I know of no very early works on leather manufacture giving an account of bating. It was a “secret process,” and the results obtained depended almost entirely upon the judgment of the operator; and this judgment was frequently in error, owing to the fact that he did not understand what took place in the bate.
The earliest account I have been able to find is in a book[5] in the possession of Mr. Seymour-Jones, of Wrexham, entitled “The Art of Tanning and Currying Leather, with an Account of all the Different Processes made use of in Europe and Asia for Dying Leather Red and Yellow, Collected and Published at the Expense of the Dublin Society, to which are added Mr. Philippo’s Method of Dying the Turkey Leather as approved of by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, etc., and for which he had a Reward of £100, and their Gold Medal, for the Secret. Also the New Method of Tanning invented by the late David Macbride, M.D., London. Reprinted for J. Nourse, on the Strand, Bookseller to His Majesty, 1780.”
[5] There is a copy in the British Museum and also in the Patent Office Library.
In the chapter entitled “Alumed Calf Skins for Bookbinding” (p. 138), after the limed skins have been fleshed, the writer continues--
“To alum them, put into a large vat, three or four pails of dogs’ turd (this dogs’ turd is called alum); on this they fling a large pail of water to dilute it; this done, the workman goes into the vat, and, with his wooden shoes, tramples it, filling the vat half full of water. The _alumer_, on his part, pours water out of his boiler into this vat, mixing it with the cold water, after which he flings in the skins, stirring them and turning them for some moments with great sticks.”
The work is described pretty much as now practised, the puer tub being kept at a uniform heat by constantly taking out liquor, heating it, and returning it. But neither these goods, nor morocco, are put through a “drench” _after_ the puer, as we do now; they are scudded on the flesh, and well washed several times in clear water before being tanned.
*Morocco Leather* (p. 204).--The dry skins are soaked three or four days, “pared” on the beam, and unhaired in weak lime pits one month. At Nicosia they put the skins into lime, reduced to powder, for twenty days in summer, or twenty-five to thirty in winter; out of the lime, the skins are well washed and drained. The author continues--