Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/97

Popular Science Monthly seem to be an almost impossible posture. The toes of the left foot, which is in the stirrup, barely touch the floor and the worker is forced to lean fowardforward [sic] and press his abdomen against the upper pole of the stump that he may retain his balance.

In the case of plucking machines much of the danger to health is eliminated because the plucking machines are supplied with suction devices which carry off the loose particles of fur and dust.

The next treatment to which the skins are subjected is the most dangerous one. It is known as carroting. The pelts, with what fur remains on them after the long hair has been removed, are placed on a table and scrubbed with nitrate of mercury solution. This gives a brilliant yellow color to the light parts of the fur. Hence the name. In some instances this work is done by hand and in others by machinery.





When carroting is done by hand the workman holds the pelt on a table and scrubs it with a brush which he dips in the mercury solution. When it is done by machinery he holds the pelt on a revolving brush which passes through a bath of mercury. In either case it is necessary for the workman to wear strong gum gloves to protect his hands from the mercury solution.

The carroted fur is now taken to drying rooms where it is placed on racks and dried in ovens. When the mercurial solution has been volatilized the skins are put through the shaving process. Machines cut the hair from the skins and deposit it on metal trays. Girls sort out the hair of the various parts of the animal's body and place it in groups. The skins, when they are denuded of hair, are used to make glue.

It is impossible to describe the noise of the cutting machines. Unless a person has leathern lungs he cannot make himself heard in the cutting rooms, even if he shouts close to your ear. The girls who sort the fur are for the most part young. The workers suffer from defects of hearing brought on by the unearthly clatter. Some of the workers who were found to be perfectly devoid of hearing