To get a good, fast black on chamois and suède leathers is one of the difficult processes in the leather trade, although it is easier to get a good black on alumed or chromed leather than on vegetable-tanned. Alumed leather is washed in a solution of borax or carbonate of ammonia to remove uncombined dressing in order to prepare it for dyeing. Chrome-tanned suède leather does not need this preparation. The leather is first mordanted with dye-wood extract, of which a suitable mixture is logwood and fustic, or logwood and quercitron, in the proportion of 4 lb. and 2 lb. to every 100 lb. of leather. After drumming the leather in this solution for about an hour, a weak solution of copperas (ferrous sulphate) and bluestone (copper sulphate) is added, and the milling is continued for twenty minutes, when the leather is well prepared to receive the black dye. Instead of the iron and copper salts, corichrome is often preferred, as it is quite safe to use, whereas iron salts have a destructive action on the fibres of the leather, unless the precaution be taken to mordant the skins with a good quantity of dye-wood extract. Following the application of the iron or corichrome striker, the leather is dyed with suitable aniline black (leather black, or corvoline) and finally fat-liquored to nourish the leather, and to fix and intensify the black. This recipe also gives good results where the skins are dyed only on the flesh side, the solutions being applied with a brush. WHITE WASHABLE LEATHER Among the new kinds of leather for gloves, none is more remarkable or more useful than the washable sheep or goat skins. The great advantage of this leather is that it can be washed in warm water and soap any number of times without injury, whereas gloves of ordinary tawed kid and lamb skins have to be dry cleaned and cannot be renovated many times. An additional advantage of washable leather is its warmth. After being dehaired, puered and drenched, the skins are drummed in a solution of formaldehyde and soda. In two or three hours, the skins are tanned, and are then treated with a solution of sulphate of ammonia. The quantities required are about 3 lb. of formaldehyde (40 per cent.) and 8 lb. of sodium carbonate (80 per cent.), and 1 lb. of sulphate for 100 lb. of pelts, using sufficient water to cover the skins well in the drum. This tannage produces a white but somewhat thin and empty leather, and the fat-liquoring must, therefore, be filling and softening. An emulsion of white curd soap and olive oil, or of egg-yolk and neatsfoot oil, is suitable. "Crestanol," a special preparation, also gives satisfactory results, since it is adapted for giving nourishment and resiliency to thin, empty leather. FANCY LEATHERS