} Jo vapl s AouUOg yeisof “pegy] Queiwg s,Asuuog yrisof—9T ainsi]

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Me

Chapter etd
Delaware Tanneries

“The Tanning Trade ... may be here man-
aged to good advantage.”—Thomas Budd, 1685

Examined in some detail in a single area, such as Delaware,
the techniques and business practices of an entire industry are
revealed. What confronted a tanner in Delaware also faced his
counterpart in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and, to
some degree, in the South. In Delaware, tanners had long
found the perquisites of their trade convenient and the markets
for their product widespread and demanding. In fact, quercitron
or black oak bark used both in tanning and the dye trades had
been a Wilmington export well before 1775. Beyond the essential
raw materials, the tanning industry required a steady supply of
pure water (Diderot considered water to be one of the essential
tools of the tanner, but not necessarily for power), and in Dela-
ware the nearness of clear water, of oak bark, and of good pasture-
land for cattle contributed to the success of the industry.”

Joshua Gilpin reported in 1832 that leather manufacture in
Delaware was “very old” and largely “founded on its own mate-
rials.” Since the time of first settlement in 1638 a succession of
Swedish governors had cited the need for tanners, leather dressers,
and cordwainers.’° Hides were abundant, and before the arrival
of the English, the Swedes wore waistcoats and breeches of skins
they had tanned, while some of them, according to Peter Kalm,
“had learned to prepare leather, and make shoes with heels.”’ “

As early as 1683, Penn had noticed that there was “plenty of
Bark” for tanning; and a year later John Grubb obtained a 4-
acre tract in New Castle County for a tanyard,® in a region where
“Hides being plenty, and had at moderated Prices, and Bark to

@ Bisuop, vol. 1, p. 461,

73 See p. 1 of “Tanneur” in vol. 9 of L’ Encyclopédie. . . Recueil des Planches...

™ Muwrok, Federalist Delaware, p. 128.

7 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 778.

76 Myers, ed., Narratives of Early Pennsylvania. . .., pp. 125, 126, 140, 142, 148.

77 Benson, ed., The America of 1750; Peter Kalm’s Travels in North America, vol. 1, p. 272. See also
Jounson, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, and Acre.ius, “History of New Sweden,”
Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, (1874), vol. 11.

78 New Castle County Deeds.

37

be had for only the charge getting it,’”’ a tanning business could
be “managed to good advantage.”’* Delaware’s other two
counties, Kent and Sussex, were described as ““The chiefest and
most commodious places ... for Breeding and Improving all
sorts of Cattle.” °° The plentiful combination of hides and bark
caused tanneries and bark mills to be built in 1689 at Milford,
in 1693 at Angola Neck in Indian River Hundred, and, soon
afterwards, in Georgetown, where a number of small tanneries
operated.*!

Tanners came to Wilmington at an early date. Francis Robin-
son, one of the town’s first Quaker residents, prepared buckskin
and chamois leather in the 1730’s, the decade in which the town
was chartered. In the 1740's, Joseph West built a tannery,® and
as early as 1742, while others were busily building gristmills, the
Starr tannery began operation.*’ In the 1750’s, with the town’s
population and trade fast increasing, the Philadelphia newspaper
advertised a lot for sale “with water running across it fit to plant
a tanyard in.” * In the same years, the | Pennsylvania Gazette
again described a tannery owned by David Ferris as being par-
ticularly commodious and “conveniently situated with suitable
Buildings and Utensils for carrying on the Business, and a Spring
of good water, which is conveyed in Spouts to all the Parts of the
yard.” *® Apparently the advantages of good water were as clear
to Delaware tanners as to Diderot’s encyclopedists.

John Lewden owned a tanyard very near Wilmington in 1774
and, in 1778, Isaac Starr “became acquainted with the tanning
business.” Starr, a resident of Wilmington, recollected that just
before the Revolution—

Although we abounded in every requisite material for making leather, yet

very large quantities were imported from England; no power existed here to

reject it and foster our own manufactures; a consequence was that when war
came the country was bare of leather and suffered greatly.*

79 Bupp, Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, pp. 40-41.

80 GaprreL Tuomas, “An Historical and Geographical Account,” p. 323, in Myers, ed., Narratives
of Early Pennsylvania. ...

51 Conran, History of the State of Delaware, vol 2, pp. 723, 730.

82 Scuare, History of Delaware, 1609-1888, vol. 2, pp. 650-651.

83 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 756.

84 Pennsylvania Gazette, July 4, 1754; the lot was owned by Joseph Hewes. Similarly Job Jacob’s
advertisement in the Gazette, July 13, 1749.

85 Pennsylvania Gazette, September 7, 1758. According to the Delaware Gazette of September 17, 1791,
Ferris’ tanning business comprised 18 vats, 6 handlers, 3 lime vats, a well house and a currying shop.

86 Mcl.ane Report, vol. 2,p.749. References to Isaac H. Starr, tanner, may be found in the Sharpley
Account Book (Business records,’ Historical Society of Delaware, Wilmington), pp. 4-5.

38

Figure 17.—The Planof a Tannery. Diderot, 1771. Diderot’s
ground plan of a tannery indicates the rationalization of
the several stages of leather manufacture that proceeded
from washing and fleshing on the left to liming and bating,
thence to the tan pits in the open yard, and finally to the
drying lofts at the far right. Thomas Smith’s tannery as
described in the Delaware Gazette in 1817 approximates
Diderot’s plan.

Starr continued his recollections of the years preceding and _fol-

lowing the Revolution and, although doctrinaire, they are repre-

sentative of the viewpoint of the state’s manufacturing interests:
When peace came, things returned nearly to the old condition; a free trade
for the introduction of English manufactures; general paralization followed

. ; but since sufficient protection for leather has been given by our laws,
the manufactured article has become abundant.

By 1791, out of a population of some 5000, there were forty-two
“Shoe and Boot Makers” in Wilmington.®’ By 1804, a listing of
the industries of Christiana Hundred showed five tanners—John
Smith, Jonas Starr, Thomas Meredith, William Seal, and Joseph
Wilkinson—in business supplying leather to craftsmen in Wilming-
ton.*® In a community dotted with mills and budding industries,

87 “Return of Manufactures, Tradesmen &c in Wilmington, Delaware and its Vicinity. . . Novem-
ber 28th 1791,” in Alexander Hamilton MSS., Library of Congress.
88 Scnarr, vol. 2, p. 885.

Be

Joseph Scott noted particularly the manufacture of “leather, shoes,
boots and saddles.”’™

There were ten tanneries reported in and around Wilmington in
1810, valued at $56,405.° By 1814, the year in which H. Niles
thought the place “likely to become one of the most important
manufacturing towns in the United States,’ Isaac Poulson,
George Poulson, William Smith, and Davis Walker were making
shoes in nearby Brandywine Village; while across the Brandywine
in Wilmington, thirteen tanners and curriers plied their trade.”
One year later, the firm of “A. Cardon & Co.” began business on
the banks of the Brandywine—an operation that will be examined
more carefully in the next chapter.

In 1817, one of the oldest Wilmington tanneries, Thomas Smith’s
(see fig. 17), was described in the Delaware Gazette with more than
usual detail.

A Lot of ground on the corner of West and Second streets . . . on which is
erected one large stone bark house, 60 feet by 31 feet, with a good cellar
underneath; one handling house and drying loft, 40 feet by 15 feet; one beam
house and drying loft, 20 feet by 15 feet; one mill house, 30 feet square; one
stable, 30 feet by 12 feet; one bark shed, 67 feet long, ith a pump; one stone
lime house; one brick building, occupied as a counting house, 14 feet square;
with 86 fallacy which consists of 2 pools, 3 limes, 6 bates, 12 handlers, 6 latches,
and 57 layaway vats, all in complete order. The pools, limes and bates
draw off at the bottom. The whole lot is enclosed with a good stone and
board fence.

Toward the end the writer’s enthusiasm mounted, and a routine
effort to sell a property became a hearty endorsement of local
commerce and its potential.

A more particular description of this well known property cannot be
necessary; as a tannery, its local advantages are excelled by none if equalled
by any in the state. Health, an overflowing fountain of the finest water,
a ready supply of raw materials, a daily intercourse with the city of Phila-

89 Geographical Description of the States of Maryland and Delaware, p. 171.

80 American State Papers . . ., Finance, vol. 2, p. 764.
%1 Niles’ Weekly Register (1814), vol. 6, p. 277.
" Directory and Register for the Year 1814... of the Borough of Wilmington and Brandywine

lists tanners and curriers in Wilmington as follows: William Brown, 22 E. High St.; William Chandler,
15 Shipley St.; Thomas Lock, Orange between 2nd and 3rd Sts.; Thomas Ring, 39 King St.; W illiam
and Caleb Seal, west corner of Hanover St.; Thomas Smith, W. 2nd above Tatnall St.; Robert Squibb,
24 W. High St.; Thomas Stanton, W. High between Tatnall and West Sts.; Tose Starr, West
between 2nd and 3rd Sts.; Trip and Bonsall, corner of Tatnall and 2nd Sts.; Benjamin Webb, West
between Hanover and Queen Sts.; Robert Wilkinson & Co., 40 W. High St.; and David and Carson
Wilson, W. 3rd near Tatnall St.

40

delphia, and situated in a part of town where property is fast increasing in

value, are among the advantages that may be mentioned.

Wilmington tanners by 1821 included Jackson and Webb,
Evans Lewis, B. R. Webb, and Isaac Starr. Starr’s tannery,
dating from the 1740's, a family business, was the oldest of the
four. Its longevity is surprising since Igaae Starr revealed that

“not having any joint concern or any borrowed capital, I have
not been under the necessity of keeping any accounts of purchases
or sales; have no balance sheet, nor any means to ascertain profits
or loss, but by experience.” * Webb was more precise in his
practices, indicating that he tanned “from 1500 to 2000 hides per
year,” employed six boys, had seventy-two vats, and “manu-
factured from 20 to 30 tun of quercitron Bark at which from one
to two hands are employed.” * Evans Lewis’s principal product
was sole leather. He tanned Spanish hides in an establishment
that employed “Four men and three boys,” had “one cast iron
bark mill always in operation,” and a capital investment of “From
1590 20;000: Dollars:”” *” Dry or Spanish hides were used for many
purposes: “‘viz: uppers for shoes and boots, Harnesses, and the
construction of carriages of pleasure, mail bags, saddlery, engine
hose, rigging and for all purposes where flexibility is required,
[and] also for sole leather.” “> The demand for sole leather seemed
to Lewis to be “increasing, though the price [was] low and profits
hee:2”°*

When tanners began to experience a shortage of bark in the
1820's, some closed and others reduced their output. But in New
Castle County nine tanners, curriers, and bark manufacturers (in
aggregate) still employed 37 men; they had $33,000 invested in
real estate, waterpower, and machinery; they paid $50,396 for
raw materials annually; and they sold $60,800 worth of leather
and bark per year."

Isaac Jackson, another Wilmington tanner, provided a full

statement of one year’s business in the following “Account of Stock
Purchased in the year ending Twelfth Month 31, 1831.7!"

93 April 16, 1817. In the Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware, assessment list for Christiana
Hundred, 1816, p. 192, Smith is assessed $2916 for “one tan yard, tan house and other buildings
occupied as a leather manufactory.”

94 Census Schedules, New Castle County, Delaware, 1820. National Archives.

95 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 748. 96 B. R. Webb, in Census Schedule, March 28, 1821.

‘7 Evans Lewis, in Census Schedule, April 20, 1821.

%8 Jackson and Webb, in Census Schedule, May, 1821.

%9 Evans Lewis, in Census Schedule, April 20, 1821.

100 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 756-757. 101 Thid., p. 826.

41

600 sole leather hides $2,100

200 upper 500
600 calf skins 600
Amount of hides and skins in a raw state 3, 200
90 cords Spanish oak bark at $11 $990
10 cords black oak, at $6 60
Labor of two men and two boys, one year 650
Expense of keeping one horse for grinding bark 100
Rent of tanyard 75
Incidental expenses 75
1,950
5, LOO)
One year’s interest on $5,000 capital 300
5,450

The proceeds of the above stock when manufactured may be estimated at
the present market prices, as follows:

16,000 Ibs. sole leather at 25 cents 4,000
200 upper leather hides, at $4.50 900
600 calf skins, at $20 per dozen 1,000
Sale of offal, viz horns, tails, hair, glue pieces 150

6,050
Amount of raw materials and expenses brought down 5,450
Net proceeds $600

Of greater interest, however, are Jackson’s remarks concerning
the region’s leather industry, since they serve as an excellent
summary in concluding the survey of Wilmington’s leather trade:

The amount of tanning business done in this place has been much diminished
within fifteen or twenty years past; at the same time that it has been increas-
ing in the adjacent country. This change it is believed, is principally owing
to the high price of Spanish oak bark in the former which has generally been
at eleven dollars a cord, for that brought in wagons, (which is very limited
in quantity,) and from thirteen to fifteen dollars for that shipped from the
lower parts of this peninsula. At the distances of twenty and thirty miles
from this place, in the country bordering on the Susquehanna River, good
Spanish oak bark is procured at five, six and seven dollars a cord; hence it
will readily be seen that tanners located in that district, have an advantage
of six or seven dollars a cord above those in this place, making a stock of 200
cords, annual saving of $1,200 at least. It may be observed that they are
subject to considerable expense in the transportation of hides to their estab-
lishments, and of the leather to market, which, for a stock of 1,000 heavy

42

Spanish hides, may be estimated at $200, which leaves a balance of 1,000
annually in favor of the country establishments, besides the comparative
cheapness of current expenses of a family.

In ascribing the decline of the business in this place to the high price of
bark, I may be thought in error, as it was equally high in former years, when
more than double the amount of the present business was done; but at that
time the prices of Spanish hides were lower, and the prices of leather 20 per
cent higher. In 1817-18, best Spanish hides were from 14 to 16 per Ib.,

and sole leather from 30 to 32 cents. At this time hides are from 16 to 18

cents, Spanish sole leather from 22 to 25 cents.!”

Tanyards and sites for tanyards offered for sale or rent, outside
of Wilmington, were not uncommon even early in the eighteenth
century. In the older and, at the time, flourishing town of New
Casue. a Van2House ana Tan-Yard was to be Seld’or Wee
in 1733, along with “near Four Hundred Hides . . . land several
Dozen of Skins . . . now a Tanning.” 1° James Merrewether, the
owner, considered renting the yard, but he wanted ““Ready Money”
for the Hides and Skins. Ten years later, what appears to be the
same establishment was again advertised and still again in 1758,
but by this time the prospects of trade in New Castle were dimin-
ishing in favor of Wilmington.!"* Elsewhere, Thomas Noxon of
Noxontown had operated a tannery,'® and in May of 1750 the
Gazette advertised a property formerly owned by John McMechen
and its advantage was direct contact with Pennsylvania’s rich
hinterland of Berks, Chester,and Lancaster Counties. McMechen’s
property adjoined Christiana Bridge in White Clay Creek Hundred
and included a “‘good tanyard, bark-house, and bark mill,” and
all fronted upon the great road running from the bridge to ‘‘Not-
tingham and Conestogoe” in Pennsylvania.!"°

At Newport, the birthplace of Oliver Evans, Lewis Stone
operated a tannery that included “two bark mills” and ready
access to wharf facilities.‘ Located in the center of town and
complete with a currying shop, millhouse, and beamhouse, it was
said in 1762 by Samuel Ashmead to be “perhaps the best Seat for
the Tanning Business in the County,” since hides could be obtained

102 Tbid.5 p. 827.

103 Pennsylvania Gazette, March 22-29, 1733.

104 Tbid., September 15, 1743, and June 29, 1758. In these years, ownership seems to have passed
from Merrewether to Stephen Lewis to Zachariah Van Leuvenigh.

105 Thid., Nov. 28, 1745. Noxon’s property included a brick malthouse and brewhouse as well as a
tanyard.

105 Thid., May 24, 1750.

107 Scnarr, vol. 2, p. 894.

43

Figure 18.—Barkmill Detail, 1764. Horse Power and Wooden Gears. The detail
of the bark mill from Lalande’s “Art du Tanneur” (Duhamel) suggests the
large cogwheel, face gears, and wallowers that geared Jacob Squibb’s grinding
mill at Newport, Delaware, early in the nineteenth century.

44

“from the Country all around, and from Maryland in great
Picante (2

Newport, much like New Castle, declined in importance with
the rise of Wilmington and the coming of the railroad. After 1825,
its fine road to the interior, its easy docking facilities, and its direct
waterway to Philadelphia no longer attracted the manufacturing
and commercial interests. Thus, the town’s once thriving tannery
eventually gave way to the subsidiary activity of bark milling—an
enterprise worth noting here only because of the excellent descrip-
tion of the mill carried in the American Watchman in 1825. Owned
by Jacob Squibb, the mill was completely equipped to break bark
before grinding it under one of three stones. The mill was horse
powered, and its gearing consisted of “‘one large cog wheel 17/4 feet
in diameter, together with three other face wheels and three
wallowers.”’ 1°°

Generally every town had a tannery, and Newark, Delaware,
was no exception. In the 1760’s Hugh Glasford described his
property and his tanner as well. As usual, the owner began by
appraising his lot as—

a good Tanyard, with Water drawn by a Pump . . . and a large Bark-house,

with about 80 cords of Bark therein, and a Mill-house with a good new Wheel

therein; likewise a Brick Shoemaker’s Shop and Stove, and a Currying-shop,

Tanning and Barking-irons, where Hides may be had very convenient; and

Plenty of them, and Bark in great Quantities. Also a Negroe Man, that

understands the Tanning and Currying Trades well, and has had the Smallpox
and Measles."

The first industry in Middletown, to the south of Newark, was
a tannery operated by a man named Peterson,'" and not far away
at Odessa (Cantwell’s Bridge), near Appoquinimink Creek, William
Corbit, whose elegant home still stands, built a tannery which
operated until the scarcity of bark ended the business in 1854.'”

Two miles north of Newark on the New London road, Thomas
Crawford began a substantial country tanning and bark business

108 Pennsylvania Gazette, October 7, 1762.

109 Wilmington, January 14, 1825.

119 Pennsylvania Gazette, September 29, 1763. The tannery located at the east end of the town
appeared for sale subsequently in the Gazette on July 11, 1765, and December 26, 1765. By the latter
date, the tanyard was described as “a little out of Repair.”

11 Scuarr, vol. 2, p. 998. In 1761 the Peterson tannery was purchased by David Witherspoon
from the heirs of Adam Peterson. On February 11, 1825, the De/aware Gazette advertised a tannery
at Middletown.

112 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 756-757, lists Daniel Corbit. See also Scuarr, vol. 2, p. 1007; Mun-
ROE, p. 30; and SwEENEY, Grandeur on the Appoquinimink, pp. 17-20.

ae)

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dy} Ul Jayv] ]QUN JON “SulAvasua sjosapiqy ul payoidep sv yonut {[98 nq Ajsapso ssaj ‘sjuauraya aya
03 uado Avy Aljerouad pivAur} uvoiauy oy3 S.Q9/] 243 Ul “TLL] Gosepiqy “*pavduvy, ey~—‘6] andy

Soosscoscesssesscesey

Se

in 1829. Crawford’s capital investment was $6,000; he employed
six men at a monthly wage of $18; he tanned 500 hides and ground
350 cords of quercitron bark annually; and in 1832, Crawford
voiced the same opinion as Isaac Jackson, namely, that the tan-
ning trade had increased, but that the prices were too high.'"
Crawford’s tannery boasted an additional advantage. It was—

situated in a moral and respectable neighborhood, also for obtaining of
Bark, it being on the road leading from the lower part of Chester County,
where the most part comes from into our market. It can be had from three
to eight dollars per cord, as seasons vary. From three to four hundred
slaughter hides can be had yearly. The improvements are, a Bark house,
40 by 20 feet, with a Bark mill underneath, in complete order, Currying
shop, Beam house, and Drying loft. Above the yard is paved with brick,
which has 28 layaway vats, which will hold 78 hides each, with 5 letches
drawing into a cistern that has two pumps worked by Horses power, Two
limes, two bat[e]s and two pools, with a spring of water passing through.!!*

Whether operating in town or in the country, New Castle
County tanners and bark millers, as well as those in the lower
counties, had in common many things aside from the tiresomely
similar appearance of their tanyards: they bought hides in Wil-
mington, Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore (both Spanish
and domestic) and sold leather in the same places; they worked
on an average of 10 to 12 hours per day, paying their men between
$15 and $20 per month; they manufactured mainly sole leather
from Spanish or South American hides; they ground black-oak
bark for the quercitron trade, which was shipped all over the
world; they preferred cash but sold their leather at three, four, or
six months’ credit, but the bark millers demanded cash; and most
of them, when they expressed an opinion, felt that the last twenty
years had been trying ones for the tanner.” However, it was
the consensus of New Castle County tanners that business prospects
in 1832 looked brighter than they had for years. F. H. Holtz-
becker best summarized this when he wrote: “Owing to [the]
increase of internal consumption, occasioned by [the] increase
in population, other manufacturing establishments, and exporta-
tion of shoes, boots, harnesses, etc.; the demand for all kinds of
leather is considerably increasing.” '”

Downstate in Kent and Sussex Counties the same conditions
prevailed. But, there, tanneries and bark mills had at least one

113 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 744, 756. 114 Delaware Gazette, January 20, 1837.
115 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 666 et passim. 116 Tbid., p. 754.

47

advantage over those of New Castle County—they were located
in the heart of Delaware’s tanbark producing region. At Dover,
in 1757, “‘a Tanyard, with the Tan-house, Mill and Pits all new,”
was advertised for sale or rent. This yard contained 20 vats and
was located “in a very flourishing Part of the country, where a
great Stroke of Tanning hath been carried on.” The Dickinson
plantation had a tanyard and among its Negroes were, ‘“Taylors,
Shoemakers, Tanners and Carpenters.’ At the main landing on
the Mispillion a tanner was “much wanted” in 1764, Kent County
being described as an area where a “great quantity of Hides may
be brought very reasonably’? and where “Bark is [in] great
Plenieye ese

By 1810, there were fourteen tanners in southern Delaware,‘
and in the raw returns for the 1820 census the following bark mills

and tanneries were reported in Sussex County: 1”

patent bark imill =. 2 30ivats’. — . lestone mill) =

Capital invested $3, 500
2 patent bark mills . . . 100 vats 15,000
ieStonewnill vue wl osvats 1,500
1 patent Mill going by Water, 1 stone mill 15,000
patent mull 02 27 vats =
i patent mill 2) = 30'vats ==
1 patent mill . . . 22 vats ay

1 common mill with one stone =

In Frederica, Thomas Clark had been in the tanning business
since 1792. In 1821, he tanned 500 Spanish and 500 country
hides a year, employed six men and two boys, operated three
bark mills, and had 74 tan vats.”! Clark estimated in 1832

that his profits were about ten percent on his investment per
year.”
A typical tannery of the 1820-1830 period in southern Delaware,

again like those to the north—

Comprised . . . a lot of ground of about one half acre. There is on the prem-

117 See Pennsylvania Gazette, August 4, 1757, and June 23, 1763 (the property was first advertised by
William Walker and later by William Morris); also January 5, 1764, and November 22, 1764.

U8 American State Papers... , Finance, vol. 2, p. 764.

119 Census Schedule of tanneries in Dagsborough, Little Creek, Broad Creek, Baltimore, Indian
River, Nanticoke, and Northwest Fork Hundreds; Census of 1820. The McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 666,
provides detailed information about Sussex tanneries owned by Robert Houston (founded 1810);
John Richards (1811); Hall & Hazzard (1819); and William Tunnell (1824).

20 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 676.

121 John and Thomas Clark, in Census Schedule 1821.

122 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 677.

48

ises about 150 deposites for hides, a Bark House about 22 by 82 feet, built of
good materials and is nearly new, a Mill house with a Mill lately built for
grinding quercitron bark; also, an Iron Mill, Beam House, Handling House,
Currying Shop, and Stable for four horses.'”

Occasionally, an individual processed only bark; one such estab-
lishment was owned by Joseph Oliver, who entered the bark
business in 1815 at Milford in Kent County. Oliver’s grinding
mill was water powered, and from it came 1500 tons of bark, which
sold for around $40 a ton, amounting to $60,000 annually. Most
of Oliver’s bark was shipped to Philadelphia and New York, and
from there frequently exported either to “Great Britain, France,
Russia and Germany,” or sent to “the New England manufactur-
ing States.” Not all of Oliver’s bark was shipped out of the state,
for in the 1820’s he was supplying A. Cardon and Company in
New Castle County with black oak. Oliver’s mill was a large-
scale operation. He employed “fifty able-bodied men” and worked
them “‘twelve hours each day” for “mostly the whole year” at an
average wage of about seventy-five cents per day. One of Oliver's
few worries was the “discovery of a number of substitutes” for
tanbark.™*

Another large tannery, at Smyrna in southern Delaware, be-
longed to John and Alexander Peterson and dated from 1782.
Sole leather was their principal product in 1832, and their invest-
ment in buildings, vats, mills, and pumps was $7500; their total
capital investment was about $25,000. The Petersons employed
nine men at an average wage of $15 per month. This was, accord-
ing to them, above the usual wage for agricultural laborers which
“Gn this district is from ten to twelve dollars per month when they
board themselves, [and] from five to seven dollars . . . when
boarded.” The tanning business in Smyrna was so improved by
1832 that the Petersons intended to convert their horse-powered
mill to waterpower “this present year.” Like their upstate com-
petitors, a few tanners in southern Delaware noted some improve-
ment in business generally, and the gradual upswing prompted a
cautious optimism that envisioned a ten-percent profit on capital
invested if, of course, the enterprise was “judiciously managed.”

123 Delaware Gazette, March 3, 1826. The property was at Salisbury (Old Duck Creek) in Kent
County and was advertised by Robert Patterson and P. Spruance, Jr. See also the Gazette advertise-
ment of April 23, 1824, for a tanner at Leipsic in Kent County.

124 McLane Report, vol 2, pp. 673-674. Oliver frequently did business with A. Cardon and
Company, as will be seen in the following chapter.

125 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 666—667.

a

Generally, though, the years before 1830 were often described
by Delaware tanners as difficult ones. Isaac Starr noted that
“One half of the tanners in this State, have within the last twenty-
five years, either failed, reduced their business, or retired from
it.” Starr’s opinion was echoed throughout thestate. In fact,
not only the tanners had lost their optimism but the manufacturing
interests in general were glum and their grand vision of making
Wilmington an American Manchester had by 1833 been concluded
as wishful if not “abortive.” #7 There were many reasons: em-
bargo, war, depression, and the lack of a protective tariff. But,
mainly in the 1820's, the factors most harmful to the tanner were
the low price of leather, the high cost of raw materials (principally

bark), competition fom the large tanneries in the hemlock regions
of New York and western Pennsylvania, and a failure to adopt the
latest “patented inventions.” 8 One tanning concern in Wilming-
ton, Jackson and Webb, attributed the tanner’s plight to the short-
age of and subsequent high cost of Spanish hides—a situation
brought about by the revolutionary wars in South America.”?
Tanning had rivaled shipbuilding and flour milling as Delaware’s
principal industry in the 18th century,’° and, regardless of its many
problems, the state’s leather and bark trade as late as 1832 still
ranked behind flour, textile, and paper milling in the amount of
capital invested, the number of men employed, and the value of
its product."

Yet the tanneries showed little sign of technical progress,
whereas in other Delaware industries innovation had been con-
stant: Oliver Evans had mechanized flour milling; the Gilpins had
speeded paper production; Jacob Broom, as early as 1795, had
built an Arkwright-type textile mill powered by water; and the
du Ponts had completely rationalized the production of gunpowder.
Tanning, however, remained unchanged, and with little variation
the production of leather continued in the same slow and tedious
manner that had been characteristic since the seventeenth cen-
tury—an occurrence not restricted to Delaware alone.

126 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 750-751.
127 Delaware Gazette, October 8, 1833.
5 McLane Report, vol. 2, p. 751. This is undoubtedly true even though Delaware newspapers
reported new patents and tanning processes, See .4merican Watchman, December 11, 1816.

129 Census Schedule, May 1821.

180 Lincoin, Wilmington, Delaware: Three Centuries under Four Flags, 1609-1937, pp- 265-266.

131 McLane Report, vol. 2, pp- 778-779.

50

Chapter IV
A. Cardon and Company, IS15-1826"

“He will be a satisfactory tanner and in twenty years
from now very wealthy; the only way to be respected
in this English country.”—du Pont de Nemours, 1816

The construction of the du Pont gunpowder mills along the
Brandywine was well underway in the spring of 1803 when E. I.
du Pont wrote to his father requesting all the information available
concerning “Seguin’s new process of tanning.”!*? Knowing that
this new method had shortened the time required to tan sole
leather from two years to several months, du Pont had mentioned
it to a neighboring Delaware tanner and was told that “his fortune
would be made if he could do the tanning by so prompt a method.”’
He continued:

Please tell me what this discovery amounts to in France; whether it is used

on a large scale; whether it has been improved; whether it is really as econom-

ical as Seguin asserts; and whether he appears to have made a fortune by it.

I wrote to Seguin about it when I was last in France, but he did not answer

as I expected and contented himself with referring me to the various de-

scriptions of it that had been published. I have here the accounts by Le

Liévre and Pelletier which were in the dnnales de Chimie. 1 cannot find

one by Fourcroi, which we printed, that by Chaussier, which was published

in the Journal de l’Ecole Polytechnique, nor the one by Vouquelin, which
was in the Lycée des Arts.'**

The accounts read by du Pont were not detailed enough to satisfy
him. All were termed “too vague and superficial to be of any use
for establishing the process.” 1°

By 1807, however, E. I. du Pont was again considering entering
the tanning business provided, of course, that Seguin’s process
was as superior as it was said to be. Characteristically, du Pont
was convinced that “we must learn his methods thoroughly
before we can put them to practical use.”

But why the renewed interest in establishing a tannery? Primarily,
it was to find a satisfactory occupation for Victor du Pont, whose

182 This chapter, in slightly different form, first appeared in Delaware History, the journal of the
Historical Society of Delaware, and is reproduced here through the courtesy of the Society.

133 FT. du Pont to du Pont de Nemours, April 28, 1803, in B. G. du Pont, ed., Life of E. I.
au Pont 2 es Vol-.55 Pp. 212-

134 Tbid. 135 Tbid. 136 B. G. du Pont, op. cit., vol. 7, p. 298.

oul

activities in America had always been somewhat less than suc-
cessful. His brother felt it was “imperative. . . to help him find
something more worthy of him and his education.” In 1807, a
tannery seemed “‘to be the most hopeful business,” '” but by
November of 1809 interest had shifted to a woolen mill. Here was
a new business where “industry and information” were needed,
“and not everyone has them.” Tanning, on the contrary, was “a
trade that everyone can follow and does; the country is full of
tanneries, each doing a small business.”” E. I. du Pont continued
his comparison of leather and textile manufacture:

We could not think of making tannin here for exportation to Europe; bark
costs as much here as at Nemours; it is somewhat cheaper in the backwoods
but there are no laborers there. The Peace will not injure our cloth mills as
you fear; all manufactured goods can succeed in this country, and this kind
at least as well as any other.!*

Despite these objections the father, not easily discouraged,
continued to press for the establishment of a tannery. Du Pont
de Nemours was so determined that he went to some lengths to
partially explain Seguin’s process:

Seguin’s method with leather is only the perfecting of juicy tanning, of which
I have sent you two good descriptions. This juicy method was an improve-
ment of the original arts it worked faster and better. In writing of his
method, Seguin said, “By wetting the leather with the juice of ‘the tan
collected from the lower part of the tan pit and saturating the tan that has
not given out all of its astringent property several times with this juice, the
tanning is done better and more quickly than by leaving it in the bottom of the
pit and allowing the tan to separate slowly. I can do still better and quicker
work by preparing in advance and in such quantities as I wish juice of tan
impregnated with the astringent and keeping my leather in a perpetual bath
of it. He really did it much quicker, but not much better—perhaps rather
less well. . . . But it was a distinct advantage to accomplish in two or three
months what had before been a matter of a year—fifteen or eighteen or
twenty-one months—sometimes two years. The profit on the capital in labor
and interest alone was enormous. And he would have gained in quality as
well as in time if he had allowed five or six months instead of two or three.'*®

Du Pont de Nemours also answered the objections regarding the
availability of bark and tannin:

I thought that on the Brandywine you had many oaks of different varieties
and other trees even richer in /annin, or a more astringent tannin than that
of our European oaks. If they are found only in the backwoods, would it

187 B: G: du’ Pont, op: cit-, vol. 7, p. 298.
188 B. G. du Pont, op. cit., vol. 8, pp. 230-231.
139 du Pont de Nemours to E. I. du Pont, January 26, 1810, in B. G. du Pont, op. cit., vol. 8,

pp. 256-257.

§2

not be a good investment, or a remunerative industry, to combine tanning
with saw mills . . . , and could not the rivers carry down casks full of the
juice of tan—or liquid tannin—as they now do wood for building and potash.

Finally, on one point the father agreed with his son: “It is certain
that your Americans make a great deal of leather and make it very
badly; it absorbs water like a sponge and does not wear at all.” 1°

Apparently, after this exchange the discussion was dropped—
Victor built a woolen mill across the Brandywine from the powder
yard, a cotton mill had been built at Hagley, the powder business
occupied most of Irénée’s time, and with the War of 1812 came the
expansion of the company as well as difficulties within the partner-
ship; collectively, these factors ended for a time any new enterprise.
Not until du Pont de Nemours decided to return to America did
the subject of a tannery again appear in the du Ponts’ corre-
spondence.

Sophie M. du Pont reveals in her memoir: “When Grandpapa
came to America in 1815 .. . he could not very well make the
trip alone.” “! Maurice de Pusy, who was to have accompanied
the elder du Pont, decided not to come, and, as a consequence,
Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans came to the Brandywine in the
spring of 1815 as du Pont de Nemour’s companion and secretary.”

The desire to have everyone associated with him gainfully
employed seemingly caused Pierre Samuel to once again think in
terms of a tannery. But now, instead of Victor du Pont, it was

140 Thid., pp. 257-258.

141 SopHie pu Pont, “Brother Remembers,’ Winterthur MSS, 1, group 9, box 90; Eleutherian
Mills Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware.

142 Little is known of Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans. Baron Klinkowstrém’s America, 1818-1820,
Franklin D. Scott, ed. and transl. (Evanston, 1952), p.54, states that Cardon’s father had been a
member of the constituent assembly, presumably Joseph de Cardon, Baron de Sandrans, who was
a “deputy of the nobles of Bresse to the Estates General in 1789.” Klinkowstrém refers to young
Cardon as “Baron Sandran”’ and states that he had been a member of the Garde du Corps until re-
organization of the regiments of France had left him dissatisfied and ready to leave the country.
Du Pont de Nemours’ correspondence confirms Klinkowstrém and gives insight into Cardon’s person-
ality, which was apparently that of a young aristocrat suddenly stripped of rank and prestige and
forced to work for a living for the first time in his life.

Cardon’s personal life on the Brandywine is as obscure as his early lifein France. From the business
records of A. Cardon and Company one is able to draw a fair picture of Cardon the business man,
for the years spent on the Brandywine. After 1825, Cardon moved to Harrisburg, where he invested
in a tannery and later in an ironworks. The meager evidence uncovered indicates that he and his
family hoped to return to Europe in 1833, thus turning their backs on the New World as well as on
their many creditors. As late as 1837, Cardon was stillin this country. In addition to Scott, material
relating to Cardon may be found in the Old Stone Office Records, and in the Longwood
MSS, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware.

es

Se

Hi Te
PETAL

TANNERS’ PRIVATE STUDY AND LABORATORY.

Figure 20.—Management and Labor, 1850. No pictorial record survives for
Cardon’s tannery. David H. Kennedy’s Art of Tanning Leather includes en-

Cardon de Sandrans that concerned him. Cardon was apparently
unhappy in America and as early as July 24, 1815, he was “‘think-
ing of returning to Europe.”™? As du Pont’s secretary, he had
been earning only about fifteen dollars a month, and his plans for
opening a calico-printing factory had been abortive.'*

The arrival of another emigrant eager to succeed in the New
World soon changed Cardon’s plans. In August, Madame du

143 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 8, July 24, 1815, Longwood MSS, access. 47, Eleutherian
Mills Historical Library.

144 Tbid., June 25, July 24, 1815. Cardon had planned to enter the textile venture with J. A.
Bidermann. Young Bidermann, son of a French banker, had come to Delaware in 1814 as a repre-
sentative of the du Pont Company’s European investors, who were concerned over their American
investment. Finding E. I. du Pont an able manager, Bidermann remained in Delaware and, in 1816,
married Evelina Gabrielle du Pont. Bidermann played an important role in the powder company,
and he soon became E. I. du Pont’s most trusted lieutenant. The production of gunpowder and not
the leather business occupied most of his time. When du Pont died in 1834, Bidermann became the
head of the du{Pont company, serving in this capacity until 1837. After a short visit to France, he
returned to Delaware where he made his country seat, Winterthur, one of the best and most productive
farms in the state. In 1863, after the death of his wife, Bidermann returned to France to live with

his son, James Irénde Bidermann, Bidermann died in Paris in 1865.

ar

TANNERS SINGING THE “ TANNERS’ CHEER,” ADAPTED TO THE TUNE OF THE MAUSKILILAISE HYMN,

gravings which vividly picture certain aspects of the tanner’s life in the mid-19th
century: the contrast of management and labor, the increased attention to
chemical principles, and the continued influence of the French.

Pont wrote to her husband introducing this newcomer to the
Brandywine:

I am sending you this letter . . . by M. Chenou... . This gentleman has
made a very practical discovery concerning a method of tanning leathers.
You will have no difficulty understanding it, since you have worked so long
and hard for the tanners and tanneries. M. Chenou would like to find an
established tannery and associate himself with it—contributing his process,
which has been recognized as excellent in Paris.”

Chenou had come to the right place. He arrived in Delaware
late in 1815, and by December, Alexandre Cardon and J. A.
Bidermann had entered into an agreement under the name of
A. Cardon and Company, “the object of which was the tanning
of leather by a new process.” It is not clear what transpired
among du Pont de Nemours, Cardon, Bidermann, and Chenou,

145 Wife to du Pont de Nemours, August 25, 1815, Winterthur MSS, 1, group 2, box 37, Eleutherian
Mills Historical Library.

55

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Lee. ponte gf Lod ey PAGS SNH FS ga
J fin fit dsdian fpaniigg HEE
a Boh. S Ey 60th fl 24> O- ie Ss. Aalto
pee Cy Opie 2 Alc QAM ot
(tts 0 oocit Fo: i pe ee Keg
aay [ap Abate tt &. os LI

Coe fog Se ofece. ee Df te

2 ace (Pas 1 Ds eG agt
Sh pe 2 oy iS 4

Figure 21.—A. C:
gure 21.—A. Cardon and Company Articles of Agreement, 1815

56

or why Chenou chose to stay on the Brandywine. The result was
that “A. Cardon & A. Bidermann being entirely unacquainted
with the business made an arrangement with a Mr. L. F. Chenou
. . . who engaged to remain with them one year and teach them
his process of leather and morocco manufacturing.”’*°

Du Pont’s sense of responsibility for Cardon was somewhat re-
lieved. He confided to his wife: “I am certainly happy that
coming over with me has not brought him ill luck.” It seemed to
du Pont pére that Cardon had “formed here a very worthwhile
and lucrative business” which “in America . . . is the only way
to gain respect.”’ It was fortunate that both Cardon and Bider-
mann had learned a trade from Chenou because, according to du
Pont de Nemours, “in this country the profession of a man who
knows only how to write is less than nothing. That of wood-
cutter or barrowman is much better.” “7

In February 1816, a tannery was in operation and those in-
volved had “high hopes for it.”” “8 What had begun as a project
to employ Victor du Pont resulted in a new industry on the lower
Brandywine. A young nobleman, a banker’s son, and a tanner
(all recently arrived in America) joined the Brandywine’s industrial
family, pursuing a business which could not fail. After all, what
could be better than a tannery in a country where “nobody goes
bare-foot and nobody wears wooden shoes. There are throngs of
consumers.” “? Du Pont de Nemours’ responsibility for A. Cardon
was discharged: “‘He will be a satisfactory tanner and in twenty
years from now very wealthy; the only way to be respected in this
English country.” ?°°

By December 1815, Alexandre Cardon, Charles Dalmas, and
J. A. Bidermann had “subscribed . . . as follows to furnish a
capital stock of $6000—for settlement of a Tan Yard and Morocco
manufactory [see fig. 21] under the name of A. Cardon & Co.” :*!

146 “Statement written by Bidermann with additions by E. I. du Pont,” in B.G. du Pont, vol. 11,
p- 251. In addition see Agreement between Alexandre Cardon de Sandrans, Jacques Antoine
Bidermann, and Louis Francois Chenou, December 29, 1815, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library.
Chenou agreed to teach Cardon and Bidermann a method of tanning which would produce finished
leather in three months.

147 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 65, October 9, 1816, Longwood MSS, access. 47.

148 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 32, February 22, 1816.

149 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 46, June 12, 1816.

150 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 70, November 26, 1816.

151 Day book, 1815-1822, A. Cardon and Company, Old Stone Office Records, Eleutherian Mills
Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware, December 29, 1815. These records will hereafter be cited
as OSOR.

a7

‘stoingovynuvur toded pur ‘sysrurysvur ‘ssayeur Jopmoduns ‘siajjitu a[i3x9q papnpur 77g] Jo Aaaans ay3 ul UMOYS sv (MOJI¥)
Aurduioy puv uopivy “y jo ssoqysieu ivau ay} “uoWuIMIA, Wor safiur aay A[TYBnoy “yaeI9 ouimApuRig uO pa}voo]

S}so1o}Ul Sulinjovjnuvu jo AJISIOATD 9yi Peseotoul Gee us Ajouur} ev jo uoljyippe UL WO GSI ‘ADAING JIS] [IPAI— "TT ainsi]

A. Cardon de Sandrans $2000

Ch. Dalmas 2000
Ant. Bidermann 2000
$6000

Dalmas was “‘‘a sleeping partner” with the management of the
business left to Cardon and Bidermann.'? Within a year Bider-
mann’s ever-growing responsibilities in the powder business
required most of his time; thus, very early, the operation of the
tannery became Cardon’s responsibility. It is interesting to
note that of the initial capital of $6000, E. I. du Pont advanced
$3700—$2000 for Dalmas and $1750 for Bidermann—and that
during the first year of business the du Pont Company met most
of the firm’s obligations.!

Counting the gunpowder, cotton, and woolen mills previously
built with du Pont energy and capital, du Pont de Nemours called
the tannery the “fourth mill established on our stream.” !* This
newest venture was located “‘on a piece of ground and in buildings
which belonged to our second powder mill, around a quarter of a
league away” from Eleutherian Mills—the site of du Pont’s first
powder mill (see fig. 22).%° For the “Rent of Tann yard, Bark
Mill & Dwelling House” to December 31, 1818, Cardon had paid
E. I. du Pont $400; in the years following, du Pont received $200
annually for the yard and $100 for Cardon’s quarters.!”°

The business went well. By the end of 1816, the first leather
was produced by the new company,!” “but every beginning is dif-
ficult.” 8 Just as the first leather was to be taken out of the vats,
Chenou, having “‘taught the secrets of the tannery to Sandran and
Bidermann,” departed for New Orleans.” At the time, du Pont
de Nemours wrote:

152 See “Statement written by Bidermann,” in B. G, du Pont, vol. 11, p. 252. Charles Dalmas
(1777-1859) was E. I. du Pont’s brother-in-law, and had accompanied the du Pont family to America
in 1799. Like Bidermann, Dalmas was associated with the gunpowder company and had little to do
with the tannery.

153 Day book, December 31, 1815, et passim.

454 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 87, May 3, 1817, Longwood MSS, access. 47.

155 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 65, October 9, 1816. Eleutherian Mills had been pur-
chased by E. I. du Pont in 1802. Hagley, a strip of land immediately adjoining the first site, had
been purchased in 1813.

156 Day book, May 31, 1819, et passim.

157 Day book, October 1816.

158 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 88, May 16, 1817, Longwood MSS, access. 47.

159 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 87, May 3, 1817.

59

Not being able to learn English, he [was] bored in our valley and . . . asked
them to cancel the contract he had made with them . . . . They have con-
sented and think they can get along all alone.1

But in 1830, E. I. du Pont, with the advantage of hindsight, was
less charitable:

After a few months and before any leather had been made ready for sale

Chenou probably foreseeing that the result of the first year would fall far short

of his expectation communicated his desire to retire before his engagement

expired, and as A. Cardon professed himself quite able henceforward to man-

age the business alone . . . a sum of money was paid to the latter and he

went away.!®l
However, in November 1816, E. I. du Pont wrote to New Orleans
recommending “Mr. L. F. Chenou who 1s going to your place with
the intention to begin there the tanning business with which he is
very well acquainted.” "’ After Chenou’s departure, Cardon man-
aged “‘the fabrication, purchase, sales &c.’’ and when he found
time, Bidermann kept the ‘“‘accounts and books.” '°

In October, Guillaume Merle d’Aubigné came to “the shores of
the Brandywine—to visit the establishments of Mr. du Pont de
nemours.”” After mentioning “two large powder mills’ and
cotton mill, he described “‘a large tannery by some new method
where in 4 months they tanned sole leather as well as had previously
been done in 15. Besides they are making all kinds of leather for
harness—morocco, &c., &c., &c.” *™ The following week, Novem-
ber 7, 1816, the Delaware Gazette carried the advertisement of a
local merchant who was to sell Cardon’s leather.

Hatters, Coachmakers, Shoemakers, Xc.
Look Here!

H. J. Pepper, No. 60 Market-street, Wilmington, Informs the public that he
has on hand, and intends keeping constantly, a large and general assortment
of Morocco’s; Boots, Shoe, and Soal Leather, ¥rom the Manufactory of Messrs.
A. Cardon & Co. which he will sell at the factory prices.

“Hard weather” stopped operations briefly in the winter of
1816-1817,' but by June the company again solicited curriers to

160 du Pont de Nemours to wife, letter no. 74, December 27, 1816.

161 “Statement written by Bidermann,” B. G. du Pont, op. cit., vol. 11, pp. 251-252.

162 Letter book, 1815-1817, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, November 27, 1816 (OSOR).

163 “Statement written by Bidermann,” B. G. du Pont, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 252.

14 Ta vie Américaine de Guillaume Merle a’ Aubigné; Extraits de son Journal de Voyage et de sa Corres-
pondance inédite, 1809-1817, with introd. and notes by Gilbert Chinard (Paris, 1935), p. 113.

165 Letter book, 1816-1827, A. Cardon and Company, March 8, 1817 (OSOR).

60

finish their leather. Unfortunately the older, more reliable Phila-
delphia concerns were not interested in handling the leather of a
new tannery at a time when cash was scarce and credit tight.

Rebuffed, Cardon turned to E. I. du Pont’s agent in Philadelphia:

E. I. Dupont de Nemours & Co. gave us the hope that you would undertake
to sell the produces of our tannery in Philadelphia & consequently we take
the liberty of sending you this day four bundles of sole leather .... We do
not suppose that you could keep the said leather at your own store, as the
shoe makers are accustomed to take it only from curriers, but our intention
is that you would put them at some of the curriers where you think they will
sell the best and as we can not go often in Philadelphia ourselves, that you
would attend to our business with them. Mr. Singers who are very rich &
have a great number of customers, like to sell only for tanners who take the
hides from them, they have not encouraged us to have our leather in their
store and we think it would be well to look for some other.

Continuing, Cardon pointed out:

The leather that we send you is extremely well tanned and perhaps better
than any in the market; but by some accident, is not what it will be in the
future and is a little too dark which is against its appearance. For that reason
we wish that you will not mention that it comes from our factory.'®°

This letter reveals the specialization within the leather trade
as well as several ominous signs: first, in attempting to establish
a new account, Cardon and Company consigns leather which 1s
admittedly below par; second, they are too willing to turn over one
of the most important aspects of their business—leather sales—to
an impersonal commission merchant; third, they exhibit a certain
naiveté in hoping that their name will not be associated with a poor
quality leather; and, finally, by circumstance they are forced to
deal with smaller, less dependable firms in Philadelphia.

At first a variety of leather was manufactured at Hagley:
“We make . . . a considerable quantity of calf skins and some
harness leather, both of the first quality and highly finished.” 1
(A detailed account of the process of making Morocco leather may
be found on pages 88-90.) But after three years the “Chief business”
was “tanning of Sole leather,” '* although red and black morocco
continued to be produced from sheep and goat skin. The black
goat was for the coachmakers, the yellow sheep for the hatters.
In addition Cardon and Company tanned boot linings and “‘cut

166 Letter book, 1816-1827, A. Cardon and Company to John Vaughan, June 30, 1817.
167 Tbid.
168 Letter book, March 1, 1819.

61

»» 169

boot legs of every kind, and in 1824 they even purchased ‘‘20
Buftaloe Hides” which presumably were tanned."° Leather from
Hagley sold in Philadelphia for twenty-six to thirty cents a pound
and was presumed by the manufacturer to be “among the best in
this Country.”

Baron Klinkowstrom “‘saw a bundle” of leather at Hagley in
March 1818 tanned by a new process. The process was un-
doubtedly the Seguin method or a slight modification of it, and
Klinkowstrém judged the leather produced “‘as fine as West Indian
leather in firmness and strength.” A less reliable observer, John
Palmer, was also impressed by this process of tanning which tanned
‘‘a hide as well and as thoroughly in two months as in ten years.”
When Klinkowstr6m had inquired about Cardon’s methods he
found it was a secret, one which would “not be a mystery for any
long time here.’ Unfortunately, research has not verified
Klinkowstrom’s prediction and, even today, the exact details of
Cardon’s technique remain a mystery.

The firm’s business practices were more conventional than their
methods of tanning. Like other tanners, they usually purchased
hides from curriers and returned leather in payment. The currier
then sold the leather at a two and one-half to three percent com-
mission, after which he credited the tanner with the proceeds of
the leather sales. In the case of Cardon and Company, the ac-
count usually was in the currier’s favor, with Cardon merely
receiving credit for the leather sold to be applied against the next
order of hides."

By 1821, the “Tan Yard at Hagley on the Brandywine” processed
3000 hides and 350 cords of bark annually. The cost of raw mate-
rial (bark and hides) was $12,000, and the eight men employed by
the firm received a total of $2400 a year in wages. Cardon listed
the product manufactured as ‘Principally Sole leather,’ with no
mention of morocco. The capitalization of the firm now stood at
$16,000, but by Cardon’s own admission “the increase of the prices
of raw Hides which has lately taken place, and the depreciation in
the price of leather render at present this Branch of manufacture

169 Letter book, June 27, 1817. See also letters of April 15 and November 3 and 4, 1817.

170 Pay book, 1823-1827, A. Cardon and Company (OSOR).

"1 Letter book, A. Cardon and Company, March 1, 1819.

12 Scott, op. cit. (footnote 142), p. 54; and Palmer, Journal of Travels in the United States of North
America, p. 21.

173 Letter book, A. Cardon and Company to Timothy Abbott, July 11, 1824.

62

yy

i i Hi i |
uM ng

— ERPYEPRE CE Fr!

Figure 23.—Laying Away the Hides. The physical remains of Cardon’s building

(stall standing on the grounds of the Hagley Museum at Wilmington, Delaware)
suggest that at least some of the tan vats were housed and not ty pically exposed
in an open tanyard. This scene from Davis’ Manufacture of Leather approxi-
mates the appearance of the Cardon tannery.

unprofitable.” '* Cardon was expressing a view similar to that

of most tanners. Furthermore, the size of his tannery was com-
parable to the larger ones in the area, with approximately eighty-
six vats, several outbuildings, anda bare mille = (Scene: 23)
Actually, Cardon and Company typifies the operations of most
manufacturers of the period, especially in regard to the use of
transportation and the procurement of raw materials. The
Brandywine tanners used most of the existing transportation
facilities. The shallop, the packet, and the steamboat, as well as
the Philadelphia stagecoach, wagons, and even a sleigh ee Carried

174 Census Schedule, 1821, A. Cardon and Company (The National Archives).

175 See accounts current, A. Cardon and Company, 1815-1829 (OSOR)); specifically, E. I. du Pont
de Nemours and Company in account with A. Cardon and Company, December 31, 1828; Decem-
ber 31, 1829. In addition, see bills miscellaneous, A. Cardon and Company (OSOR, Tannery,
box 1), undated.

176 Letter book, December 13, 1821.

681—431—64—_6

hides or transported leather between Wilmington and the princi-
pal markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. The
river and the turnpike roads were the main arteries. The Warner
packet was used for freight, either the sloop Mary Ann or the
sloop Fame, but for business trips to Philadelphia Cardon_ pre-
ferred the steamboat.” For a “Journey to Philadelphia” on
September 5, 1817, he submitted the following expense account:!*

Steamboat going 1.00
Breakfast 0)
Stamp paper 5
Stay in Philadelphia 7.50
Steamboat coming back and baggage 125

10.60
Brandywine 9ber 9th 1817

A. Cardon.

A tannery required a variety of raw materials and services.
The obvious ones were hides and bark, but others were necessary,
such as dyes, acid, and lime, as well as the services of wagoners,
smiths, and millwrights. A ready source of hides was a prerequi-
site, and the regional cattle industry provided an abundant supply.
To supplement this, Delaware tanners turned to Philadelphia,
Baltimore, or New York.

Typically, Cardon sought hides wherever he could find them and
bought wherever the price was right. The South American hides
were desired for sole leather in the early nineteenth century, and
these were obtained from various sources. For example, Cardon
wrote to John Vaughan in Philadelphia:

We yesterday saw in the papers the arrival of the Ship Hope from Monte-

vedo with Hides consigned to G. Strawbridge. Would you be so kind as to

ascertain if the hides are of Ist. quality . . . [and] what price is asked.!”°
Similarly, through importers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New
York, hides from Buenos Aires, La Plata, and La Guaira were
obtained for tanning at Hagley.’

The trade in hides took many forms, and the following letter to
a Baltimore merchant is typical: “Let us know the time you might
be ready to send on the Hides that we could send a waggon load

17 Letter book, December 9, 1816, et passim.

18 A, Cardon’s expense statement, November 5, 1817, in bills miscellaneous, Cardon and Com-
pany (OSOR, Tannery, box 1).

"9 Letter book, Cardon and Company, March 9, 1822.

*° Letter book, Cardon and Company, December 4, 1819; January 12, 1822; and January 19, 1822.

64

of leather and bring back a load of Hides.” *! Not all imported
hides were good. More often than not they were worm eaten and
rotten, being described, quite aptly, as putrid. Often the stench
of hides, fleshing gs, and remainders was the tannery’s most distin-
guishing characteristic. In 1819, Cardon received such a shipment
from Philadelphia and to his disgust found “none of the Laguira
Hides . . . worth Tanning” nor “the Buenosayres . . . worth
working.” 1

Cardon dealt in domestic as well as imported hides and was
alert to all possible sources of supply. He wrote to William Jenkins
im 1§22:

When coming back from Pha. . . . Mr. John Wilcox . . . mentioned that

he thought you would get this season 2000 Slaughter hides more than you

wanted, and that you probably would have some to dispose of.'*°

Despite Cardon’s efforts to trade in Baltimore and New York,
Philadelphia remained the main source of raw hides. Samuel and
Frederick Faring (or Foering), George Flomerfelt, Eldridge and
Brick, John Vaughan, and Timothy Abbott were the principal
suppliers, and, with the exception of Vaughan, all were curriers
who at one time or another handled Cardon’s leather.

Equally as important as the acquisition of raw hides was the
problem of procuring tanbark. To solve it Cardon and Company
(as did other tanners) operated a bark mill as an integral part of
their business, filling their own needs for tannin as well as supplying
quercitron for the dye trade. From 1820 to 1822, Cardon’s best
customer for ground bark was Robert E. Griffith, merchant of
Philadelphia. In March 1821, Griffith agreed for one year to
take “all the Quercitron or black oak Bark, that they may or
can manufacture. . . at their mill on the Brandywine River.”

It was Cardon’s opinion that his mill could “grind the bark
better and quicker than any establishment of the kind we know,”
because ‘“‘our Way of grinding the Bark” was “on a much Better
plan” than any other. * This improved method was simply
grinding “under stones the same as a grist mill.” "*’

181 Letter book, Cardon and Company to Nixon Wilson, August 7, 1819.

182 Letter book, to Samuel and Frederick Faring (Foering), July 7, 1819.

183 Letter book, January 28, 1822.

184 Acreement with Robert E. Griffith for delivery of bark, ground; March 29, 1821, in Griffith
Correspondence (OSOR, box 127).

185 Letter book, Cardon and Company, November 9, 1820.

186 Letter book, October 28, 1820.

187 Letter book, October 2, 1820.

In the Delaware region, the bark of the black or quercitron oak,
the white oak, and the red or Spanish oak were the common tannin
yielders. In addition to oak, hemlock, sumac, willow, cherry,
and horse chestnut yielded tannin. “* Bark supplies were usually
purchased in the spring, but out-of-season purchases were often
made if the price was right. Once again it was the currier who
was in a favored situation. Bark dealers demanded cash, and
in the bark season it was customary “for the Tanners to claim
some assistance from the Curriers.” 8° In his ten years of operation
Cardon was forced to borrow heavily from each currier with whom

he dealt:

We have now to ask you a favour, which we hope you will not deny us as on
it depends entirely our getting our supply of bark this season. We want
1500 Dolls. for that purpose, and rely upon your constantly liberal dealing
with us to advance us that sum in 3 different notes at 90 days. Say one of
535.06, one of 485.25 & one of 479.69 the whole amt. of which you shall
receive in leather between this and the latter part of May.1%
The dependence was real since Cardon admittedly had no other
means of purchasing bark. Thus, the city currier often acted as
the tanner’s purchaser, sales agent, and financier.

Southern Delaware was the center of the state’s bark industry,
and most of the bark used at Hagley came from there. Each year
Cardon went “down the Delaware for the purpose of getting some
bark,” '! visiting dealers in Milford, Smyrna, Georgetown, Milton,
and Camden; occasionally he made inquiries at Cantwell’s Bridge.

At times Cardon was forced to buy in Philadelphia, because
“Some of the People below do not stick to their contracts for bark
as well as they ought to.”’ Nevertheless, most of it came from
“below.” For example, in two years Cardon purchased $6768.09
worth of bark from Joseph Oliver of Milford, and during the course
of ten years bark prices averaged between $8 and $15 a cord.
Cardon paid $23 a ton for “bl[ack] oak bark shaved, that is ready
to manufacture,” and after grinding he sold the quercitron for $42
a ton. Delivery was effected in many ways, and, on one occasion,
a Philadelphia merchant was told: “Should you desire to have the
Quercitron delivered at the mouth of the Creek, we would be willing
to do it, and provided we were positively apprized of the time your

188 Morfit (see footnote 41), chapters 6 and 7.
189 Letter book, Cardon and Company, May 12, 1823.
199 Letter book, April 28, 1820.

191 Letter book, November 28 1817.

66

Vessel would come down, we would have ready the quantity
wanted.”” In this manner quercitron was shipped to England
from Hagley in the 1820’s.'”

Most of the practical problems encountered by the Hagley tan-
nery involved transportation—getting bark to their mill. The
bark industry was closely connected to the shallop trade on the
Delaware River, and at times boats were difficult to procure. On
arrival in Wilmington they had to be met by wagons and drivers
who carted the bark to the Brandywine above tidewater. This
required coordination, and boat captains were frequently asked to
send “one of the Crew” to Hagley so that “we may look for the
Teams.” It was Cardon’s experience that in a flour milling city
one “could procure . . . teams more easily before, than during
anyvest. 7°

Through the ten years of operation, letters such as the following
were commonplace:

Our Stock of bark being nearly exhausted, the object of this is to request you

to send on as soon as possible the 50 cords . . . which you promised to send

up as soon as boats could be procured, which must be the case now, as they
no doubt had since the opening of the navigation, time enough to make 2 or

3 trips either to the City or to the Mills with the grain taken in at your place

during the Winter.“

A new concern, in a highly competitive business, consistently
found bark the most difficult raw material to obtain.

Other materials were used by the tannery but in less bulk. Oil
of vitriol (sulfuric acid), lime, and dyestufts were purchased ; and
du Pont de Nemours and Company provided various services,
including blacksmithing, millwrighting, and wagoning. ‘Titus
Mosely did the wagoning, William Murphy the millwrighting, and,
generally speaking, the tanners found du Pont a great convenience,
either to conduct business for them in Philadelphia, to secure
credit, or to provide transportation.”

To tan morocco leather, Sicilian sumac was purchased along
with such dyes as Nicaragua wood (black), silver-gray cochineal

192 Letter book, May 13, 1818; Invoice of Bark . . . on account of A. Cardon by Joseph G. Oliver
& Co., 1822-1823 (OSOR, Tannery, box 1); letter book March 12, July 23, 1821; and Robert E.
Griffith to A. Cardon and Company, March 31, 1821, Griffith Correspondence (OSOR, box 127).

193 Letter book, Cardon and Company, June 28, 1821.

194 Letter book, Cardon and Company, March 26, 1822.

1% Hagley Shop ledger, 1813-1837 (OSOR, Gunpowder, misc.); letter book, Cardon and Company,
et passim. All of the Cardon and Company accounts reflect the concern’s dependence upon E. I. du

Pont de Nemours and Company.

67

(Castilian red), barberry (yellow), and indigo to give it the desired
color. These materials were purchased from Meggeson Laplante
and Company or Samuel Wetherill and Sons, of Philadelphia,
or from Anthony Girard in New York.!° Within the Brandywine
milling community, Cardon supplied “Leather for [the] powder
yard,” as well as belt leather to textile millers William Young,
Victor and Charles du Pont and Company, Duplanty, McCall and
Company, and John Siddall.“ Cardon also sold these firms dye
drugs and bark, presumably quercitron. Besides this, the textile
manufacturers purchased fleshings and remainders for glue, plus
hundreds of bushels of hair.1°8 In 1817, even “The Sunday School
society” purchased ten and one-half bushels of hair from the tan-
nery, but for what purpose is not clear.!*°

Generally, the tannery at Hagley operated exactly as did
other leather factories. It produced the same product, used the
same raw materials, utilized the same transportation facilities,
and traded in the same market. Aside from an accelerated process
of manufacturing leather (which at the time was of questionable
value), A. Cardon and Company was a typical early nineteenth-
century tannery, suffering most of the stringencies of the period.

Following the depression of 1819, Cardon complained of the
“depreciated state of leather’ and of “the scarcity of Money.”
His correspondence was gloomier still in 1822, and after the failure
of two customers, he wrote that “‘the profits are already scant
enough on leather . . . [so] secure the most you can of our share
as well as yours, and of course you had better take 10 shillings
per pound than nothing at all.” *°°

Earlier he had told one concern that it was “utterly impossible
for us to send you any cash at present.” By the end of 1824, the

196 Letter book, Cardon and Company to Anthony Girard, December 2, 1816; and to Meggesson
Laplante and Company, December 9, 1816, et passim. In addition see day book, 1815—1822, Cardon
and Company, December 31, 1816; June 11, 1817; December 31, 1817; et passim.

197 For leather sold to the gunpowder yards see E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in account
with A. Cardon and Company, June 30, 1821, in accounts current, Cardon and Company, 1815-1827.
For belt leather sold to Brandywine textile manufactures see ledger, Cardon and Company, 1816-
1825, May 5, 1817 (Wm. Young); July 9, 1817 (V. & Ch. du Pont); July 5, 1817 (Duplanty and
McCall); January 3, 1821 (John Siddall).

198 See the accounts of the above mentioned cotton and woolen millers in day book, Cardon and
Company, 1815-1822, and ledger 1816, 1825.

199 Day book, 1815-1822, December 31, 1817.

200 Letter book, April 19, 1820, to G. and H. P. Shannon; December 20 1822, to Timothy Abbott
and Company.

201 Letter book, June 20, 1822.

68

future of the tannery on the Brandywine was not bright. Cardon
had extended his resources and his credit to the breaking point.
Constant borrowing to buy bark, to purchase hides, or to expand
the business had pushed the concern deeply into debt. The cost
of bark and hides had never been higher and the price of leather
was low. In 1824, “embarrassment began to be evident .

A. Cardon used the signature of the firm to accept some drafts of
his personal creditors to the amount of $4000 which he paid out
of the funds of the concern, or to speak more correctly by con-
tracting new debts in the name of the concern.” *”

Things went from bad to worse, and by the spring of 1825 Cardon
and Bidermann agreed “to finish tanning what was on hand in
order to bring the concern to a close.’”’ In the same year, Cardon
left Hagley and moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he
had “been offered great advantages’ to manage a tannery for
Eldridge and Brick “and Company a concern to which Cardon
and Company owed well over three thousand dollars.”

In November he wrote from Harrisburg that he had agreed to
give Eldridge and Brick the tan vats at Hagley in “‘partial payment
of our debt.” This met with objection on the part of E. I. du Pont,
who apparently was to pay the cost of transportation for the equip-
ment from the Brandywine to Harrisburg. The vats were ready
for shipment when du Pont balked. Such stubbornness was inter-
preted by Cardon only “as Mr. Victor says . . . when one loses
one is in bad humor.” Realizing this, Cardon desired “‘to finish
as soon as possible the business on the Brandywine.”

The situation was so confused in the next several months that
in Cardon’s absence no one was competent to judge when leather
was to be taken from the tan vats. In January of 1826, a Phila-
delphia concern was informed:

Our Mr. Cardon is not here at present. We understand from him that some
of the leather tanned is yours, but we think that he meant to wait to send it
till the whole of what belongs to you should be ready in order to settle at the
same time for the explens]es of tanning. Any how in his absence we do not
know your leather and we shall have to wait his return which is to take place
in a couple of weeks. 7”

202 “Statement written by Bidermann,” B. G. du Pont, vol. 11, p. 254.
703 Tbid.
204 4. Cardon to A. Bidermann, November 13, 24, 1825, Cardon Correspondence, (OSOR, box 56).

20 Letter book, January 7, 1826, Cardon and Company to William and James Pritchett. See also
letter dated March 11, 1826, to Eldridge and Brick.

69

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ay RS ee

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ee ees! GA Rag
Ze: Kilooves fo fuses 4a, Fe ihe JP :

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$5 arte Foz? eo | he
sage

Figure 24.—Statement of Materials Taken from Cardon and Company, 1826.
Claimed in partial payment of debt, the materials listed on the statement
reproduced here are similar to those pictured in figure 25.

While some worried about their leather, others wanted money,
including Eldridge and Brick, the firm which Cardon left Hagley

to join. Instead of cash, however, they received the following:

It would be . . . wrong in us to lose any time in informing you that it will
not be in our power to settle for the balance . . . in the short time you seem
to wish it, nor in the manner proposed. It is with much surprise that we
learn that our Mr. Cardon has offered you Messers. Du Pont’s acceptance]
for the same, as in fact far from having any claims against this gentle[man],
our concern is already to a large amount in their debt. We are now engaged
in closing the accounts of our concern and have to request of you the indul-
gence of sum [sic] time for the settlement of the balance due you.””°

206 Letter book, January 7, 1826, Cardon and Company to William and James Pritchett.

Figure 25.—The Physical Assets of a Tannery. Tools, beams, and vats, as il-
lustrated in Lalande’s “Art du Tanneur.”

In short, as a correspondent was later informed, “when Mr.
C removed from here to the Neighbourhood of Harrisburg, he left
the remaining partner without any adequate means to pay the
heavy claims ag{ainst] the concern.”*"’ By 1826, creditors began to
claim equipment from the tanyard at Hagley, and for all practical

207 Letter book, August 5, 1827, to F. Faring.

al

purposes the operation of the firm had come to an end.*°° (See
figs. 24 and 25.)

Following the example of E. I. du Pont, Cardon had constantly
expanded his business by borrowing, enlarging his physical plant,
and striving to increase his sales. The great difference was that
good gunpowder was at a premium whereas fine leather was a
surfeit in the market. Gunpowder mills were rare, tanneries
were not; the former properly managed could not fail to succeed,
the latter, even with divine management, would have been hard
pressed. A more cautious, perceptive individual might have suc-
cessfully prolonged the life of the firm, but it would have been
only a question of time until an expanding line of powder mills
had pushed the Hagley tanners from the banks of the Brandywine.
In 1809, E. I. du Pont had warned that the region was crowded with
tanneries and that there was room for no more. By 1826, he had
been proved correct. There remained only the formality of ending
the partnership and the larger task of closing the accounts.

The actual dissolution was delayed so that the creditors would
not present all their claims at once. In May 1830, the following
document” was drawn (see fig. 26):

Dissolution of Partnership

Notice is hereby given that the Partnership formerly existing between Alex-
ander Cardon, James Anthony Bidermann & Charles Dalmas in the business
of Tanning leather and grinding Bark, and which was carried on under the
firm of A. Cardon & Co. was duly dissolved on the first day of June A. D.
1826 at which period said Partnership ceased and has not since been con-
tinued or renewed.

Wilmington, Delaware James Anthony Bidermann
May 20 A. D. 1830 Charles Dalmas
A. Cardon

08 Statement of the articles taken from A. Cardon and Company by and on account of Eldridge
and Brick (June 1826), in bills miscellaneous (OSOR, Tannery, box 1):
1 Large Craine to Haul the Limes
4 Frames to hang the Hides in the lime
1 Small Crane with gearing (to hang hides in the lime)
10 Brass Cocks
2 Grinding stones with Spindle pulleys and boxes to run on
A Chain to haul the Hides fr. the limes block
1 Tan Fork
2 Rollers with the Spindle, balts, and pinions
25 Bark bags
1 Crank and 2 pulleys
In addition, see Cardon and Company to Eldridge and Brick, July 16, 1826, in letter book.
209 OSOR, P. S. du Pont Collection.

72

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7
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eA i, we ae

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Figure 26.—Dissolution of Partnership, 1830. The life of A. Cardon and Company
officially ended with a dissolution of partnership in May 1830. This document
is a part of the nearly complete business record of the tannery preserved at the
Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Greenville, Delaware.

From 1826 to 1829 confusion cleared and tempers cooled and the
books were brought up-to-date. The tally showed that in slightly
over ten years the firm had lost $43,303.03. Of this, $33,440.92
was owed to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company as follows:
by Bidermann, $11,059.56; by Cardon, $10,769.63; and by Dalmas,
$i g2 194,719

When the accounts were finally closed, Bidermann “‘or his
friends” had paid debts for the tannery amounting to about

210 Statements of profit and loss 1, 2, and 3, from the books of A. Cardon and Company, 1816 to
1829, OSOR, Tannery, box 1.

73

$35,000. He “continued to settle with the creditors” until only
a small sum remained unpaid. All of Bidermann’s payments were
based on the supposition that Cardon was without funds, which
in fact appears not to have been the case. By 1829, Cardon had
over $40,000 invested in an iron furnace in Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania. Charles Dalmas, the silent partner, was absolved
from responsibility and lost “only the $2000 he originally put in
the stock.” 7"?

How had Bidermann paid the debts of the firm, and who were his
friends? Actually it was quite simple: the money came from the
du Pont Company, and E. I. du Pont was the friend who concurred
in such a procedure. When the books of the powder company were
audited in 1834, the debt of the tannery after absorbing all out-
standing obligations was listed as $55,148.92.7!" Unlike the debts
of the Hagley cotton and Louviers woolen-mill ventures, this
financial obligation was assumed by Bidermann and not by E. I.
du Pont. When E. I. du Pont’s estate was divided, the tannery was
clearly listed as a du Pont Company deficit—one for which
Bidermann took full responsibility. The debt of A. Cardon and
Company was subtracted from Bidermann’s total assets in the
powder company, which, after the $55,148.92 tanning loss was
deducted, still amounted to $86,517.16.7" Thus the losses of the
tanning venture were temporarily assumed by E. I. du Pont de
Nemours and Company.

With the accounts settled, the Hagley tannery was quickly
forgotten. Of the original partners only Bidermann remained on
the Brandywine, where for a time (1834-1837) he became the head
of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. Of the physical plant
only a single stone building remains to document the activities
of Cardon and his associates. To revive Delaware’s sagging
leather industry, and indeed the country’s in general, only time
was needed. The first quarter of the nineteenth century had
been difficult indeed, but by the 1850’s there was a resurgence.
Leather factories replaced the antiquated but more picturesque
tanyards, and empirical methods gave way to a more advanced
industrial technology. It was the lot of A. Cardon and Company
to have heralded the change.

211 “Statement written by Bidermann,” in B. G. du Pont, vol. 9, pp. 255-257; for Cardon’s activities
after leaving the Brandywine, see McLane Report, vol. 2, pp. 196, 228.

*12 See journal, 1832-1834, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, November 1, 1834, OSOR.

218 Antoine Bidermann to brothers and sisters, March 1, 1837, Allan J. Henry Collection, box 16,

Eleutherian Mills Historical Library.

Appendix

The Process of Tanning in 1764

(From 4 New and Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences; Comprehending
All the Branches of Useful Knowledge, vol. 3, pp. 3154-3155.)

Method of TAanninc oxen-hides. The skin being flayed off the
carcase, if it is intended to be kept, is salted with sea-salt and alum,
or with a coarse kind of saltpetre. If it is not for keeping, the salt-
ing is saved, as being of no use but to prevent the hide from cor-
rupting before it can be conveniently carried to the tanhouse.
Whether the hide have been salted or not, the tanner begins with
taking off the horns, the ears, and the tail, after which it is thrown
into a running water for about thirty hours, to wash off the blood
and other impurities adhering to the inside. This done, it is laid
over night in a lime-pit, already used, whence it is taken and left to
drain three or four days on the edge of the pit. The first and
slightest preparation over, it is retained into a strong lime-pit for
two days, then taken out for four days more; and thus for six
weeks alternately, it is taken out and put in twice a week. At the
six weeks end it is put into a fresh pit, where it continues eight days,
and is then taken out for so many, and thus alternately for a year
or eighteen months, according to the strength of the leather and
the weather; for in great heats they put in fresh lime twice a week;
and in frost they sometimes do not touch them for three months.
Every fresh lime-pit they throw them into, is stronger and stronger.
At the end of four, five, or six weeks, the tanner scrapes off the hair
on a wooden leg or horse, with a kind of knife made for that pur-
pose. And after a year or eighteen months, when the hair is per-
fectly gone, he carries it to a river to wash, pares off the flesh on
the leg with a kind of cutting knife, and rubs it briskly with a sort
of whetstone, to take off any remains of flesh or of filth on the side
of the hair. The skin is now put into tan, that is, it is covered
with tan as it is stretched in the pit, and water is let in upon it; if
the skin is strong, five coverings of tan will be required; for weaker,
three or four may suffice. When the skin has not been kept long
enough in lime, or in the tan-pit, upon cutting it in the middle
there appears a whitish streak, called the horn or crudity of the
skin, and it is this crudity that is the reason why the soles of shoes,
boots, &c. stretch so easily and take water. When the hides are
sufficiently tanned, they are taken out of the pit to be dried, by

75

hanging them in the air; then the tan is cleared off them, and they
are put into a place neither too dry nor too moist; they are there
well stretched over one another with weights a-top, to keep them
tight and strait; and so this condition are sold under the denomina-
tion of bend-leather. This is the method of tanning bullocks or
oxen-hides. Cows, calves, and horses skins are tanned much after
the same manner of those of oxen, except that they are only kept
four months in the lime pit, and that before they be put in the tan,
there is a preparation required thus: cold water is poured into a
wooden vat, or tub, wherein the skins are put, which are kept
stirring while some other water is warming in a kettle; and as soon
as that water is little more than luke-warm, it is poured gently into
the vat, and upon this is cast a basket of tan; during which time
the skins are still kept turning, that the water and tan may not
scorch them. After an hour they are taken out and cast for a day
into cold water, then returned to the former vat and the same water
they had been in before, and here they are left for eight days:
which expired, they are put into the tan-pit, and three coverings of
tan given them; the first of which lasts five weeks, the second six,
and the third two months. The rest of the process is the same in
all respects as that delivered above.

The Process of Tanning in 1813

(From Thomas Martin, The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, pp. 542-546.)

TAN, tannin, or the principle that effects the operation of the
art of tanning, is usually produced from the bark of oak, chopped
and ground in a mill into a coarse powder. M. Deyeux was the
first chemist who ascertained and gave an account of the peculiar
nature of tan. He pointed it out in his analysis of nut-galls, as a
peculiar resinous substance, but without assigning to it a name.
Seguin, who ranks high in France, as a chemist, and as one who
has entered deeply into the principles of tanning, though not so
much regarded by the tanners in England, engaged in a very exten-
sive set of experiments on the art of tanning leather, during which
he discovered that fav has the property of precipitating glue from
its solutions in water, and also of combining with skins of animals.
This led him to suppose it the essential constituent of the liquids
employed for the purpose of tanning leather, and hence arose the

76

names fan, tannin, and tanning principle given it by the French
chemists. To M. Proust, however, we are indebted for the inves-
tigation of the nature and properties of tan, and of the methods by
which it is obtained in a separate state. Much curious and im-
portant information has been obtained by the experiments of Sir
Humphry Davy, on the constituent parts of astringent principles,
and on their operation in the business of tanning, and to the papers
of that gentleman, which we understand are founded on practice,
we shall be chiefly indebted for the rules hereafter given, as guides
to the English tanner.

Tan exists in a great number of vegetable substances, but
it may be procured most readily, and in the greatest purity from
nut-galls and catechu. Nut-galls, are, as most of our readers
know, excrescences formed on the leaves of the oak by the puncture
of an insect which deposits its eggs upon them. The best are
known by the name of Aleppo-galls, imported in large quantities
into this country for the use of dyers, calico-printers, &c. They
are hard like wood, round, often nodulated on the surface, of an
olive-green colour, and of an excessively disagreeable taste. They
are, in a measure, soluble in water, and what remains is tasteless,
and possesses the properties of the fibre of wood. A very great
proportion of water is necessary to carry off everything soluble.
It has been ascertained that one hundred and fifty English pints
of water are necessary to carry off whatever is soluble in a pound
troy-weight of galls. The soluble part of nut-galls consists chiefly
of five ingredients, viz, tan; extract; gallic-acid; mucilage; and
lime: but tan constitutes more than two-thirds of the whole.
Hence the importance of nut-galls and oak-bark in the art of
tanning, of which the following is a brief description.

Hides quickly become putrid when in a moist or wet state, but
may be preserved for a great length of time by being perfectly
dried, but then are hard like horn, and not fit for any useful pur-
pose. These inconveniences are obviated by tanning, and they
then take the name of leather. To tan a hide, is to saturate it
with tannin, or the astringent principle of vegetables, and by
that means, to render it incorruptible. We shall not here dwell
upon the theories by which the operations and the effect of tanning
have been explained; but shall content ourselves with observing
that M. Seguin has shown that the tannin unites itself with the
gelatine which forms almost the whole of the hide, and that there
thence results a new substance possessing properties altogether
distinct. In order to prepare a hide for receiving the tan, it is
necessary to begin by removing the hair, separating the adhering

77h

pieces of fat, &c. These preliminary operations are performed in
the following manner: —

When the hides, which are to be tanned, are raw (in which state
they are called green hides), they are put to steep in water, in order
to clear them of the blood and filth they may have collected in the
slaughter-house. They are left to soak in the water for some time,
and if the hides are dry, they are steeped a longer time, sometimes
for fourteen days; less in hot weather, or more in cold. They are
drawn out once or twice to see if they are well softened. The
neighbourhood and the command of water are necessary to these
operations. Without that the hides cannot be prepared.

After the hides have been well softened they next proceed to
cleanse or free them from the hair. With this intention several
different methods are employed; that which is the oldest, and still
most generally followed, consists in the application of lime. In all
tanneries, pits are formed underground, having their sides lined
with stone or brick, in which lime-stone is slacked so as to form
milk of lime. These pits are divided into three kinds, according
to the greater or less strength of the lime. The hides intended to
be scoured are first put into the weakest of these pits, wherein they
are allowed to remain until the hair readily yields to the touch.
If this liquor be not sufficiently active, they are removed to the
next in graduation. The time they are soaked is longer or shorter
in proportion to the strength of the lime, the temperature of the
air, and the nature of the hides. It has been proposed to substitute
lime-water in place of the milk of lime. But, though the lime-
water acts at first with sufficient strength, its action is not suff-
ciently permanent, and, in order to succeed in clearing the hides
by this means, it is necessary to renew it occasionally; and in this
way the hides may be prepared in a few days. In some tanneries,
after they have been kept in the pits for a short time, they pile
them up in a heap on the ground, in which state they are suffered
to remain during eight days; after which they return them into
the same pits from whence they were taken, and this process 1s
repeated till the hair can be easily scraped off.

In many countries they mix a large quantity of ashes with
the lime; but the only effect this mixture appears to produce is
that of rendering the leather less consistent than when lime
is solely employed. Many attribute the bad qualities of leather
to the too great use of lime, which has a tendency to burn and
render it brittle. Hence, in several well-conducted tanneries,

78

in manufacturing leather for some particular uses, the employment
of lime is carefully avoided. Hides may, indeed, be cleansed by
subjecting them to an incipient fermentation, which may be pro-
duced in a variety of ways. But in whatever manner the first
part of the operation has been conducted, as soon as it is perceived
that the hair is in a fit state to be removed, it is scraped off, on a
wooden horse, by means of a crooked knife, which is not so sharp
in any part of its edge as to injure the hide, or, by a whetstone.
This operation is not only intended to remove the hair, but like-
wise the scurf and filth which collects on the skin at the root of the
hair.

After removing the hair and filth, the next object is to free the
hides from the adhesion of any part of the muscle, or fat, and to
render them soft and pliant. Those which are intended for par-
ticular kinds of work, such as calves’ skins for the upper leather of
shoes, and neats’ leather for shoulder-belts, do not require to be
raised or swelled. As soon, therefore, as they are cleansed and
freed from the flesh, &c. they are laid ina pit. The hides intended
for the soles of shoes, and other strong leathers, are afterwards
raised by means of processes which vary in different countries.
When lime is employed, the operation is commenced by putting
the cleansed skins into the weakest of the lime pits, and another
in the strongest. During this operation care is taken to withdraw
them, and pile them up in a heap, every two or three days, putting
them again into the pit after it has been well stirred. Lime hardens
the skin, and in those tanneries where it is used, the hides are put
into a ley of pigeons’ dung in order to soften them, and this process
is termed graining. They are daily withdrawn from the ley, and
laid up in a heap for half an hour. This operation is usually con-
tinued for ten or fifteen days. Sometimes also acid compositions
are employed for raising the hides; and this operation is greatly
accelerated by using the acids warm, as well as by the method prac-
tised in this country, of removing them from a weaker liquor into
a stronger, until they be properly, raised or swelled.

The skin being thus prepared, is next subjected to the operation
of tanning; and to this purpose vegetable astringents are employed.
Those vegetables answer best which contain the greatest portion
of the astringent principle, now known under the name of tannin.
Mr. Davy has demonstrated that caoutchoue or Japan earth,
contains more of this principle than any other vegetable with
which we are acquainted, but oak bark is the substance most
commonly employed in our climates; for it is not only very abun-

dant in Europe, but likewise contains much tannin. Every species
of oak, however, does not supply us with bark of the same quality;
the white oak is inferior to the green oak which grows in the south,
while this in its turn yields in the value of its bark to that procured
from the roots of the kermes-bearing oak, which is employed in
southern climates for tanning strong leathers. But whatever kind
of bark be employed, it is previously ground down to powder.
The tan-pits are sometimes of a round, and at others of a square
form, dug out to a considerable depth in the earth, and lined with
wood or masonwork; their size being in proportion to the extent
of the works. The method of tanning is different in different
countries.

According to calculation, from five to six pounds of tan is
required to each pound of strong leather; and one hundred weight
of hides yields from fifty-two to fifty-six pounds of leather.

It appears that the operation of tanning is nothing more than
combining the tannin, or astringent principle with the gelatin,
which is the basis of the skin, and all the manipulations of the
art are directed to effect or facilitate this combination. We will
now detail another method chiefly taken from Mr. Davy’s memoir
on the subject.

After the skin has been cleaned, it is submitted to other opera-
tions before it is immersed in the tan liquor. According to Mr.
Davy’s account of the practices of the art, the large and thick
hides which have undergone incipient putrefaction, are introduced
for a short time into a strong infusion of oak bark, and after this
they are acted on by water impregnated with a little sulphuric or
acetic acid; in consequence of which they become harder and
denser than before, and fitted after being tanned, for the purpose
of forming the stouter kinds of sole leather. The lighter and thinner
skins are treated in a different manner: they are macerated for
some days in a ley formed from the infusion of pigeons’ dung in
water, which contains a little carbonate of ammonia; the skin is
thus deprived of its elasticity, and becomes more soft.

The tanning liquor 1s prepared by infusing bruised oak bark
in water; and skins are tanned by being successively immersed
in such infusions, saturated in different degrees with the astringent
principles of the bark. The first leys in which they are immersed
are weak, but towards the completion of the process they are used
as strong as possible; and in preparing stout sole leather, the
skins are kept in an ooze, approaching to saturation, by means of
layers of oak bark.

So

The infusion of oak bark, especially that obtained by the
first maceration, contains principally tannin and_ extractive
matter; the gallic acid, if present, as has been supposed, being
at least in an inconsiderable proportion. In the course of the
maceration of the skins in these liquors, the tannin combines
gradually with the gelatin, which, in an organized form, principally
constitutes the skin, and forms with it a compound insoluble in
water, dense and impermeable to that fluid, while it possesses at
the same time a certain degree of elasticity. The extractive
matter also enters into the combination; for when skin in a large
quantity has exerted its full action on a small quantity of infusion,
it at length abstracts the whole dissolved matter, and renders it
colourless. From this extractive matter colour is derived, and the
skin may perhaps be rendered more dense.

It has been supposed, that the gallic acid frequently contained
in vegetable astringents, facilitates the action of their tanning, in
converting skin into leather. According to the theory of the op-
eration, as given by Seguin, skin is gelatin in a hardened state from
slight oxidizement; the gallic acid in some measure de-oxidizes it,
and hence reduces it to that state in which it combines more easily
with gelatin. There is little proof given, however, of this theory;
and it appears sufficiently established, that the operation can be
performed without the presence of this acid; and indeed in the tan
liquor prepared by one maceration from oak bark it 1s scarcely dis-
coverable, and, if it does exist in it, it is in intimate combination
with the extractive matter.

The operation of tanning, as now described, requires a number
of months, from the skins being successively and slowly introduced
into infusions of different degrees of strength. Seguin, after his
discovery of tannin, proposed to abridge the process by introducing
the skins more speedily into strong infusions of the tanning sub-
stance; and in this way, according to the excellent report given on
the art of tanning by Pelletiere and Lelivre, in which his method
is full described, the whole could be finished in about twenty days,
and leather obtained equal in equality to that prepared by the
old method. There is reason, however, to doubt of the superiority
of this new method. Mr. Nicholson, in some observations on this
subject, when a patent was taken out for Seguin’s method in this
country, stated, that from information acquired from the manu-
facturers, he found that they had previously been sufficiently
acquainted with the powers of the strong tanning infusions;
and that it had been even proposed to employ them so as to

81

abridge the process. But the leather thus prepared was by no
means equal to that prepared in the old method. The advantage
of the slow and gradual process appears to be, that the whole
substance of the skin is penetrated and equally changed; while
in the more rapid method the external parts must be more acted
on; and the texture probably will be more unequal. It appears
also from Mr. Davy’s experiments, to combine with a larger
quantity of the extractive matter contained in the astringent
infusion; and hence too the advantage of the immersions in the
weak liquors, as these contain more of this than the strong in-
fusions. It must be confessed, however, that for any thing theory
can discover, the common process appears to be unnecessarily
protracted, and some advantage might probably be derived from
adopting some of the manipulations of Seguin.

The skin in drying increases in weight from the fixation of the
vegetable matter: the quantity of this seldom exceeds one-third of
its weight. The increase is greater, according to Mr. Davy’s ex-
periments from quick than from slow tanning. In the latter, he
supposes more of the extractive matter enters into combination,
and this weakening the attraction of the skin to tannin, less of it
is absorbed, and less vegetable matter on the whole enters into the
composition of the leather. Probably, also, in the slow process,
more of the animal matter is removed. Other substances are used
in tanning, as the bark of the willow, elm, and other trees, and,
as we have seen galls and catechu. The leather prepared from
these varies in colour, and in some other external qualities.

Catechu, or terra Japonica, as it 1s sometimes called, 1s a sub-
stance obtained by decoction and evaporation from a species of
Mimosa, which abounds in India. There are two varieties of it;
one from Bombay, and the other from Bengal. This substance is
found to consist chiefly of tan, combined with a peculiar species
of extract. Tan is chiefly found in the bark of trees, but it has
been obtained from the sap, the wood, and even the leaves. It
varies 1n quantity according to the season of the year, and it like-
wise varies with the age and size of the trees. The greatest pro-
portion of tan is contained in the inner barks. The epidermis
usually contains none. The following table exhibits the proportion
of solid matter extracted by water from different vegetable sub-
stances, and the quantity of tan contained in that solid matter, as
ascertained by the experiments of Mr. Davy:

Solid Tan

One Ounce of Matter
White inner bark of old oak, contains 108 2
PE eee et se Spa doe young oak eta Th
Pe ak a eae Spanish chestnut 89 63
eee) a asd ok Leicester willow 117 12
Middle bark of oak 43 19
Mee ee bes... J as wo pamishehestnut 4] 14
ee) cik ots Ses Leicester willow 34 16
Entire bark of oak 61 29
|. ss. s spanish, chestnut 53 21
ee a ae Oe Leicester willow 71 3S
Sicilian sumach 165 78
Malaga sumach 156 79
Bombayeatech = eS 261
Ibegeaivcatecnnt EE 231
Nut-galls 13 Osea

Of Tawing, Leather-dressing and Dyeing, and other Processes.—
The dressing and preparing ae the Sone of lambs, sheep, goats
and other thin hides, though in many particulars closely resembling
the method used with the thick cow and ox hides, forms a totally
distinct branch of business, and is one in which a good deal of
practical skill and nicety of manipulation are required to succeed
perfectly. The processes are various according to the article
required, and this branch of the manufacture supplies the immense
demand of white and dyed leather for gloves, the morocco leather
of different colours and qualities for coach-linings, book-bindings,
pocketbooks, and thin leather for an infinite Ham ber of Stiller
purposes. Of these the white leather alone is not tanned but
finished by the process of tawing, the coloured leather receives
always a tanning independently “of the other dyeing materials.
The previous preparation of each, or that in which the skin is
thoroughly cleansed and reduced to the state of simple membrane
in which it is called pelt, is essentially the same whether for tawing
or dyeing. It is thus performed at Bermondsey, near London, a
place long celebrated for all branches of the leather business.

By far the greater number of the skins are imported; if lambs,
they are thus prepared; the skins are soaked for a time in water,
to cleanse them from any loose dirt and blood, and put upon the
beam commonly used for the purpose, which is a half cylinder of
wood covered with leather, and scraped on the flesh side with the
semicircular blunt knife with two handles, used in this operation.
They are then covered with a coat of lime of the consistence of paint,

83

on the flesh side, and hung up in considerable numbers in a small
close room heated by flues, where they remain to putrefy for a
given time. During this process a thick slime works up to the
surface of the skin, by which the regularity of the process is ascer-
tained, and the wool is loosed so that it readily comes off with a
slight pull. Each skin is then returned to the beam, the wool
taken off, and all the lime worked off with the knife, and the rough
edges pared away. The skin is then put into a pit filled with lime-
water and kept there from two to six weeks, according to the nature
of the skin, which has the effect of checking the further putrefaction,
and produces a very remarkable hardening and thickening of its
substance, and probably « also it detaches a further portion of the
slime. The skin is again well worked, and much of its substance
pared down, and all inequalities smoothed with the knife. Pains
and judgment are required in these operations on the one hand not
to endanger the substance of the skin by the putrefaction, and on
the other hand to work out every particle of the lime, of which the
least if retained will prevent the skin from dressing well in the
subsequent processes, and from taking the dye uniformly and well.
The skin is then again softened and freed from the lime. All the
thickening produced by the lime is thus removed, and the skin is
now highly purified, and 1s a thin extensible white membrane called
in this se a pelt, and is fit for any subsequent operation of tawing
or dyeing, or oil-dressing, or shammoying.

The method of bringing kid and goats’ skins to the state of
pelt is nearly the same as for lambs, except that the lining is
used before the hair is taken off, the hair being of but little im-
portance, and only sold to the plasterers; but the lambs’ wool,
which is more valuable, would be greatly injured by the lime.
Kids’ skins will take a longer time in tanning than lambs’.

If the pelts are to be tawed they are put into a solution of alum
and salt in warm water, in the proportion of three pounds of alum
and four pounds of salt to every 120 middle sized skins, and worked
therein till they have absorbed a sufficient quantity. This again
gives the skin a remarkable degree of thickness and toughness.

The skins are now taken out and washed in water, and then
again put into a vat of bran and water and allowed to ferment,
till much of the alum and salt is got out and the unusual thicken-
ing produced by it is for the most part reduced. They are then
taken to a room with a stove in the middle, and stretched on
hooks, and kept there till fully dry. The skins are now converted

54

into a tough, flexible, and quite white leather; but to give them a
glossy finish, and to take off the harshness of the feel still remain-
ing, they are again soaked in water and put into a large pail
containing the yolks of eggs beat with water. Here the skins are
trodden for a long time, by which they so imbibe the substance of
the egg that the liquor above them is rendered almost perfectly
limpid, after which they are hung up in a loft to dry, and finished
by glossing, with a warm iron.

The essential difference, therefore, between tanning and tawing
is, that in the former case the pelt is combined with tan and
other vegetable matter, and in the latter with something that it
imbibes from the alum and salt (possibly alumine), and which is
never again extracted by the subsequent washing and branning.

The Morocco leather, as it is called, prepared from sheepskins
chiefly, and used so largely for coach-lining, pocketbooks, and the
best kind of book-binding, is thus made: “the skin, cleansed and
worked in the way already described, is taken from the lime-water,
and the thickening brought down, not by bran liquor as in tawing,
but by a bath of dogs’ or pigeons’ dung diffused in water, where it
remains till suppled, and till the lime is quite got out and it becomes
a perfectly white clean pelt. If intended to be dyed red it is then
sewed up very tight in the form of a sack with the grain side out-
wards, and is immersed in a cochineal bath of a warmth j just equal
to at the hand can support, and is worked about for a sufficient
time till it is uniformly dyed. The sack 1s then put into a large vat
containing sumach infused in warm water, and kept for some hours
till it is sufficiently tanned.

The skins intended to be black, or any colour but red, are merely
sumached without any previous dyeing. After some further prepa-
ration, the colour of the red skins being finished with a weak bath
of saffron, the skins when dry are grained and polished in the follow-
ing way; they are stretched very tight upon a smooth inclined
board, and rubbed over with a little oil. Those intended for black
leather are previously rubbed over with an iron liquor, which uniting
with the gallic acid of the sumach, instantly strikes a deep and
uniform black. They are then rubbed by hand with a ball of glass
with much manual labour, which polishes them and makes them
very firm and compact. Lastly, the graining or ribbed surface
by which this kind of leather is distinguished is given by rubbing
the leather very strongly with a ball of box-wood, round the centre
of which a number of small equidistant parallel grooves are cut,

85

forming an equal number of narrow ridges, the friction of which
gives the leather the desired inequality of surface.

The process for the real Morocco leather, as prepared from
goatskins at Fez and Tetuan, is thus described by M. Broussonet.
The skins are first cleansed, the hair taken off, limed, and reduced
with bran nearly in the way already described for the English
morocco leather. After coming from the bran they are thrown
into a second bath made of white figs mixed with water, which is
thereby rendered slimy and fermentable. In this bath the skins
remain four or five days, when they are thoroughly salted with
salgem, or rock salt alone, after which they are fit to receive the
dye, which for the red is cochineal and alum, and for the yellow,
pomegranate bark and alum. The skins are then tanned, dressed,
supplied with a little oil, and dried.

Much excellent leather, and of various colours, is manufac-
tured in different parts of Russia; of which, the processes are
given in Mr. Tooke’s “View of the Russian Empire,” Vol. III.
The safhan, or manoquin, which 1s prepared largely at Astracan,
is manufactured only from the skins of goats and bucks; the
usual colours of these are red and yellow. The shagreen, which
is also manufactured at Astracan, consists of hides of horses,
and asses; but of these only a small part is used, cut from the
crupper-line along the back about thirty-four inches upon the
crupper, and twenty-eight along the back. The chief dyes of
shagreen are green, blue, and black.

Various processes have been invented to render leather for shoes
and boots water-tight, which is effected by an additional dressing
with an oily or resinous matter: the following recipe is said to be
effectual. One pound of linseed-oil; half a pound of mutton suet;
six ounces of beeswax, and four of resin, are to be melted, thorough-
ly incorporated, and applied, while warm, to the upper-leather
and the soles.

ihe Work of the Currier any 10360

(From Edward Hazen, The Panorama of Professions and Trades, pp. 67-70.)

1. It is the business of the currier to dress the thinner kinds of
leather, which he procures from the tanner in an unfinished state.
In most cases, in the United States, except in and near large cities,
the business of tanning and currying are usually united in the same

56

AUVAGNDIUGUEDDUVUNUUUOUUUUUECUETCULUUCGETNULCLUAT Mtl TT ATT i

iS : in yee : ae th ay |: YY aif i | “| Hh

of

oS = mt

Figure 27.—Tanyard, 1836.

individual; or, at least, the two branches of business are carried on
together by the aid of workmen skilled in their respective trades.

2. The mode of dressing the different kinds of skins, varies in
some respects; but, as the general method of operating is the same
In every sort, a description applicable in one case will convey a
sufficiently accurate idea of the whole. We shall, therefore, select
the calf-skin, since it is more frequently the subject of the currier’s
skill, than any other.

3. The skin is first soaked in water, until it has become sufh-
ciently soft, and then shaved with the currier’s knife, on the inner
side, over the currier’s beam: it is then placed on a table, somewhat
inclined from the workman, and scoured on both sides with the
edge of a narrow, smooth stone, set in a handle; and again, with an
iron sleeker, of a similar shape. The skin 1s next stuffed with a
composition of tallow and tanner’s oil on the flesh side, and then
hung up to dry. Afterwards it is rubbed on the hair side, and then
hung up to dry. Afterwards it is rubbed on the hair side with a
board, and again scraped on the flesh side with the knife. Having

87

681-431—_64——_7

thus been prepared, the skin is blacked on the flesh side with
lampblack and tanner’s oil, and subsequently rubbed with paste,
applied with a brush. When it had been dried, the whole process
is finished by rubbing both sides with a glass sleeker.

4. Horse hides are blacked on the hair side, or, as the curriers
term it, on the grain, with a solution of copperas water. Leather
designed for harnesses, for covering carriages, and for other similar
purposes, is also blacked on that side in the same manner.

5. The trade of the currier is divided into two or three branches.
Some dress only calf-skins, and other thick leather designed for
shoes, harnesses, and carriages: others confine themselves to
dressing skins, which are to be applied to binding books, and to
other purposes requiring thin leather. It may be well to remark
here, that the dressers of thin leather usually tan the skins them-
selves, using the leaves of sumach, instead of bark.

The Process of Making Morocco Leather

(From Julia de Fontenelle and Malepeyre, The Arts of Tanning, Currying and
Leather Dressing, edit. and transl. Campbell Morfit, 1852.)

Goat and sheep skins are converted by the tanners into ¢rue
Morocco, imitation Morocco, skiver, and roan.

True Morocco—Owing to the comparative scarcity of goats, the
tanners use very fresh skins, their supplies being drawn from
Switzerland, Germany, Africa, East Indies, and Asia Minor. As
imported, they are dry, and covered with hair, and require breaking
and softening, which is done by soaking them for several days in
water, treading them under feet, rinsing and scraping them on
the flesh side to produce evenness. They are then made to
pass through three old lime-pits, and after the hair is removed,
through a fresh pit, the same precautions being observed, through-
out, as in the treatment of calf-skins. This process is continued
until the hair can be easily detached, which generally requires
about a month, and the skins are then scraped on the beam,
reimmersing in lime-milk for two days, and again fleshed with the
scraping knife.

Goat skins being of a dry nature, require more rinsing than
others, and the operation must be frequently repeated many times
in running water.

The unhaired skins are then “bated” with pigeon’s, chicken’s,
or dog’s dung, to remove excess of lime. Fermented bran-water
is sometimes used as the bate. After being again scraped, the
skins are sewed into bag form with the grain side outwards, and
partly filled through a funnel with a strong decoction of sumach;
they are inflated by the breath, tightly closed, and thrown into
a vat containing a shallow depth of weak liquor of sumach, and
therein made to float about by means of constant agitation, so as
to insure the uniform action of the tan-liquor throughout the surface
of the skin. After a few hours, the bags are taken out, and
piled upon each other so as to promote by pressure a thorough
penetration of the liquor through the pores of the skin, and con-
sequent chemical combination. This process is repeated with
new liquor, and the bags are then unstitched, rinsed, and scraped
on the beam, and suspended in the drying-loft. These “crust”
skins, as they are termed when in this latter condition, are
moistened, rubbed out smooth with a copper tool upon a sloping
board, and hung up to dry, previous to undergoing the process of
coloring. This method tans the goat-skins in one day.

Another plan is to steep the skins for several days in a fermenting
mixture of bran-water, scrape them on the beam, and soak and
rinse them in clear water. After being limed in the usual manner,
they are worked or rubbed over with a tool of hard schist, to press
out the lime, smooth down unevenness, and soften the grain, and
are then fulled by agitation in a revolving cask, lined within with
pegs, and containing water.

The tanning is then effected in the manner before mentioned, two
pounds of Sicilian sumach being required for each skin. In France,
the tanning 1s accomplished very much in the same manner as by
the fulling above described; the skins are tan-liquor being placed
together in a churn-like cask, and the chemical combination pro-
moted by causing it to revolve upon a horizontal axis.

Imitation Morocco—This leather is prepared from sheep-skins, in
the same manner as true Morocco; except that, after being stripped
of wool, they must be subjected to powerful hydrostatic pressure
for the expulsion of oleaginous matter, which, being contained ina
large amount, would otherwise seriously interfere with the tanning.

They are limed in pits containing 33 pounds of lime for every
dozen skins, and are allowed to remain from three weeks to a month.
They are then deprived of hair, are resteeped in the pits for five or
six days, rinsed, beaten in tubs, and, when perfectly clean, de-
posited in ooze for a month.

~
~

When sheep-skins are tanned for common leather, oak-bark is
used instead of sumach.

Morocco is classified in commerce under the head of fancy
leathers, because it always reaches market with a highly finished
and colored surface on the grain side.

The color is imparted in the same manner as cloth is dyed—
by means of the chemical combination of a pigment with a mordant.

Some tanners dye the skins when they reach the state prepara-
tory to going into the tan-liquor, by sewing them together edgewise,
with the grain outwards, then mordanting, and afterwards giving
them two immersions, of a half hour each, in the dye-bath.

The most common method, however, is to take the tanned skins
as they come from the drying-loft, place two together, and then
rub them over exteriorly with a brush containing the mordant
solution, and afterwards to apply the dye liquor in the same
manner. When the dyeing is finished, they are to be rinsed,
drained, spread out, sponged with oil to preserve their flexibility,
and then sent to the curriers’ shop to be finished.

Black—This color is imparted by the application of a solution of
red acetate of iron; crimson, by a mordant of alum or tin salt,
and decoction of cochineal; puce, by mordant of alum and decoction
of logwood; é/ue, by a solution of sulphate of Indigo; o/ive, by
a weak solution of copperas, as mordant, and a decoction of bar-
berry containing a little of the blue bath, as coloring liquor;
violet, by the consecutive application of decoction of cochineal
and weak Indigo bath.

go

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Mbrenton= 1959:

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Index

Abbott, Timothy, 65

Andros, Governor, 6

“Art du Tanneur,” 9

The Arts of Tanning, Currying and
Leather Dressing, 26; quoted,
27-29

Ashmead, Samuel, 43

Bidermann, Antoine (see James A.
Bidermann)

Bidermann, Jacques Antoine (see
James A. Bidermann)

Bidermann, James A., 54n, 55, 57, 59,
OO 12, 1 oael +

Bidermann, James Irénée, 54n

Bishop, J. Leander: quoted, 3, 13-14,
15

Bonney, Josiah, 35

Book of Trades, 10

Boyden, Seth, 32-33

Brandywine Village, 40

Brief Retrospect of the
Century, 30

Broom, Jacob, 50

Brown, William, 40n

Budd, Thomas: quoted, 37

Eighteenth

Cardon, Alexandre and Co., 14, 40,
49, 51-74

Cardon de Sandrans, Alexandre, 53-74

Cardon, Joseph de, Baron de Sandrans,
53n

Chandler, William, 40n

“Chemistry of the Arts,” 29-30

Chenou, L. F., 55-57, 59-60

Christiana Hundred, 39

Circle of the Mechanical Arts, 10, 30

Clark, Thomas, 48

Connecticut, 5

Corbit, Daniel, 45n

Corbit, William, 45

Coxe; Tench 34, 30% 35; quoted, 15
Crawford, Thomas, 45, 47
Crystal Palace, 30, 34

Dalmas, Charles, 57, 59, 72, 73, 74

d’Aubigné, Guillaume Merle, 60

Dauphin County, Pa., 74

Davy, Sir Humphry, 12, 21, 29-30, 32

Delaware, 37-74 passim

Descriptions des Arts et Métiers, 9

Dickinson plantation, 48

Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and
Mines, 12

Diderot, Denis, 9537

Dover, Del., 48

Dow, Phinehas, 34

Duhamel, Jean Marie Constant, 9

Duplanty, McCall and Co., 68

du Pont, 50

du Pont de Nemours, E. I. and Co.,
67, 13514

du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel,
51-60 passim; quoted, 51, 52

du Pont, E. I., 51-74 passim

du Pont, Evelina Gabrielle, 54n

du Pont, Irénée, 53

du Pont, Madame Pierre Samuel, 55

du Pont, Sophie M., 53

du Pont, Victor, 51-52, 53, 57, 69

du Pont, Victor and Charles and Co.,
68

Edwards, William, 32

Eldridge and Brick and Co., 65, 69, 70
Eleutherian Mills, 59

Evans, Oliver, 32, 43, 50

Fame (sloop), 64

Faring (Foering), Frederick, 65
Faring (Foering), Samuel, 65
Fay, Anthony, 32

Ferris, David, 38
Fessenden, Thomas G., 32
Finch, John, 6

Flomerfelt, George, 65
Foering. See Faring
Force, Peter, 4

Free Society of Traders, 7

Gallatin, Albert, 13
Giedion, Siegfried, 17
Gilpin, Joshua, 37
Gilpins, 50

Girard, Anthony, 68
Glasford, Hugh, 45
Griffith, Robert E., 65
Grubb, John, 37

Hagley, 53-74 passim

Hall and Hazzard, 48n
Hamilton, Alexander, 12-13
Harrisburg, Pa., 53n, 69, 71
Hazen, Edward, 10

Hewes, Joseph, 38n
Holtzbecker, F. H., 47
Houghton, George C., 15
Houston, Robert, 48n

Jackson and Webb, 41, 50

Jackson, Isaac, 41, 47; quoted, 42-43
Jacob, Job, 38n

Jenkins, William, 65

Johnson, Edward, 5

Julia de Fontenelle, J. S. E., 26

Kalm, Peter, 37
Kent County, Del., 38, 47, 48, 49
Klinkowstrém, Baron, 53n, 62

Lalande, Jérdéme, 9

Laplante, Meggeson and Co., 68
Lavoisier, Antoine, 26

Lewden, John, 38

Lewis, Evans, 41

Lewis, Stephen, 43n

Lock, Thomas, 40n

Macbride,
24-26

McLane Report, 13

McMechen, John, 43

David, 21, 26; quoted,

Malepeyre, F., 26
Martin, Thomas, 10, 30
Mary Ann, (sloop), 64
Maryland, 4
Massachusetts, 5, 6
Mechanic Exercises or Doctrines of
Handy-W ork, 9
Meredith, Thomas, 39
Merrewether, James, 43
Miller, Samuel, 30
Morfit, Campbell, 26
Morris, William, 48n
Mosely, Titus, 67
Moxon, Joseph, 9
Murphy, William, 67

Newark, Del., 45

New Castle County, Del., 37, 41, 47,
48, 49

New Castle, Del., 43, 45

New Haven, General Court of, 5n

Newport, Del., 43, 44

New Sweden, 6

New York, 6, 7

Niles, H., 40

Noxon, Thomas, 43

Oliver, Joseph, 49, 66
Osborne, Jeremiah, 5n

Palmer, John, 62

Panorama of Professions and Trades, 10
Parker, Samuel, 32

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 7
Patterson, Robert, 49n

Pennsylvania, 6, 7

Penn, William, 6, 7, 37

Reppert, El. Jc, 60

“A Perfect Description of Virginia,” 4
Peterson, Adam, 45n

Peterson, Alexander, 49

Peterson, John, 49

Peterson tannery, 45

Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 35
Poulson, George, 40

Poulson, Isaac, 40

Pringle, Sir John, 24n

Pusy, Maurice de, 53

“Report on Manufactures” (Gallatin),
13

“Report on Manufactures” (Hamil-
ton), 12-13

Richards, John, 48n

Richardson, Alpha, 34

Ring, Thomas, 40n

Robinson, Francis, 38

Royal Society, 9

Scott, Joseph, 40

Seal, Caleb, 40n

Seal, William, 39, 40n

Sesuin, Armand, 21, 26, 27-29; 30, 51,
52,62

Siddall, John, 68

Smith, John, 39

Smith, Thomas, 40, 41n

Smith, William, 40

South Carolina, 9, 12-13

Spruance, P., Jr., 49n

Squibb, Jacob, 45

Squibb, Robert, 40n

Stanton, Thomas, 40n

Starm, Isaac, 38-39, 41, 50; quoted;
3059

Starr, Jonas, 39

Starr, Joshua, 40n

Starr tannery, 38

Stone, Lewis, 43

99

“Sunday School society,” 68
Sussex County, Del., 38, 47, 48
“Swamp” (New York City), 6

Ten Eyck, 6
Thomas, Gabriel, 7
Trip and Bonsall, 40n
Tunnell, William, 48n

Ure, Andrew, 12

Van Leuvenigh, Zachariah, 43n
Vaughan, John, 64, 65
Virginia, 4

Walker, Davis, 40

Walker, William, 48n

Webb, Benjamin, 40n

Webb, B. R., 41

West, Joseph, 38

Wetherill, Samuel and Sons, 68
Wilkinson, Joseph, 39
Wilkinson, Robert and Co., 40n
Wilmington, Del., 37-74 passim
Wilson, Carson, 40n

Wilson, David, 40n
Winterthur, 54n

Witherspoon, David, 45n

Young, William, 68

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