The American Practical Brewer and Tanner
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Joseph Coppinger >> The American Practical Brewer and Tanner
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[8] Stum is a certain quantity of white wine, strongly impregnated
with sulphur. The mode of preparing it is as follows: A hogshead
half filled with good white wine, or what is termed in French _vin
de grave_; from fifteen to twenty long matches of sulphur are
successively burned to this hogshead, with the bunghole closed.
After this operation, the white wine becomes so impregnated with
sulphur, that it has acquired all its taste and flavour, and is
thus used as a ferment.
_Brewing Company._
It is obvious to very slight observation, that the day is not distant
when the brewing trade in this country will, as in England, become an
object of great national importance, highly deserving the protection
and encouragement of our general government, by freeing its produce
from all duty, and thereby affording further inducements to the
speculating and enterprising capitalists of this country to embark
their funds in a trade that, above all others, is the best calculated
to make them a sure and profitable return. In addition to the pleasing
consideration that they are thereby combating and putting down the
greatest immorality our country is chargeable with, namely, the too
great use of ardent spirits, substituting in their place a wholesome
and invigorating beverage. The person, therefore, whoever he may be,
who contributes his money, or his talents, to this useful and moral
purpose, deserves to rank high among the best friends of his country.
Under these impressions it is that I beg leave to recommend to my
fellow citizens the immediate establishment of a brewing company, with
a capital of from thirty to forty thousand dollars, to be subscribed
for in shares the most likely to be made up. With either of these sums
a handsome beginning could be made, and the profits would in a few
years encourage and justify enlargement to any prudent extent that
could be reasonably wished for or required. In proof of the correctness
of this opinion, I will beg leave to state a fact that has happened in
my own time. When the mercantile house of Beamish & Crawford, of Cork,
erected a porter brewery in that city, about twenty-five years ago,
that establishment was the first of the kind in that town, and then
stood alone, and notwithstanding that many large and rich ones in the
same business have since been added, the original company have so
progressed in fame and fortune, as to be now considered one of the
first-rate breweries in Europe; and by the improved quality of their
porter have, in a great degree, excluded the English from the West
India market, their porter getting the preference there, as well as in
Bristol and Liverpool, to which places large quantities are annually
sent by that company. How much stronger inducements have we to form
similar establishments in this country, where our excise on brewery
produce bears no sort of proportion with that paid in England, and does
not here exceed five per cent. on brewery sales. This being a war tax,
it may be presumed it will not continue long. Our capacity to raise
barley and hops, in as high perfection as in any part of Europe, is
acknowledged; all then that is wanting is encouragement; afford this to
our farmers, and they will soon convince you that no assertion is
better founded. If so, the sooner a company of this description is
formed the better for those who may be concerned; and for this plain
reason, that notwithstanding the enormous excise chargeable on the raw
materials and produce of the brewery in England, large fortunes have
been, and are daily accumulating in that country by the judicious
exercise of the brewing trade, as will appear by the following
statement of the quantity of porter alone (beside other malt liquors)
brewed by the twelve first breweries in London, in one year, ending 5th
of July, 1810.
_Barrels of Porter._
Barclay, Perkins & Co. 235,053
Read, Mecar & Co. 211,009
Trueman & Hanbury. 144,990
Felix, Calvert & Co. 133,493
Whitebread & Co. 110,939
Amery, Meux & Co. 93,660
Combe & Co. 85,150
Brown & Perry. 84,475
Godwin, Skinner & Co. 74,223
Elliot & Co. 57,851
Taylor. 54,510
Cloyer & Co. 41,590
---------
Total quantity of Barrels of Porter, 1,326,943
* * * * *
NOTICE.
The author informs those persons who may feel disposed to engage in
the brewing and malting trades, that he can furnish them with ground
plans, and sections of elevation, both of breweries and malt houses,
on different scales, whether intended to be erected together, or
separately, as will be found to unite, economy, convenience, and
effect, joined to a considerable saving to those who are not
themselves judges of such erections, or how they should be disposed.
An experience of twenty-five years in both businesses, accompanied by
a diligent and attentive practice, justifies these assertions.
His terms will be found reasonable, and all letters (post paid)
addressed to Joseph Coppinger, 193 Duane-street, New-York, will
receive attention.
A few copies of this work may be had by applying as above; but any
number may be had at 45 John-street.
TANNING.
The following is the French mode of tanning all kinds of leather in a
short time, highly important to the manufacturers of leather in this
country, as it points out a secure and profitable mode of turning their
capital twelve or thirteen times in a year, instead of once.
_Washing Hides._
The best method of washing hides is to stretch them in a frame, and
place them, thus stretched, in running water. If running water cannot
be conveniently had, still water can be made to answer by frequent
stirrings and agitations; the remainder of the operation of cleansing
is performed as in the common way.
_On taking off the Hair._
Begin by shaking some lime in a pit, to which put a great quantity of
water, then stir this water well, that it may become saturated with the
lime, then place your hides in the pit perpendicularly; for this
purpose, several wooden poles should be fixed across the pit; to these
poles the hides are to be fastened with strings at proper distances,
each hide being first cut in two; whilst the hides were thus placed in
the lime water, the lime itself, which had deposited on the bottom of
the pit, was frequently stirred up to increase the strength of the
water, and to make it more operative; the hair thus treated, will, in
about eight days, come off the hide with great ease. A shorter and a
better method may effect this purpose in two days; that is, to plunge
the hides, after being washed and cleaned, into a solution of tan,
which (having been already used) contains no longer any of the tanning
principle, mixed with a five hundredth, or even a thousandth part of
the oil of vitriol, commonly called sulphuric acid; this operation not
only takes off the hair, but raises and swells the hide; as, in the old
way, is generally effected by barley sourings. However, further
swelling and raising is necessary, and the hides should again be
plunged in another quantity of spent tan-water mixed with the one
thousandth part of the oil of vitriol, and thus steeped a second time;
their swelling and raising will be completed in about forty-eight
hours; after this operation the hides will acquire a yellow colour,
even to the interior part of their substance. To determine if the
swelling and raising be sufficiently completed, let one of the corners
of the hide be cut, and if it is in a proper state there will not
appear any white streak in the middle, but the hide throughout its
whole substance will have acquired a yellow colour, and
semi-transparent appearance. Mr. S---- is of opinion, that swelling and
raising hides is not necessary, and that the hides tanned without this
operation are less permeable to water. On tanning on the new principle,
as practised by Mr. S----, he places several rows of casks on stillings
sufficiently elevated above the ground to place a can or tub under
them; these casks were filled with fresh finely ground tan, then a
certain quantity of water was poured into the first of them, which
water, as it ran through the tan, exhausted and carried off the soluble
part, and as fast as it ran into the vessels below, was taken away and
poured on the second cask, and so on successively until the solution
was sufficiently saturated, and thus it may have been brought to ten or
twelve degrees of the arometer for salts. In order to exhaust the tan
of the first cask, Mr. S---- continued pouring water on the first cask
until it ran off clear; at which time the tan was deprived of its
soluble part; these liquors, as it may be easily conceived, were
carefully kept for future operations; large wooden vats are considered
the best sort of vessels for holding this solution, as well as for
making and preparing it; hogsheads, on a small scale, may be made to
answer. It is particularly in the use of this solution that Mr. S----'s
method consists; the quickness with which the solution acts is truly
astonishing, and when we see it, there is cause of surprise in thinking
why it was not found out before. As soon as the hides are taken out of
the water, impregnated with sulphuric acid, Mr. S---- puts them into a
weak solution of tan, in which he leaves them for the space of one or
two hours; he afterwards plunges them into other solutions of tan, more
or less charged with the tanning principle, in proportion to their
strength, so that in the experiments at which we were present, some
heavy hides were tanned in six or eight days, others in twenty and
twenty-five days. In placing the hides in the solutions, some
precautions are necessary; the hides should be suspended on a wheel, or
in a frame where they should be stretched, and placed one inch apart,
so as to admit the solution freely about them; Mr. S---- recommends
cutting off the head and the neck of the hide, and a slip down each
side, in which slip the feet and belly part are to be comprehended; and
the circumstance which determines Mr. S---- to cut the hide in this
manner is, that the feet, and the parts that are near the belly, are
more spongy and more easily penetrated by the tan; and as they produce
leather of an inferior quality they may be more advantageously tanned
separately, than put promiscuously into the solutions of tan with the
rest. The remaining part of the hide is to be divided into two or more
parts or pieces, so as to be easily placed in the vats or casks.
_Drying the Hides._
The hides, when taken out of the solution of tan, must be dried with
the usual precautions, that is to say, so slowly, that the skin does
not shrink on the flesh side. With respect to thinner hides, for the
upper leather of shoes, Mr. S---- begins by washing and taking off the
flesh in the manner already described, or, as is done in the common way
for strong soal leather; he then takes off the hair by means of clear
lime-water; he does not make them undergo the operation of swelling,
but puts them immediately into weak solutions of tan, the strength of
which he gradually increases, but without ever bringing it to the
degree of contraction, which he gives it when it is to be used in
tanning thick leather; two, three, or four days, are enough for tanning
the thinner kind of leather. Leather which is not sufficiently
impregnated with the tanning principle, is generally known by a white
speck or streak, which is observable in the middle of its substance. We
can affirm that those hides which were tanned in our presence, in a few
days, were completely tanned, as the above mentioned white streak was
not perceivable; we may also add, that Mr. S----'s method has the
advantage of affording the opportunity of observing and examining, from
time to time, the progress of the operation; for this purpose nothing
more is necessary but to take a slip off the hide out of the vat, and
cut off a corner of it, the white streak already spoken of will appear
more or less thick, until the tanning is completed; it has been
generally supposed, that the tan in the tanpits had no other effect
upon the leather than that of hardening and bracing the fibres of the
skin, which has been relaxed by the preliminary of tanning. Mr. S----,
however, examined the operation more closely, and discovered that there
existed in the tan a principle which was soluble in water, by which the
tanning was brought about. That this principle afterwards became fixed
in the leather in consequence of a particular combination between the
said principle and the skin; and this combination produced a substance
that was not soluble in water; all this has been demonstrated by Mr.
S----, in the most evident manner. It is well known that if leather,
which has not been tanned, is boiled in water, it is in a short time
almost entirely dissolved therein. This solution, by being
concentrated, produces a jelly, or size, which, by farther evaporation,
and being dried in the air, becomes what is called glue. Mr. S----
having, in the course of his experiments, examined the effects of a
solution of tan upon a solution of glue, observed that they were hardly
mixed together before a white felamentous precipitate took place, owing
to a combination of the glue with the tanning principle contained in
the solution of tan. This precipitate is insoluble in water, either hot
or cold, and acquires colour by being exposed to the light. The
foregoing experiment furnishes a true explanation of the process of
tanning; for it will easily be conceived that the solution of tan acts
upon the hides (from which glue is produced) in the same manner as it
acts upon glue; this is what really happens in common tanpits, and Mr.
S----'s new method, in which the solution of tan gradually penetrates
the hides, and as it penetrates combines with it, producing a gradual
change of colour that is very observable, till at last the colour of
the hide is changed throughout, and it acquires a compact texture and
marbled appearance, like that of a nutmeg: by this it plainly appears,
that a precipitation also takes place in the action of tanning,
although the hide is not dissolved, but merely swelled so as to enable
the solution to penetrate it more easily. The property which animal
jelly, or glue, possesses, of being precipitated by a solution of the
tanning principle, furnishes a means of discovering what substances may
be useful in tanning: nothing more is necessary than to make a solution
or infusion of the vegetable substance supposed proper for that
purpose, and that upon being mixed with a solution of glue, will show
by the greater or less quantity of precipitate produced, what
probability there is that such substance might be advantageously
employed in tanning.
_Another Remark._
Lime-water also offers an excellent means of discovering such
substances. If lime-water be added to a solution of tan, the mixture
instantly produces a copious precipitate; and if a sufficient quantity
of lime-water be added to neutralize the whole of the tanning
principle, then the supernatant liquor, although still possessing
colour, will not form any precipitate with glue; I mean in solution. In
like manner the liquor separated from a precipitation, caused by the
mixture of a solution of tan with one of glue, will not produce any
precipitate with lime-water, if, during the precipitation, the tanning
principle has been completely neutralized. This shows evidently that
Doctor M'Bride's method of exhausting the tan by means of lime-water is
defective, and that by so doing a loss of the tanning principle takes
place, in proportion to the quantity of it contained or combined with
the lime dissolved in the lime-water.
_Another Remark._
As in summer the solution of tan is disposed to run into the vinous
fermentation, and, of course, from that into the acetous, and have its
principal changed, no more of the solution of tan should be prepared in
the summer season than is wanted for immediate use. In winter, this
precaution in not necessary, as in that season it will keep, and may be
then prepared for exportation to any part of Europe and thus converted
into a profitable article of commerce.
_A table showing the time different hides took to be completed, in
the operations of preparing and tanning._
Ten ox hides, taken the 17th of August, were completely tanned by the
6th of September, in all, twenty days.
Washing the hides, 2 days.
Taking off the hair, 5 do.
Raising or swelling, 5 do.
Second washing, 2 do.
Tanning, (properly so called,) 6 do.
---------
20 days.
Ten ox hides, taken the 19th of July, were tanned the 9th of August,
making twenty-one days.
Washing, 2 days.
Taking off the hair, 10 do.
Swelling, 1 do.
Tanning, 8 do.
---------
21 days.
One ox hide, taken the 3d of September, was tanned the 2d of October,
making twenty-nine days.
Washing, 1 day.
Taking off the hair and swelling, 3 do.
Tanning, 25 do.
---------
29 days.
Another ox hide, taken the 5th of September, was tanned the 3d of
October, making twenty-eight days.
Washing, 1 day.
Taking off the hair and swelling, 2 do.
Tanning, 25 do.
---------
28 days.
N.B. The tanning solutions made use of to these hides was less strong,
and of a cooler temperature than usual, by which the time employed in
the tanning operation was prolonged.
_Calf Skins._
Sixteen very thick calf skins, taken the 18th of July, were tanned by
the 31st of the same month.
Washing, 1 day.
Taking off the hair, 8 do.
Tanning, 4 do.
---------
13 days.
---------
Six calf skins, taken the 19th of July, were tanned the 2d of August,
making fourteen days.
Washing, 2 days.
Taking off the hair, 9 do.
Tanning, 3 do.
---------
14 days.
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Six dried calf skins, began the 14th of August, were tanned the 28th
of August.
Washing, 2 days.
Taking off the hair and swelling, 11 do.
Tanning, 1 do.
---------
14 days.
---------
Six calf skins, began the 20th of August, were finished the 10th of
September.
Taking off the hair and washing, 20 days.
Tanning, (properly so called,) 1 do.
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21 days.
---------
Three calf skins were brought from another tan-yard, the operation of
tanning had been begun upon them, they having been thirteen days in
the tanpit, in which it was intended they should have remained eleven
months, (which was the usual time allowed such skins in the old way of
tanning;) two of these skins were tanned in twenty-four hours, the
third was tanned in forty-eight hours.
Six other calf skins took thirteen days.
Washing and taking off the hair, 6 days.
Tanning, 7 do.
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13 days.
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_Three salted Cow Hides_,
Began the 14th of August, were finished the 12th of September.
Washing and taking off the hair, 20 days.
Tanning, 9 do.
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29 days.
---------
_One fresh Horse Hide_,
Began the 30th of August, was finished the 13th of September.
Washing, 1 day.
Taking off the hair, 6 do.
Tanning, 7 do.
---------
14 days.
---------
_Another fresh Horse Hide_,
Began the 4th of September, was finished the 19th of September.
Washing, 1 day.
Taking off the hair, 7 do.
Tanning, 7 do.
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15 days.
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_Two dried Sheep Skins_,
Began the 14th of August, were finished the 12th of September.
Washing and taking off the wool, 25 days.
Tanning, 4 do.
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29 days.
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_Three Goat Skins_,
Began the 16th of August, were finished the 10th of September.
Washing and taking off the hair, 23 days.
Tanning, 2 do.
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25 days.
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_Five Goat Skins_,
Began the 19th of August, were finished the 10th of September.
Washing and taking off the hair, 20 days.
Tanning, 2 do.
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22 days.
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THE END
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