| The use of animal hides for clothing and basic survival | | | | solution of organic matter in which bacteria grew and |
| items can be traced back as far as Early Man in the | | | | attacked the hides or skins, resulting in a loosening of |
| Paleolithic period. Cave paintings discovered in caves | | | | the hair or wool and some dissolving out of skin |
| near Lerida in Spain depict the use of leather clothing. | | | | protein. The hair or wool was then scraped off with |
| Man hunted wild animals for food but removed their | | | | primitive blunt stone or wooden scrapers and fat or |
| hides and skins from the dead carcass and used them | | | | meat still adhering to the flesh side was removed in a |
| as crude tents, clothing and footwear. | | | | similar manner. |
| Early man realized that the skins rapidly putrefied and | | | | Tanning, the conversion of pelt into leather, was done |
| thus became useless. They needed a way to | | | | by dusting the raw stock with ground up bark other |
| preserve the hides. The earliest method was to | | | | organic matter and placing them in shallow pits or vats |
| stretch the hides and skins on the ground to dry, | | | | of tannin solution.Further additions of ground bark, were |
| rubbing them with fats and animals brains while they | | | | made from time to time until the tannin solution had |
| dried. This had a limited preserving and softening action. | | | | penetrated right through the skin structure, taking up to |
| Primitive man discovered also that the smoke of wood | | | | two years for very thick hides. The leather was then |
| fires could preserve hides and skins, as did treating | | | | hung up for several days in open sheds. The dressing |
| them with an infusion of tannin-containing barks, leaves, | | | | of the leather involved paring or shaving it to a level |
| twigs and fruits of certain trees and plants. It seems | | | | thickness, coloring, treatment with oils and greases, |
| likely that man first discovered how to make leather | | | | drying and final treatment of the grain surface with |
| when he found that animal skins left lying on a wet | | | | waxes, proteins such as blood and egg albumins, and |
| forest floor became tanned naturally by chemicals | | | | shellac to produce attractive surface finishes. |
| released by decaying leaves and vegetation. | | | | During the Middle Ages leather was used for all kinds |
| Much later the use of earth salts containing alum as a | | | | of purposes such as: footwear, clothes, leather bags, |
| tanning agent to produce soft white leather was | | | | cases and trunks, leather bottles, saddlery and harness, |
| discovered. The alum leathers could be dyed with | | | | for the upholstery of chairs, and couches, book binding |
| naturally occurring dyestuffs in various plants. In | | | | and military uses. It was also used to decorate |
| Egyptian times leather was used for sandals, clothes, | | | | coaches, sedan chairs and walls.The majority of the |
| gloves, buckets, bottles, shrouds for burying the dead | | | | leather was tanned with oak bark but soft clothing, |
| and for military equipment. In Egyptian tombs, wall | | | | gloving and footwear leathers were tanned with alum, |
| paintings and artifacts depicted these uses of leather. | | | | oil, and combinations of these two materials.With the |
| The Romans also used leather on a wide scale for | | | | discovery and introduction of basic chemicals like lime |
| footwear, clothes, and military equipment including | | | | and sulphuric acid, tanners gradually abandoned their |
| shields, saddles and harnesses. Excavation of Roman | | | | traditional methods and leather production slowly |
| sites in Great Britain has yielded large quantities of | | | | became a chemically based series of processes. |
| leather articles such as footwear and clothing.The | | | | The growth of industrialization in the 18th and 19th |
| manufacture of leather was introduced to Britain by | | | | centuries created a demand for many new kinds of |
| the Roman invaders and by religious communities, | | | | leathers, e.g., belting leathers to drive the machines |
| whose monks were expert at making leather, | | | | being introduced into industry, special leathers for use in |
| especially vellum and parchment for writing purposes. | | | | looms in the textile industry, leathers for use as |
| The ancient Britons had many uses for leather from | | | | diaphragms and washers, leathers for use in transport |
| footwear, clothing and leather bags, to articles of | | | | and for furniture upholstery. |
| warfare. The hulls of the early boats, known as | | | | At the end of the nineteenth century, the invention of |
| coracles, were also covered in leather. Through the | | | | the motor car, modern roads, new ranges of coal tar |
| centuries leather manufacture expanded steadily and | | | | dyestuffs, the demand for softer, lightweight footwear |
| by mediaeval times most towns and villages had a | | | | with a fashionable appearance, and a general rise in |
| tannery, situated on the local stream or river, which | | | | the standard of living created a demand for soft, |
| they used as a source of water for processing and as | | | | supple, colorful leather. The traditional vegetable tanned |
| a source of power for their water wheel driven | | | | leather was too hard and thick for these requirements |
| machines. Many of these tanneries still exist, but in | | | | and thus, the use of the salts of the metal chromium |
| many towns the only remaining evidence is in street | | | | was adopted and chrome tanning became the |
| names, like Tanner Street, Bark Street and Leather | | | | tannage for modern footwear and fashion leathers. It |
| Lane. | | | | produces soft, supple, beautiful and fine leathers, |
| The earliest crude leathers were made by first | | | | reflecting the way we live. |
| immersing the raw hides and skins in a fermenting | | | | I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson! |