Parchment skin

Some of these early papers were sized, at least one Italian paper mill, in Pesche, being known to have used a size made from scrapings of parchment skins (split skeepskins) called "fleshings/ The adhesive action of the gelatin would have caused a substantial amount of calcium carbonate to be locked around the fibers. Other beneficial features of the manufacture of these papers were that they had no fillers, were sun-bleached, and had few metallic impurities to hasten serious oxidation. 

V. Jousmaki and R. Hari, Parchment-skin illusion Sound-biased touch. Curr. Biol., 1998, 8, 869-872. 

Organic Materials. Museums contain large numbers of objects made out of components from plants or animals, including wood, eg, furniture, carvings fibers eg, textiles (qv), paper (qv) fmits, skin, eg, leather (qv), parchment bone ivory etc. Several of these materials have properties related to their preservation. 

In the wet method, as practiced in Colombia, freshly picked ripe coffee cherries are fed into a tank for initial washing. Stones and other foreign material are removed. The cherries are then transferred to depulping machines which remove the outer skin and most of the pulp. However, some pulp mucilage clings to the parchment shells that encase the coffee beans. Fermentation tanks, usually containing water, remove the last portions of the pulp. Fermentation may last from twelve hours to several days. Because prolonged fermentation may cause development of undesirable flavors and odors in the beans, some operators use enzymes to accelerate the process. 

The production of green coffee beans involves successive removal of the outermost red skin and the pulp of the coffee berry, followed by removal of the mucilage, parchment covering, and, finally, the silverskin surrounding the green coffee bean (endosperm) (Figure 1). 

Some there are, that by this journey of Jason understand the mystery of the philosopher s stone, called the golden fleece to which also other superfine chymists draw the twelve labours of Hercules. Suidas thinks, that by the golden fleece was meant a book of parchment, which is of sheep s skin, and therefore called golden, because it was taught therein how other metals might be transmuted. 

Water can contribute to the decay and breakdown of some materials not only by its presence but also by its absence most organic materials require some optimum moisture content to preserve their mechanical properties papyrus, skin, parchment, and leather that are too dry, for example, are extremely stiff, brittle, and friable. 

Reed, R. (1972), Ancient Skin, Parchments and Leather, Seminar, London. 

Before closing tills article, it may be proper to give. a short notice of two other materials, which, though not leather in the proper sense of the term, are nevertheless analogous to it these are Parchment and Shagreen, Both are prepared from the same kinds of skin, but generally tho stronger and coarser kinds arc reserved for die latter,... 

Faeciijient.—Parchment is another substance which was much used in early times. It is made chiefly from the skins of sheep and goats, and is said to have been invented by Eumenes, a king of Pcrgamus, who reigned... 

A fine quality of parchment, vellum, is made from the skins of kids, lambs, and young calves. 

In 1947 papyrus and leather (animal skin) Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts were found in caves located at the northeast end of the Dead Sea in Israel. These manuscripts have been labeled the Dead Sea Scrolls and were created between 200 B.C. and A.D. 68. This confirms that papyrus and parchment were the papers of choice during that era. 

Parchment is the cured skin of a goat or sheep. Vellum is a finer version of parchment, made from the thin skin of young animals, usually kids, lambs, or calves, cured and sometimes bleached. 

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