Abstract

For the comfort of the wearer it is as important that leathers should absorb water vapour rapidly as that they should transmit it. The uptake and loss of moisture has been studied from this point of view. It is possible to derive coefficients of diffusion from measure ments of absorption and desorption, but these are dependent on moisture concentration and the different structures of grain and other layers of the leather, so their interpretation would be difficult. For routine tests, it would be better to measure the moisture uptakes of dried leather put into an atmosphere of 65 r.h. for 1 hour and 24 hours.