Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/369

 used at the present time, vary in construction according to the grades of leather desired. Some of them are simply great drums, the interiors of which have been stuck over with rows of oak pins. In this way, when these drums are put in motion, the hides, one hundred and fifty to two hundred in number, fall upon the pins and are thoroughly beaten and their fibers loosened. The more common form of the mill, however, consists of a reservoir into which are projected a number of arms or beaters connected by rods to a shaft outside, and this latter as it revolves imparts a reciprocatory vibrating motion to the beaters. But how little advance even this is upon the ancient Egyptian fuller is apparent to



one who will take the trouble to look over some of the old prints. These show the rolls of cloth wetted and manipulated between a block and concave inclined table, with the water passing into a trough at the bottom. These all have their counterparts in the modern fulling or the modern hide mill. The hide mill was introduced among American tanners about 1830, at Salem, but it did not really come into general use, especially among the hemlock tanners of New York, until 1850. Perhaps the invention best entitled to the term "epoch-making" is that of the splitting machine. Indeed, it was the pioneer of the great improvements in the industry, and the effect of it was no other than to revolutionize the currying and finishing business in this country. Previous to its invention the tanned hides had been shaved down to