The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-02-19
How Rubber Boots and Shoes are Made.

Did you ever see any crude bber, anc
have you any idea how it is gathered anc
worked? There are twenty or thirty va
rieties of crude rubber, varying greatly
in quality. and of all these the best il
known as Para, South American pro
duct, obtained in Brazil, about 1,S0(
miles above the mouth of the Amazon
1t is called Para from the city of thai
name from which it is shipped to foreign
parts. The gum is gathered by tapping
The rubber trees. as we tap maple trees
for sap for maple sugar. The sap is
gathered into large pot into which the
native dips fat wooden paddle, to which
gum adheres. He withdraws the paddle
and holds it in smoke made by burning
palm nuts. (which dries and cures the
film o: rubber on the paddle. He then
dips again, and smokes again, repeating
the process until he has on tine paddle a
bunch of gum weighing several pounds.
Then he splits the ball or roll to get the
paddle out, and it is ready for market.
These natives are not models of homes
ty, however, as these chunks of gum tre-
quently contain palm nuts, rubber nuts,
pieces of iron, or are freely mixed with
sand to add weight, which often causes
the manufacturer great trouble. The
public, or large share of the public,
have m idea that crude rubber gum
comes something like tamarac, and that
it is melted and cast into whatever form
is desired, but this is not true. A rubber
shoe factory is not a foundry; it comes
nearer being printing Office.
These chunks of rubber are sliced into
steaks, you might say, by sharp knives
revolving rapidly and kept constantly
wetted. When one of these knives
strikes an iron spike, there is apt to be
music in the air." The operators are
on the lookout, however, and accidents
are SO thoroughly guarded against that
they are very rare. These steaks are
then put into chopping machine, where
they are made into an article closely re
sembling boarding house hash. only that
this hash is the straight goods, except
that it needs cleaning. The small pieces
thus formed are then put through a
machine which makes mince meat of
them, and at the same time washes out
all the dirt and sand. This not the dirt
and sandy is now shoveled into rolling
machine which congresses the mass into
rough sheets. This is the first process.
These sheets are then taken to another
building and put into steam drying
room, where they remain about three
months to free them from all moisture.
By the drying process they lose from
Is to 30 per cent. of their weig hit. If the
least moisture remains in the rubber
when made up into shoes, the heat of
vuIcanization causes it's expansion, and
consequently, causes blisters in the stock.
The dry gum is then run between heavy
iron rolls, heated by steam, and called
grinders, by which it is soctened to per-
nit the admixture of the vulcanizing
material.
Rubber in its natural state.is unfit for
use, and Goodyear's process of vulcani.
zalion by the aid of sulphur is necessary
to utilize it. This mixing is done by
running the ground rubber through still
another series of rollers, which press the
rubber and sulphur together in one soft,
fine body, which is finally run throug ii q
calendar, between great steel cylinders;
the mass is pressed out into long smooth
sheets of any desired width or thickness.
Then comes the printing process. These
sheets are fed through steel cylinders on
the face of which is engraved the pattern
for sole, heel. and upper desired to be
produced, and these impressions are as
clearly printed on the rubber as this type
impression is on this paper.
Then the sheets 60 to the cutters, who
cut out the different parts and send them
to their respective departments. The
lasting is done similarly TO that of other
shoes, except that the parts are all put
together by rubber cement, and, before
removal from the last, they are placed in
the vulcanizing ovens, where they are
subjected to q degree of heat that trans
forms the various parts into homegene-
GUS mass in the shape of a boot or shoe
with seam, nail or peg. Then, if a
dull finish is desired, the last is removed.
and the goods are ready for market.
Otherwise they are vanished to give the
bright finish, and dried, when they are
ready.-Scientifc American.