Image: Leathertools

Description: Leather-making is an ancient craft, but it's met up with some state-of-the-art technology. Electron beam radiation, we've found, can replace the salt solutions now used to kill bacterial growth-much to the benefit of the environment. Not only is brine curing corrosive to equipment; it contributes to water pollution. We also found a way to reduce the number of poor-quality hides that make their way into leather processing. Laser light-scattering photometry can be used to evaluate hides according to the orientation of their fibers. High-tech detective work has tracked down a cause of shoemaking woes. One type of leather, which broke under the stress of manufacture, was found to have a genetic defect that's specific to certain Hereford cattle. It was ARS researchers who identified cockle, a seasonal flaw of sheepskin, as the work of a parasitic insect called keds. Once they realized that keds not only lowers the value of the skin but also causes sheep to grow more slowly, sheep farmers began treating their herds to control infestations.
Title: Leathertools
Credit:   This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, with the ID K7224-2 (next). This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. English | français | македонски | +/−
Author: Scott Bauer
Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. English | español | فارسی | italiano | македонски | മലയാളം | Türkçe | 中文（简体）‎ | +/−
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No