The Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Assistant and Guide. / Containing a Brief History of the Trade. History of India-rubber and Gutta-percha, and Their Application to the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes. Full Instructions in the Art, With Diagrams and Scales, Etc., Etc. Vulcanization and Sulphurization, English and American Patents. With an Elaborate Treatise on Tanning.

by Unknown

A Prussian pamphlet published at Berlin in 1832, describes the experiments made by F. Luedersdorff with India-rubber, and the production of sulphurized India-rubber compounds. The Scientific American in speaking upon this subject, and combating the claims of the learned Prussian has the following:—

“The clamminess of dissolved India-rubber, and its tendency to decomposition are attributed to its resinous properties. On page [28], the following language occurs: ‘After a long series of experiments, in which neither deodorizing or oxidizing substances, neither alkalies, nor mechanical means, which affected the speedy drying, produced the desired result; I succeeded at last in finding in sulphur the substance, which even in very small quantities, perfectly prevented the injurious effect of the resinous aggregation.’ Instructions are given how to prepare the sulphur solution, by heating and stirring three parts of flour sulphur in one hundred parts of rectified oil of turpentine, bringing them to a boiling heat, then dissolving the India-rubber in the solution. By Hayward’s patent, one teaspoonful of sulphur was mixed with that quantity of oil of turpentine required to dissolve a pound of India-rubber, and in this respect, there is little difference between his method and that of the Prussian doctor. It is the sulphur which is the grand agent in the production of vulcanized India-rubber, no matter how combined, in solution, or with India-rubber softened by heat. Leave sulphur out of the question, and we would have no vulcanized India-rubber fabrics.

“The question now arises, what reliance is there to be placed upon the authenticity of this pamphlet, published six years before Hayward’s patent was obtained? We have been assured that the original work is in the College Library, at Providence, R. I.; but it is rather singular, that in the many controversies on this subject, and the numerous suits at law which have taken place, respecting the originality of the invention, that such information was not produced as testimony before some tribunal.

“That Dr. 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.”

We have thus given a brief account of this remarkable discovery. Heretofore but little has been written or published upon the discovery, and the subsequent inventions to which it gave rise. The books which have been published have carefully avoided full and complete statements or facts, and have contained little or no information of value, but on the contrary, have seemed, at least, to deal in generalities calculated to befog and mislead.

In the long and tedious trials which tasked the ingenuity and power of Webster and Choate, it was clearly proven that the articles claimed to be made by specifications there introduced, could not be manufactured by such compounds. To all who are interested in the facts, etc., elicited upon these celebrated trials, we would refer them to “Day’s Bible” if obtainable, containing the Genesis and Revelation of all that could then be said or written upon the subject.

“The profits on the India-rubber business will reach almost two millions of dollars in the year, and the present manufactories cannot supply the demand. Shoes which weigh nine ounces per pair have only about three and a half ounces of rubber, the other materials being worth only from one to six cents per pound. One girl can make from twenty to thirty pairs per day, hence, enormous profits have been derived by the manufacturers of such goods. The best valve packing is made of 30 lbs. of India-rubber, 6 lbs. of lampblack, 22 lbs. red or white lead, and 22 oz. of sulphur; these metalizing substances are all very cheap. India-rubber is easily rendered plastic, and combines readily with almost every substance, such as the oxides of metal, clay, pulverized sand, gums, carbon, saw-dust, ground cork, &c. It is, certainly, one of the most wonderful and useful products of nature that has ever been applied to the arts.”

The importance of the discovery of the vulcanization of India-rubber to the world, can hardly be over-estimated, whether regarded in the light of science, or political economy. But comparatively few years have elapsed since its highest uses were discovered and applied; and even now, with all the success which has thus far crowned the efforts of those engaged in its development, it is yet in its infancy. Like many of the most important discoveries in the mechanic arts, that of vulcanization was imperfectly applied, and millions of dollars were expended in the manufacture of improperly vulcanized goods, mills, machinery, &c.

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. All classes became interested in its success, stock companies were formed, the shares of which were eagerly snatched up, and visions of untold profits were divided in anticipation. But the “bubble” soon burst, goods manufactured and solarized in April, became a sticky mass of useless rubbish in July. The warm weather literally melted the hopes and expectations of the incautious adventurer. A panic was the consequence, mills were abandoned, thousands of artizans were suddenly thrown out of employment, and this vast field of enterprise so promising but a few months before, was swept as by a hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of tons of India-rubber, both raw and prepared were either given away, or sold at ruinous sacrifices. Hilltops blazed with its ignited masses, and the illuminations of the fourth of July succeeding the failure, were made unusually brilliant by the aid of the India-rubber panic.

As before intimated, the cause of this great loss of money and material, originated in the “indecent haste” of the manufacturer. In the first place, solarization, that is heating in the sun the cloth, or other substance upon which the gum or compound of rubber, and some foreign substances was spread, was an imperfect process, as the heat of the sun was not sufficiently powerful to evaporate the solvent, and form a chemical union between the sulphur and the rubber, which union constitutes perfect vulcanization.