Tannery beam house

The next tannery structure I am building is called the "beam house", an old term derived from the practice of working the hides for hair removal and other preparation activities over rounded beams.  In later years (not sure when the change occurred) but clearly by the 1940's, the work in the beam house was done by unhairing, fleshing and checking machines.  Since the interior of my beam house will not be visible I do not need to decide what methods would be used in my beam house in my 1939 era but I am assuming a more modern approach such as described below.

The photo above shows an earlier beam house interior with the hides being worked over rounded "beams".   This process was replaced by a variety of machines.  The fleshing machine has rollers and a sharp spiral knife which revolves at a high rate of speed as the skins are forced and drawn against it by friction.  This way the excess fat and flesh left by the butcher is cleaned off and a clean surface is left for the chemical treatment to follow.  The first chemical treatment is depilation where the hair and epidermis is removed.  For this the skin is placed in a paddle tank containing a lime liquor to which is added some sodium sulphide.  This action can take 3 to 4 days.  This loosens the hair to enable the next step where the skin is unhaired by using a machine similar to the fleshing machine but with a blunt knife.  The next process is a scudding machine that further cleans the skins.  The next process is called "bating" where older processes using dog and chicken manure have been replaced by chemicals such as ammonium chloride or sal ammoniac, and some inert substance such as cornmeal.  This process is accomplished in another paddle tank.  The skins as they emerge from the bate liquor have lost their rubbery texture and now are fairly soft and flaccid.

At this point the skins need to be stabilized and so undergo another paddle process where they are worked in a solution containing sulphuric acid, salt and water.  The next step is the tanning process but that will be covered later.

I will soon post a photo (or two) of my beam house which sits behind the previously completed wash house.  This structure has been a challenge due to my practice of not drawing any plans - thus the in-process changes have been frequent, compounded by incorporating a brick wall on one side for the following structure which will be the engine house (containing a Corliss steam engine to drive the machinery in the tannery).  It is all fun to me.