In leather manufacturing, a facility or workshop where hides are soaked and treated with lime to remove hair and prepare them for tanning.
From 'beam' (the wooden beam used for stretching hides) + 'house' (building). Named after the beams on which wet hides were scraped and treated.
Beamhouses were smelly, caustic places where leather production began—workers stretched wet hides over beams and scrubbed them with lime, a messy but essential first step in making leather goods.
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