Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/516

LEFT LEATHER 440 LEBANON plan adopted consists of sweating the hides, or artificially heating them till in- cipient putrefactive fermentation is set up. The hides are afterward stretched over a tanners' beam, and the hair and scarf skin are removed by shaving with a fleshing knife. At the same time the flesh side is gone over, and any frag- ments of fiber or fat adhering to it are pared away. All traces of lime in the hides must be got rid of, and that some- times is effected in the first tan pit, con- taining acid liquors weak in tannin, and sometimes by "bating" in "pure" — which is a wai'm decoction of pigeons' or otiier fowls' dung. The methoc of actual tan- ning varies endlessly, but in general it may be said to consist in suspending or depositing in layers the hides in a suc- cessive series of pits containing tan liquor or ooze which is weak at first, but which as the tanning proceeds is made increasingly rich in tannin. To finish the hides they are damped and softened in water, scoured to remove the bloom from their surface, then liberally oiled and the whole surface worked over by pressure with a three-sided steel implement called a striking pin. This operation removes all creases and smooths out and solidifies the leather — an operation carried further and finished after renewed oiling, by rolling the hide on a smooth floor under a heavy hand roller. Morocco leather is a term which now applies rather to the finish of a certain class of goods than to the source of the skin of which it is forined. It is a richly grained and dyed leather, originally and properly made from goat skins tanned in sumach. Sheepskins roughly tanned and un- dressed are termed basils; dressed and dyed as for morocco, but finished smooth, they form roans; and split sheep skins (the flesh sides of which go to be sham- oyed to form wash leather) tanned and dressed are known as skivers. Russia leather is now any smooth finished thin leather, impregnated with the empyreu- matic oil of birch bark, which gives the substance its peculiar odor and insect resisting qualities. Originally it was made in Russia of dressed calf skins. Tawing. — Tawing consists in dressing skins with certain mineral salts, and is useful principally for glove leathers and the so-called kid leather employed for the uppers of ladies' boots. It is also by tawing that furriers* skins are prepared, and hides and skins in the hair generally preserved. Shamoying. — This consists simply in impregnating and saturating skins with oil- The name is derived from the fact that the process was originally applied for the preparation of the skins of the Alpine chamois. Shamoy leather now consists principally of the flesh splits of sheep skins. The oil is worked by means of stock slowly into the interstices of the skin and there becomes oxidized, form- ing a kind of combination with the gela- tinous constituents, and yielding a pecu- liarly soft and spongy texture. LEAVENWORTH, a city and county- seat of Leavenworth co., Kan., on the Missouri river and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Burlington Route, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific and several other railroads; 26 miles N. W. of Kansas City. It is the trade center for a farming and coal mining region ; manu- factures flour, syrup, glucose, stoves, machinery, bricks, castings, carriages, wagons, boots and shoes, metallic wares, iron bridges, furniture, cigars, and brooms. It contains Mount St. Mary's Academy, Cushing and St. John's Hos- pitals, Kansas State Orphan Asylum, Whittier Library, Kansas State and United States penitentiaries; and has electric light and street railroad plants; excellent water supply; the pro-cathedral of the Immaculate Conception; many churches; National and savings banks; daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. Adjoining the city on the N. is Fort Leavenworth, where are located an in- fantry and cavalry school, and a Nation- al cemetery. Pop. (1910) 19,363; (1920) 16,912. LEBANON, a city of Indiana, the county seat of Boone co. It is on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis and the Central Indiana railroads. Its industries include saw mills, chair factories, a condensed-milk factory, grain elevators, etc. Pop. (1910) 5,474; (1920) 6,257. LEBANON, a city of Pennsylvania, the county-seat of Lebanon co. It is on the Philadelphia and Reading, the Corn- wall, and the Cornwall and Lebanon rail- roads. In the vicinity are important de- posits of brownstone, limestone, and brick clay. There are important iron mines in the neighborhood. The chief industries are iron mining, quarrying, brickmaking, and the manufacture of silk, bolts and nuts, boilers, etc. It has four libraries, a court house, and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 19,240; (1920) 24,643. LEBANON, a mountain range in Syria. The word Lebanon is derived from a Semitic root meaning "white"; and this name is given to the moun- tains, because of the whitish color of their rocks. The mountains belong geo- logically to the Cretaceous system, and