Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Thomas Hutchinson, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
by
Georg Crasser, Dr. Phil., Ing.
Lecturer in Tanning Chemistry
at the German Technical College, Brunn
Whilst the synthesis of the natural tannins has been successfullyoutlined by Emil Fischer, it has been left to the Chemical Industry,notably the Badische Anilin und Soda-fabrik inLudwigshafen-on-the-Rhine, to discover the means of making possible theproduction of the synthetic tannins.
The scientific results of Fischer's researches are to-day commonknowledge, and these, together with questions arising therefrom, willonly be lightly touched upon in the book herewith presented. Even anattempt at enumerating the present synthetic tannins has so far not beenpublished, and I have therefore availed myself of the opportunity ofmaking a brief summary of them. My work at the B.A.S.F. deepened myinsight in this new field; ample opportunity of applying these syntheticproducts in practice was given me when, as a result of the war, I wasappointed technical consultant to the Austrian Hide and LeatherCommission, and in this capacity was called upon to act as generaladviser to the trade. The ultimate object of my scientific researcheswas then to investigate the chemistry of this particular field, and thishas led me to present a picture, complete as far as it goes, of thisbranch of chemical technology.
The intention of the present volume is to communicate to the reader whathas so far been scientifically evolved and practically applied in thisfield. First of all, however, it may illustrate the extreme importanceand the universal applicability of the synthetic tannins in the makingof leather. The modern leather industry cannot, to-day, be without theseimportant products, but also in those tanneries, where the synthetictannins have not so far been regarded as indispensable, their use isstrongly recommended. Just as in the case of the coal-tar dyes, thesynthetic tannins will make us independent of foreign supplies, and thuskeep within our own borders the vast sum of money required in formerdays for the purchase of foreign tanning materials. May this book provethe means of providing an incentive for a still wider application of thesynthetic tannins.
GRAZ, August 1920.
Doctor Grasser hardly needs an introduction to the leather trade of thiscountry in its scientific aspect, but if one be sought for, none couldserve the purpose better than a translation of the book herewithpresented to the British-speaking public.
Viewed with curiosity from their start, the synthetic tanninsneeded—like many other important discoveries—an extreme emergency forthe purpose of showing their value. The Great War provided theopportunity of which chemical industry was to avail itself, and to-daywe do not only see synthetic tannins placed upon the market as averitable triumph of chemical technology and a creditable triumph ofmanufacturing chemistry; we also see their immensely practical qualitiesestablished as a fact, and, as the author aptly remarks, no moderntanner can to-day dissociate himself from the use of synthetic tanninsfor the production of leather in the true sense of this word. There isno branch of leather-making where synthetic tannins cannot help andimprove processes already esta