Tanning machinery expert dies
It is with sadness that we report the death of our friend and colleague Walter Landmann, who wrote expertly about tanning machinery for World Leather from the magazine’s launch in 1987 until 2017. His contacts in the industry in Germany and Italy and his intimate knowledge of the markets there also made him an important business adviser to the magazine’s founder, the late Ray Wilson.
Walter Landmann was born in Munich in 1927. He fled Germany as a teenager and spent most of World War II in Italy. When peace came, he studied engineering and developed a love of and fascination for machines that endured for the rest of his life.
Through this, he moved to the United Kingdom and began working for tanning machinery developer Norris Industries, a specialist in vacuum drying and spraying.
Former technical editor Richard Daniels recalls meeting Walter Landmann in this capacity in the early 1960s. Walter had come up with his own design for a tanning drum that drained the float as it rotated, something that is standard now but was a major breakthrough at the time.
To the industry’s great benefit, he had time to set out his knowledge of tanning technology in a book called The Machines In The Tannery, and worked with Richard Daniels on a more general guide, The Framework for Leather Manufacture. Both titles are still of invaluable help to tanners all over the world.
Walter died on April 2. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and their four children.
