Belarus

Belarus situated in Central Europe. The republic of Belarus borders on Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. It has an area of 207,600 square kilometers. Its present population is about 12 million people. 77% of the population constitutes Belarussians. 64% live in cities, the largest of which are Minsk, which is the capital, Gomel, Mogilev, Brest, Grodno and Vitebsk. Most of Belarus is a flat country. More than a quarter of its area is covered with the forests and bushes. The large forests are called «puschas». The greatest of forests the is Beloviezskaya Puscha, which is a state preserve. It is well known by its rare animals - aurochs. There are nearly 10000 lakes and 20000 rivers in Belarus. There are a lot of rivers and lakes are in our country. The Dnieper, Pripyat, Beresins, Sozh, Zapadnaya Dvina, Neman are the biggest rivers with more then 500 kilometers in length. The largest lake is Naroch also called Belarussian Sea. The Belarussian rivers are slow. The climate in Belarus is moderately continental. Unique souvenirs made by Belarussian craftsmen are known all over the world. The republic of Belarus is a small beautiful country with the heroic past and difficult present.

History of leather

Leather has played an important role is the development of civilization. From prehistoric times man has used the skins of animals to satisfy his basic needs. He has used hides to make clothing, carpets and even decorative attire. From leather man made footwear, belts, clothing, boats and ever armor. Many ancient peoples tanned their leather by placing layers of bark, leaves and fruit over hides and adding water. This process took months and in the case of thick skins even years. The art of tanning leather using the bark of trees had a closely guarded secret passed down from father to son. In 1809 Samuel Parker an American inventor patented the leather splitting machine. This machine allowed workers to make two skins out of one thereby doubling production. Fleshing and unhearing machines were invented shortly after the splitting machine. Augustin Schulltz an American dye salesman invented a chrome tanning process in 1884. The method was perfected about 10 years later by Martin Dennis. Chrome tanning allowed more attractive and flexible leather to be produced at a much faster rate.

University

Every year thousands of school leavers go higher education. Some choose humanities others like technical sciences. As for me I decided to became an engineer that’s why after finishing school and passing state testing rather well entered vstu. Our university in 1965. It was founded to train skilled professional for the quickly developing sewing, footwear knitwear other branches of consumer goods manufacture. Then a little over 45 years ago, there were only 250 students at the institute. They were trained only in 5 specialties. In the course of time the student enrolment plan was increased there appeared new specialties new faculties and departments. In 1995 for achievements in academic and scientific activities vtilp received the status of a university. Now the total number of students taking full-time and part-time courses in 19 specialties is about 8000. During the period of its existence the university has trained over 25 thousand specialties: engineer-economists, engineer-technologists, mechanic-engineer, and designer. Among the former graduates there are general directors manager’s chief engineers, leading specialists of light industry enterprises, industrial trading firms and teachers of the university.