Joseph Turney Wood

Joseph Turney Wood was an English leather chemist and technical writer born in Nottingham in 1865. Sources describe him as being apprenticed at his uncle Sir John Turney's tannery while studying chemistry at Nottingham University, a background that helps explain the unusually hands-on, analytical style of his writing.

He became an important figure in the leather industry rather than a literary author in the usual sense. Contemporary and later industry sources describe him as a pioneer in the international community of leather trade chemists, and as a director of Turney Brothers Limited. He was also active in professional leadership, serving in roles connected with the British section of the early international leather chemists' movement, the British Leather Manufacturers Research Board, and the Leather Industries Department of Leeds University.

Wood is remembered today above all for The Puering, Bating & Drenching of Skins, a technical book published in the early 20th century that brought together years of research and workshop experience. A later account from the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists also notes that he left diaries covering much of the period from 1887 to 1923, offering a rare glimpse of both his working life at Turney Brothers and his private life in Nottingham. He died in November 1924.