Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/359

 It figured in nearly all the arts. It was used for harnesses and saddles. It was fashioned into boxes and articles of ornament. It served both as a protection and defense. Nevertheless, but little progress could be made until the settlers had obtained a stock of domestic cattle. Columbus is said to have brought the first of these animals to America on his second voyage thither in 1493. By 1610 they had been introduced into Virginia, while Plymouth and the New Netherlands received a supply a few years later. Tanneries then were started North and South. In a list of tradesmen to be sent to Virginia in 1620 are enumerated tanners, leather workers, and shoe-workers. In 1649 Captain Matthews, an active

 The above figures (a and b) represent a working plan of the "Shover" hide-mill, or ordinary "fulling" stocks for softening hides. It is essentially the same as the apparatus used for fulling cloth, and is undoubtedly the forerunner of the modern washing machine.

figure in Virginian history, received legislative commendation for his enterprise in the building of a tan-house, the manufacture of leather, and the employment of eight shoe-workers. The Virginia Assembly, however, a dozen years afterward had to come to the rescue of the industry, passing a law which required that