Transcriber’s Notes:
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The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
FUR DYEING AND FUR DRESSING
[i]
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
OF
FUR DRESSING AND FUR DYEING
WILLIAM E. AUSTIN, B.S.
CONSULTING CHEMIST TO THE FUR INDUSTRY
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY
Eight Warren Street
1922
[ii]
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY
[iii]
PREFACE
The great increase in the use of furs during the pastfew decades has caused the fur dressing and dyeingindustry to rise from relative insignificanceto considerable importance as a branch of applied chemistry.The past eight years, moreover, have witnessed the virtualtransference of the leadership in the dressing and dyeing offurs from Europe to America, and in the quality and varietyof products, the domestic industry is now in every way theequal of, and in many respects superior to the foreign. Thegreat bulk of American furs which formerly were sent toLeipzig, Paris or London to be dressed and dyed, are nowbeing dressed and dyed in this country.
In spite of these facts, very little is generally known aboutthe nature and manner of the work constituting the dressingand dyeing of furs. Even among members of otherbranches of the fur trade, there is very little accurate informationon the subject. Real knowledge concerning furdressing and dyeing is possessed only by those actually engagedin the industry. The interest and efforts of scientistsand technologists have been enlisted to only a small extentin the technical development of the industry. The reasonfor this may be attributed to two related causes: first, thealmost monastic seclusion in which fur dressers and dyers,particularly the latter, conducted their operations, and evento-day the heavy cloud of mystery is being dispelled butvery slowly; and second, as a consequence of the first, thelack of any reliable literature on the subject. Of the fewbooks which have been written on the industry of fur dressingand fur dyeing (all of them either German or French),most are hopelessly out of date, or contain no trustworthydata; or, if they do have real merit, they cannot be obtained.[iv]Numerous articles in the technical journals are of interest,but they contain very little information of value.
This work is intended for a two-fold purpose: first, thatit may serve as a text-book for those who expect to makefur dressing and dyeing t