The use of animal skins for clothing and basic survival items dates back to early man in the Paleolithic period. Cave paintings discovered in caves near Lerida in Spain depict the use of leather clothing. Man hunted wild animals for food, but removed their hides and skins from carcasses and used them as crude tents, clothing, and footwear.
Early man realized that furs quickly rotted and thus became useless. They needed a way to preserve the skins. The oldest method was to spread hides and skins on the ground to dry, rubbing them with fat and animal brains as they dried. This had a limited preservative and softening action. Early man also discovered that the smoke from wood fires could preserve hides and skins, as well as treating them with an infusion of the bark, leaves, twigs, and fruits of certain trees and plants that contained tannin. It seems likely that man first discovered how to make leather when he discovered that animal hides left lying on the floor of a humid forest naturally tanned by chemicals released by decaying leaves and vegetation.
Much later the use of earthen salts containing alum as a tanning agent to produce soft white leather was discovered. Alum leathers could be dyed with natural colorants in various plants. In Egyptian times, leather was used for sandals, clothing, gloves, buckets, bottles, shrouds for burying the dead, and military equipment. In Egyptian tombs, wall paintings and artifacts depicted these uses of leather.
The Romans also used leather on a large scale for footwear, clothing, and military equipment, including shields, saddles, and harnesses. Excavation of Roman sites in Britain has turned up large quantities of leather goods such as footwear and clothing. Leather making was introduced to Britain by the Roman invaders and by religious communities, whose monks were skilled in making leather, especially vellum and parchment for writing purposes.
The ancient Britons had many uses for leather, from leather footwear, clothing and bags to war items. The hulls of early ships, known as coracles, were also covered in leather. Over the centuries, leather manufacturing expanded steadily, and by medieval times, most towns and villages had a tannery, situated on the local stream or river, which they used as a source of water for leather. processing and as a power source for its waterwheel-driven machines. Many of these tanneries still exist, but in many cities the only evidence left is in the street names, such as Tanner Street, Bark Street and Leather Lane.
The earliest rawhides were made by first immersing raw hides and skins in a fermented solution of organic matter in which bacteria grew and attacked the hides or skins, causing hair or wool to loosen and some proteins to dissolve. of the skin. The hair or wool was then scraped off with primitive blunt stone or wooden scrapers, and any fat or meat still adhering to the fleshy side was similarly removed.
Tanning, the turning of hide into leather, was done by dusting the raw material with ground bark and other organic matter and placing it in shallow pits or vats of tannin solution. the solution had penetrated through the skin structure, taking up to two years in very thick skins. The hide was then hung for several days in open sheds. Dressing leather involved peeling or shaving it to a level thickness, dyeing, treating with oils and fats, drying, and treating the grain surface with waxes, proteins such as blood and egg albumins, and shellac to produce attractive surface finishes.
During the Middle Ages, leather was used for all kinds of uses such as: footwear, clothing, bags, leather cases and trunks, leather bottles, saddlery and saddlery, to upholster chairs, capes, binding and military uses. It was also used to decorate coaches, sedan chairs, and walls. Most leather was tanned with oak bark, but soft leathers for clothing, gloves, and shoes were tanned with alum, oil, and combinations of these two materials. With the discovery and introduction of basic chemicals such as lime and sulfuric acid, tanners gradually abandoned their traditional methods and leather production slowly became a series of chemically based processes.
The growth of industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries created a demand for many new types of leathers, for example leathers for belts to drive the machines being introduced into the industry, special leathers for use on looms in the textile industry, leathers for use as diaphragms and washers, leathers for use in transportation and for furniture upholstery.
In the late 19th century, the invention of the automobile, modern roads, new ranges of coal tar stills, the demand for softer, lighter footwear with a modern look and a general rise in living standards created a demand for soft leather, extra colorful. Traditional vegetable tanned leather was too hard and thick for these requirements and therefore the use of chrome metal salts was adopted and chrome tanning became the tanning for modern footwear and fashion leathers. It produces soft, supple, beautiful, fine leathers that reflect the way we live.
I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson!