6: Saving Time in Natural Operations

Manufacturing techniques replace production methods that depend upon natural processes to effect changes with means that are more efficient.

His first example is the tanning process, which preserves leather. The traditional approach was to soak raw hides in a solution for six months to two years (or longer), depending on their thickness. The improved process uses a vacuum chamber to first draw air and corrosive liquids out of the skins, then ads the tanning solution which is absorbed quickly into the hide when the vacuum is released. Even the thickest hides can be preserved in a matter of weeks by this process. Similar processes are used to cure and waterproof wood.

A second example is the whitening and softening of linen cloth, which used to be done by exposing it to sunlight for a long period of time until the sun naturally bleaches the cloth. This takes a remarkably long amount of time during which the cloth is exposed to other elements as well. The simple use of chlorine and lime allows cloth to be whitened and softened in a matter of hours.

(EN: A few other examples are provided, which describe processes that are commonplace in the present day, but seemed wondrous in the author's time.)

The various processes of physics and chemistry leveraged by manufacturing of the author's time were entirely possible even in the ancient past, but were not at all economical. For a herdsman, the cost of a vacuum chamber for tanning hides was excessive given that he might have a dozen or twenty hides each year - but for a tanning operation that produces a hundred hides a day, the cost of the equipment to rapidly tan these hides would improve his profit significantly enough to finance the purchase of such equipment.