MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

He was P. first as a reporter for the paper and then as a freelance author.
"Then in September 1849 he was sent by the Morning Chronicle to report on a severe cholera outbreak in the Bermondsey slums. By October the Chronicle's editors had announced a new series of articles, aimed at providing "a full and detailed description of the moral, intellectual, material, and physical condition of the industrial poor throughout England", and Mayhew was to be the Metropolitan Correspondent, filing regular reports from areas of London that might as well have been on the moon for all the notice most people took of them."
Angus Bethune Reach was another Morning Chronicle reporter and Chris Aspin and I rescued his work and Chris got it republished. It's on the site.

[Stanley]

Any time now?

[Wendyf]

[plaques]

My original answer to Mayhew overlapped Stanley's first reply which I never saw because we then continued on a different page. All I knew about Mayhew was that his name cropped up along with Charles Dickens whenever I was looking into the history of the poor.

I think we are waiting for a book reference that somehow has gone AWOL.

[Tripps]

Not sure if this is the solution and apologies if it isn't, but, I have a copy of Mayhew's book -

Mayhew.jpg

Mayhew's London.

it's very dense with information - remarkably - so and I don't quickly see anything about tanners. However a connection might be 'The Pure Finders' which he covers in great detail - perhaps too much The connection between Mayhew amd Tanners is Pure.

This is from elsewhere -
2. PURE FINDER
Despite the clean-sounding name, this job actually involved collecting dog feces from the streets of London to sell to tanners, who used it in the leather-making process. Dog poop was known as "pure" because it was used to purify the leather and make it more flexible [PDF]. Leather was in great demand in Victorian times, as it was used not only as tack for horses but for shoes, boots, bags, and in bookbinding. Pure collectors haunted the streets where stray dogs amassed, scooping up the poop and keeping it in a covered bucket before selling it on to the tanners. Some collectors wore a black glove to protect their scooping hand, but others considered it harder to keep a glove clean than a hand and eschewed the protection altogether.

[Stanley]

You've got it David. The collection of 'pure' which was dissolved in water and the liquid used in tanning. The white turds were better than the brown so they used to roll them in lime to get a better price. Always quoted as used in Victorian times but REW repaired a pure tank at a tannery in Beverly while I was there. Used in the very finest leathers like kid gloves and leather shirts.
Next one?

[Tizer]

3 October 1912, `Books Received' in `Nature' journal, volume 90, page 130.
`The Puering, Bating, and Drenching of Skins'
J. T. Wood. Pp., xv + 300. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd.; New York: Spon and Chamberlain, 1912.) Price 12s. 6d. net.
`THE author in his preface claims that this volume is merely a collection of notes he has made during the past twenty years on the practical and scientific aspect of the puering, bating, and drenching of skins. “Puering” and “bating” are two processes commonly used in the manufacture of light and fancy leather from various skins. They consist of steeping the skins prior to tanning in a fermenting solution of excrement—in the case of “puering,” dog excrement is used; in “bating,” hen or pigeon manure. Subsequent to either of these processes the skins are “drenched,” in which process they are placed in a fermenting solution of bran, which, by reason of its acid nature, swells the skins prior to tanning. The original of the words puering and bating is French—puer, to stink; bête, animal. The aim of scientific technologists is to substitute these two disgusting processes by cleaner materials which can be scientifically controlled. Puering and bating of skins reduce them in thickness, take out the lime and grease, and make them soft and velvety. Mr. Wood has put together his notes upon these subjects in such a way as to make this volume indispensable both to leather trades chemists and to those who wish specially to study the subject. It is, in short, a text-book bringing together in handy form all that has been done and all that is known of this, one of the most complicated processes in connection with leather manufacture.' Nature

[Tripps]

I first came across the word in a book called Fowlers End by Gerald Kersh, which is the one I would save first from my collection.

"My mother was a finder of the pure" quote Copper Baldwin.

Did 'puering' come from pureing or vice versa? Puer is Latin for boy, and pu'er is a type of Chinese fermented tea from Yunnang.

Aren't words interesting?

*********************************************
Did 'puering' come from pureing or vice versa?

PS. Further intensive research (via the site Tizer kindly gave) shows the answer -

"The original of the words puering and bating is French—puer, to stink; bête, animal."

Hence the popular euphemism 'poo' I guess.

[Stanley]

Brilliant, you have all gone further than I did..... Mystery Objects educates and fascinates!



Look carefully at this pic and focus on the iron wheel you can see between the two fulling stocks.



Then look at this pic of a milkman delivering raw milk from a kit in a carrier so designed that the kit hangs on pivots and is always upright. This is what the iron wheel in the top picture is.
Question is what is the connection between the milk chap's cart and the fulling mill?

[Tizer]

I'm tempted to say you've answered that question yourself by implying that the wheel in the fulling mill is from a milkman's cart - but I'll probably get sent to the bottom of the class for that.

A milk connection springs to mind. Cloth used to be bleached by treating it with buttermilk then hanging it out in sunlight on tenterhooks. The photo-oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in the butter milk was the mechanism underlying the bleaching effect. You can imagine centuries ago an old bleacher telling his lad `If tha puts buttermilk on't cloth then tha'll get photo-oxidation of them there unsaturated fatty acids and good white cloth'.

[Stanley]

You are on the right track Tiz but not that.

[PanBiker]

Is it the gimble arrangement that is used in both devices?

[Stanley]

Sorry no. Clue, the answer lies in process. It was part of the equipment of a fulling mill.

[chinatyke]

Was that the wheel that controlled the stretching before the fulling was done? Or just operated a clutch to control the engagement of the mallets?

[Stanley]

No China. I fear I have not made this clear enough. The wheel is on a hand cart the same as the one the milkman in Thornton is using. Question is why was one needed at the fulling mill?

[chinatyke]

I see. I don't know much about wool processing but I assume it was to carry the wool pieces to and from the fulling machine and a wet wollen piece would weigh quite a lot! Were they wheeled outside and dried on tenterhooks on the hillside?

[Stanley]

Yes China that's right, after fulling and washing, but the role of the cart comes much earlier in the process.

[Wendyf]

Urine collection?

[Stanley]

Yes!! You've gone right to it Wendy. Urine, referred to as 'lant' was collected from the village and after 'maturing' in tanks it was used in the fulling process. The action of the ammonia with the natural grease in the wool resulted in a soap that lubricated the scales on the surface of the wool and caused the fibres to shrink which tightened up the weave of the heavy woollen cloth making it far more dense. Urine from Methodist houses wasn't regarded as being as good because they were teetotal, heavy boozers produced much stronger urine which was more effective.
Important to note that this isn't the same as felting wool which is a non-woven product.
In the latter days the main use of this heavy woollen cloth was as conveyor belts in paper making machines and biscuit bakeries!
Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

Just struck me that China will be spitting feathers! I'm sure he knew about lant!

[Wendyf]

Sorry China, I jumped in a bit quick there! We don't want anyone spitting feathers from China!!

[Stanley]

Don't worry Wendy, he's a big lad and will not be coming over to exact retribution!

[chinatyke]

No problem. I was on the wrong track thinking the truck was used for carrying the wool piece. Yes, I knew about lant. At Loveclough Printworks there was a "dunging range" in the bleach house where cotton cloth was treated with cow manure and whatever else could be obtained, long before my time there! The dung was replaced with amylase enzyme when it became available and this converted the starch (from warp sizing prior to weaving) to soluble sugars.

[Stanley]

I didn't know about that China, thanks for a new bit of information!



Can you tell me why this tubular girder bridge built 1854-1859 proved to be more reliable than similar bridges built in the 20th century?

[Gloria]

I'll hazard a guess. Is it to do with imported steel as against home manufactured?