When did leather making start and what was the oldest method used?
Leather making has been practiced for more than 7,000 years. The oldest known method involves tannins extracted from vegetable matter like tree bark prepared in bark mills.
Questions about Leather
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Which countries are leading producers of leather today and how many tanneries were in Kanpur as of 2011?
Leading producers of leather today are China and India. Kanpur had 10,000 tanneries as of 2011.
What percentage of all leather produced comes from cattle hides and which animal provides shell cordovan?
Most leather comes from cattle hides which constitute about 65% of all leather produced. Shell cordovan is a horse leather made not from the outer skin but from an under layer found only in equine species.
How much carbon footprint does bovine leather produce per square meter and when were high-polluting tanneries shut down in Kanpur?
Estimates of the carbon footprint of bovine leather range from 65 to 150 kg of CO2 equivalent per square meter of production. The pollution control board decided to shut down 49 high-polluting tanneries out of 404 in July 2009.
Who invented the first mass-production process for patent leather and what year was it developed?
Patent leather dating to late 1700s became widely popular after inventor Seth Boyden developed first mass-production process using linseed-oil-based lacquer in 1818.