“ Every article of commerce that is susceptible of adulteration is sure to fall into the hands of those who seem to be peculiarly educated to the work of diluting, and reducing by various chemical processes the real value of the article to be counterfeited. No matter how cheap the pure substance can be obtained, some method must be conjured up by which the innocent purchaser or consumer is unconsciously duped. India-rubber and gutta-percha are among the vegetable gums, which have been most extensively adulterated. ”

“ IN AMERICA. It may be safely stated that no chemical discovery within the last century, has produced such wonderful results as those here alluded to. From being a simple gum, the use of which was limited to the erasure of the school boy’s blunder, or the merchant’s mistakes, India-rubber, by the process of vulcanization, has become one of our most important articles of commerce. It is one of the most wonderful products of nature that has ever been applied to the arts. ”

“ No sooner had the practicability of manufacturing boots and shoes from India rubber been demonstrated, than the attention of capitalists, and inventors, was turned to this new field of enterprise. Without stopping to test the nature of the gum which was to be moulded in golden ingots, viz., the manufacture of boots, shoes, etc., and the effect of the seasons upon the manufactured articles, the anxious speculator, and the enthusiastic manufacturer plunged boldly into the sea of trade. ”

“ We refer in these remarks to the manufacture of what is known as “sale work.” There are many, very many, “custom workers,” who proceed by correct rules, and upon scientific principles; men who understand how to adapt the shoe or boot to the foot, so that when the customer first draws the boot or shoe on, it fits naturally and easily, adapting itself to any, and every deformity or slight irregularity which the foot may present. We make general statements, which every intelligent shoemaker, or large manufacturer, will at once acknowledge. ”

“ Goodyear defy the teeth of time and the digestion of ages. There are manufacturers, however, that cry out, “we don’t want articles that will last.” This is a narrow view of things. Experience is opposed to so unjust a sentiment. A moment’s thought would forever dispel the illusion. Is there any less demand for iron furniture or iron household utensils, because such articles in that metal will last longer than others? ”

“ If the gutta-percha is to be applied to some new useful purpose, tools and processes of novel character have to be employed; if an ornamental application is determined on, methods are adopted for developing any natural beauty which the grain of the substance may present; if an attempt be made to supersede leather, or wood, or papier-mache, or metal, by this singular gum, great pains are bestowed on a study of the special qualities to be imitated, and the process of imitation often requires operations and tools differing considerably from those before employed. ”

“ Is a boot made unsightly?—not in the least. They are really elegant in form and general contour. Our readers are familiar with the corrugated dress boots. The India-rubber boots we have seen closely imitated these, but it may be added, that in thus copying, Mr. Goodyear copies his own, as the corrugated dress boot was introduced more to prepare the eye for what was to follow, than to give the beau of New York, of Paris, and of London, any particular style of dress boot. In this, Mr. Goodyear displays a consummate knowledge of human nature. ”

“ In about one year from the issuing of this patent, Wait Webster, of New York, secured 231a patent for attaching India-rubber soles to boots and shoes. With the introduction of Chaffee’s patent for India-rubber shoes, in 1832, the spirit of invention, experiment and competition commenced, and has continued until the present time. The new, curious, and almost universal application of India-rubber and gutta-percha, in the industrial arts, has wrought a wonderful change, and has given an added stimulus to our manufacturing and commercial interests. ”

“ Luedersdorff made the experiments described, we will assume to be true in every respect, but neither is our country or any other indebted to him in the least, for the introduction and success of India-rubber manufactures. To American inventors alone, is the world indebted for the invention of vulcanized India-rubber. Hayward was no doubt totally ignorant of the Prussian doctor’s experiments; he probably could not read German; he made the discovery of sulphurized India-rubber by his own efforts, and he is an original inventor, in this sense of the term. ”

“ PRACTICAL HINTS. Gutta-percha may be mixed and ground together with almost an endless variety of substances, which substances are usually regarded as of little or no value in themselves; but being combined with gutta-percha, are thus transformed into valuable articles of mechanical manufacture. Much of the gutta-percha which is introduced into the market is nothing but a mixture of dirt, bark, and mineral substances, which entirely destroy its value. Great care should therefore be observed in its selection, as its purity makes its value. ”

“ A patent for a modified process in tanning leather, which is specially applicable to light skins, but may be used in all kinds of tanning.
The gist of the invention consists first, in a modified process of unhairing the skins, by a composition of lime, potash and salt, by which the process is very much shortened; and secondly, by combining what is called the process of plumping with that of tanning. It is alleged by the patentee that the process of plumping, which consists in the use of acids, to open the pores of the skins, is like that of rising dough by yeast ”

“ The science of shoe manufacturing is yet to be greatly changed and improved. There is, in our opinion, no branch of the mechanic arts more susceptible of improvement than this; we mean in the process of manufacture, none that admits of more machinery and tools. All parts of the stock can be cut and fitted by machinery, far superior to the hand methods. The rounding of pump out-soles, feather edging, the pricking of holes or stitches, all in-soles for welted boots or shoes, can be fitted precisely alike. ”

“ Most shoe manufacturers, and ordinary village shoemakers, learn their trades from their fathers, and the knowledge has been handed down from generation to generation, without change or improvement, and shoes are made to fit lasts, rather than the feet which are to wear them. Hence intelligent instinct has taken the place of intelligent knowledge, and progressive investigation. The workman knows nothing of the anatomy of the foot, the science of pattern cutting, and therefore works on as though all feet were cast in one mould, with the simple difference which the “sizes” indicate. ”

“ Thus a button is produced at an extraordinary economical rate, and with marvellous ease, which, while comparing the facility of its origin to that of the porcelain, possesses the superlative qualities of being comparable with one made with the properties and strength of iron or other metal, and in imitation of bronze, ivory, cameo, and is, indeed, a substitute for any other, and the very best material or thing ever used for button making. ”

“ The hair can be removed by lime, sweating, and other means, but the employment of a substance or substances that will combine with the gelatine of the skin to form a new substance, insoluble in water and incapable of being injuriously acted upon by the atmosphere, offers a wide field for the historian of the tanning art, and presents a subject for the study of every tanner at least in our country. ”

“ There, it is no uncommon thing for eight or ten months to be employed in tanning a stock of leather, and some of the heaviest leather, it is said, takes fourteen and eighteen months. Such deliberation undoubtedly insures a fine quality of leather, but it may be questioned whether there is not a great loss of weight—a loss of interest on capital, and in consequence an unnecessary enhancement of price, which does not suit the American market. ”

“ What I claim as my invention or discovery, as a new and useful improvement, and desire to secure by letters patent, is the use of arsenic or arsenious acid, substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein set forth; the peculiar properties of arsenic, by which it tends to suspend the natural tendency of the animal fibre to decomposition upon the extinction of animal life, are well known, and of course they are not patentable ”

“ The importance of these gums can hardly be over-estimated, and, it is hardly too much to predict that discoveries in the combination of gutta-percha and India-rubber with other substances, will yet be made, which will almost or wholly supersede the common sole-leather, now so extensively used. Already have patents been secured for artificial leather, that in appearance is hardly distinguishable from the best sole-leather. Its DURABILITY, it is contested, together with its CHEAPNESS, will, when the processes of its manufacture are perfected, give it a decided superiority over all other leather. ”

“ To make a compound preferable to any yet in use for casting and moulding purposes, for water-proofing cloth, leather, and other articles and fabrics, and for coating ships’ bottoms, lining tanks and cisterns, &c., I mix with gutta-percha which has been first boiled in a bath of muriate of lime, and then masticated thoroughly, and while it is yet undergoing the process of mastication, a compound of shellac and borax, adding the same little by little as the mastication proceeds, and using more or less, according as it is desired to make the compound more or less tenacious. ”

“ The church acoustic apparatus is in many respects the most interesting and remarkable of these highly curious applications. Let us conceive, for clearness of illustration, that in a remote pew of a church is a person who, though not deaf, yet fails in ability to hear what is said in the pulpit or reading-desk. A gutta-percha tube is laid down either on or beneath the floor from the pulpit to the pew—the material bends so easily that it may be carried in any form—and a small ivory or hard wood ear-piece is attached to one end, while the other end expands in trumpet-form. ”

“ We know it is very difficult to introduce new plans of tanning, for tanners are, like others, wedded to old things; thus the rolling of leather—an operation now generally practiced—was opposed with much bitterness by some of our most experienced tanners, one of whom said ‘he never would roll a hide while he lived,’ an assertion which he wisely lived either to forget or repudiate. ”

“ Goodyear seemed to be impressed with the idea that nature never plays practical jokes, and that what had already been accomplished in the uses of rubber was simply an earnest of what might be realized. Acting upon this conjecture, we see him devoting himself to the elucidation of the mysterious problem. Two important points were to be gained. To those acquainted with the India-rubber or gum-elastic, it is well known that after it has been subjected to a certain tension for any considerable time, it loses its elasticity ”

“ There are various kinds of oak in the United States, all of which yield a large amount of tannin. There is a species of oak which grows in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, known by the name of Spanish Oak, which is superior for its tannin properties. The rock-chestnut oak, the black and white oaks, and Spanish oak, are considered the most valuable, and are used almost exclusively by the manufacturers of leather in the United States. The wood of almost every tree, the bark of which contains tannin, is also useful for the same purpose. ”

“ The system of cutting Patterns, herein set forth, is alone worth the price of the work, as its simplicity, scientific correctness, and application to every description of boot or shoe, enables any mechanic possessing ordinary ingenuity, to prepare sets of patterns for all classes of work desired. ”

“ Most of the really important improvements that have been made, are the products of that class of mechanics who have brains, but shallow pockets. The ideal must always precede the actual, and the poor shoemaker who conceives an idea that his superior genius discovers to be really practical, is too often regarded as an idle dreamer, and the old adage is at once applied, “Ne sutor ultra crepidam”—no shoemaker should go beyond his last. ”

“ From the sheets and tubes thus made, numberless articles are produced by cutting and pressing. Machines, somewhat like those used in cutting paper, are employed to cut the gutta-percha into pieces. If for shoe-soles, a cutting press produces a dozen or so at one movement; if for string, or thread, narrow parallel slips are cut, which are then rounded or finished by hand; if for producing stamped decorative articles, the sheets are cut into pieces, and each piece is warmed and softened to enable it to take the impress of a mould, or die. ”

“ But if water be conveyed thus effectively through tubes of gutta-percha, the qualities of the material are still more remarkably displayed in the conveyance of chemical liquids. Few persons are so ignorant of chemistry as not to be aware that the stronger acids and alkalies play sad havoc with the vessels and tubes which contain them. On the other hand, there is an obstinacy of constitution about this singular substance which enables you to battle a whole host of formidable opponents. It does yield, certainly, to concentrated sulphuric and nitric acids ”

“ When it is desired that the compound of caoutchouc or gutta-percha shall serve as a covering to the iron or other substance, a thin sheet of the compound (sometimes one thirty-second part of an inch in thickness or less) is pressed with great care, upon the iron or other substance, so as to expel all air from between the adjoining surfaces, and to cause the most perfect union and adhesion, as the coated article is bound with strips or ribbons of cloth, or other suitable material, whereby the compound is kept in close contact with the article during the process of hardening. ”

“ It requires the nicest adaptation of skill to make a perfectly fitting shoe or boot, and no man, unless he who is fully conversant with the rules and principles which enter into the preparation of the stock, the correct measurement of the foot, the “cutting out” of the several parts of the stock, the lasting and fitting of the shoe or boot, can be successful in his profession. ”

“ Are these unnatural deformities required to make a well fitting boot or shoe? Why not make the last the natural shape, and let the shank remain firm and solid? If the last is made in perfect conformity to the foot, all parts of the boot or shoe would then remain in their proper positions, natural and easy to the foot. So far as our observation extends, there is no established principle in constructing lasts, as there is no conformity as a general thing, to the shape of the foot. ”