Are horses used to make glue, or is that just a joke?
Glue has always been made from animals. Native Americans and Eskimo people use fish to make glue. In fact, if you look in woodworking catalogs or shops, fish glue is used even today. Ditto for horse hoof/bone glue. It’s a part of our language because up to the widespread use of cars, we used horses for motive power and when they died something had to be done with the remains. The meat was used for pet food and the bones and hooves were boiled to make glue. This was before the rise of all the synthetic stuff out there today. You can try a little home experiment to show the kids a little history lesson. The next time the family eats chicken for dinner, collect all the bones afterward and boil them for about 2 hrs. Take them out and toss ’em. Strain the broth and refrigerate overnight. In the morning you will have chicken Jello. Our chickens today are killed at 6 wks old and don’t have time to develop enough connective tissue to be able to render glue from them. Glue factories used thousa
