Drive Belt: a Flat Leather Belt of Oak-Tanned Butts, Spliced, Cemented and Sewn (Cooper, 1888)

Before rubber and V-belts, machines were driven by flat leather belts running on crowned pulleys. J. H. Cooper's Treatise on the Use of Belting (1888) quotes how the best English belts were made: only the butt of an oak-bark tanned ox-hide, stretched by machinery and dried stretched, cut in strips joined by feather-edged splices that are cemented and then sewn with strong waxed hemp. Single belts are 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick; heavy double belts, two layers cemented and sewn their whole length, 5/16 to 7/16 inch. The cement, the width, the splice length and the stitching are not given; those are unknown here. Source: J. H. Cooper, A Treatise on the Use of Belting (1888), pp. 82, 116-117. Picture: his Fig. 14, a belt with a tension roller.