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Page 25
One hundred and seventy-five glove makers and 20,000 people in Fulton
County draw their subsistence directly from glove making. Some of the
firms have a business reaching from $100,000 to $500,000 yearly. The
majority, however, have small shops, and do a small but profitable
business. Most of the work in Fulton County, as abroad, is done at the
homes of the workers. The streets of Gloversville and Johnstown are
lined with pretty and tasteful homes, in which the hum of the sewing
machine is constantly heard during the working hours of the day, but
the workers are exceptionally fortunate in being able while earning
good wages to enjoy all the comforts and surroundings of home, and in
being practically their own masters and mistresses.
Before the leather can be cut and sewed into the handsome articles
that are sold over the counters of the retail dry goods houses and
furnishing goods stores as gloves, the skins from which they are made
must be specially prepared. The two important points in this
preparation are the removal of the albuminous portion of the skin and
the retention and chemical changing of the gelatinous part, so that
it shall become pliable, elastic, and resist decomposition.
There are various methods which produce these results, and they are
technically known as tanning, alum dressing, oil dressing, and Indian
dressing. Each method produces a leather distinctly different from
that produced by any other. All the preliminary processes of these
various methods are alike in principle, although they vary somewhat in
detail. The object in all is to remove the hair from the hide,
separate the fleshy and albuminous matter, and leave only the
gelatinous, which alone is susceptible to the chemical action and can
be transformed by it into leather.
When the skins are received in the factory they are thoroughly soaked
to open out the texture and prepare them for the removal of the hair.
Then the skins are placed in vats of lime water, where, for two or
three weeks, the lime works into the flesh and albuminous matter, and
loosens the hair. The skins having thus been properly softened, the
dirty but picturesque operation of beaming for removing the hair
ensues. Before each beamer, as the workman is called, is an inclined
semi-cylindrical slab of wood covered with zinc. The skin is first
spread upon this, and the broad, curved beam of the knife glides
across it from end to end, scraping and removing all the loosened
hair, the scarf skin, and the small portion of animal matter adhering
to the skin.
After the unhairing, kid skins must be fermented in a drench of bran,
whose purpose is to completely decompose the remaining albuminous
matter, and also to remove all traces of the lime. The operation is
extremely delicate. While the gelatine is not so sensitive to the
decomposing action of the ferment, nevertheless great care is required
to prevent overfermentation and resulting damage to the texture of the
skin. It is impossible for even the most experienced to tell just how
long the fermentation should continue. Sometimes the work is done in
two or three hours, and sometimes it requires as many days. Incessant
watchfulness both day and night is required to detect the critical
moment. With the less delicate skins this bran bath is not necessary.
Lime and acid solutions accomplish the same purpose. When the gelatine
matter is all removed the skins are ready for the actual curative
process.
Oil dressing or Indian dressing--which merely differ in application,
but are founded upon the same principle--is the most simple method of
curing skins. The principle of each is the soaking of the gelatine
fibers of the skin with oil, the union of the latter and the gelatine
appearing in the form of oxide, and resulting in the insoluble,
undecomposable, pliant, and tough material known to the commercial
world as leather. The first step in the oil dressing, after the skins
have been duly soaked to render them porous and absorptive, is to
cover them with fish oil and place them in the stocks or fulling
machines--huge wooden hammers with notched faces working in iron
cases--where they are beaten and turned, and subjected to a uniform
pressure until the oil is gradually absorbed. After taking them out,
hanging them up, and stretching them, the oil and fulling process is
repeated according to the thickness of the skin, and until every part
of it is full of oil. After this the skins are dried in a mild heat
that causes the oxidization of the oil. This being completed, all the
superfluous oil is removed by putting the skins in an alkali bath.
Then the curing process is complete.
With the preparation of kid leather alum is the astringent curative
agent. Its operation is accompanied by that of others whose purpose is
to secure elasticity and pliability, and mainly to preserve that
beautiful texture which makes kid leather superior to all others.
These assistants in the process are eggs, flour, and salt. They are
combined into what is called a custard. A proper quantity of the
custard and a number of skins having been put together in a dash
wheel, where they are thrown about for some time, the open pores of
the skin absorb the custard freely, and become swelled by the chemical
union of the custard and the skin. In trade parlance this swelling is
known as "plumping." This having progressed satisfactorily, the skins
are folded together with the fleshy side outward, and are dried by a
gentle heat.
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