Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-10-25
A VAST INDUSTRY
Among the Rubber Workers.
What Rubber Is and the Process of
Its Manufacture Into Boots
and Shoes.

perhaps but little known.
The substance known as rubber is
made of the juice of q tree which grows
in tropical countries. There are many
varieties of trees aud shrubs yielding
daouechouc, and they are scattered
through many countries contiguous to
equator. The properties Of this tree was
discovered about 500 years ago, aud the
tree was first named by Torouemada.
during the Spanish conqUests of Ameri-
can provinces The elastic properties
were discovered by seeing the Indians
play with ball made from the luce OF 8
tree that had greater Bounding proper
ties than those inflated affairs used by
the children in Spain" The Spanish
adYenturers also discovered that their
cloaks could be made water proof by
spreading the juice over them and allow.
ing it TO dry in the sun, which is practI-
caily the same presses that is practiced
today in our factories.
No attention was, however, paid to
these discoveries at the time ia Europe,
and it was not until the nineteenth cen
tury that rubber came to be used in any
great quantities. An insurmountabIe
obstacle to its general use was the ten
dency OF rubber to adhere when two
parts were brought int contact after the
substance had beeen made up into arti-
cles for use. Various compositions were
used to overcome this defect, but nothing
seemed to meet the requirements of the
case until Mr.. Goodyear, a Connecticut
manufacturer, after years of experiment,
accidentally discovered that sulphur mix
ed with the rubber and vapOrized BIZ
heat would cause it TO yulcanize without
impairing its quality, and a revolution
! III the manufacture of rubber was the
i'm mediate result. From that time, 1S46-
40, to the present time gigantic strides
have been made in this industry, and to-
day $10,000,000 is invested in the business
of making rubber boots and shoes alone,
employing $4,000 Workmen, and turning
out product worth $35,OOO,OOO annually.
This Industry is confined almost en-
tirely to the States of Massachusetts.
Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jer-
sey. One small concern is located on
Long Island, N. Y; one at Harlem, N. Y,
and one ia Williamsport, Penn. Both in
England and Canada factories have been
established, but they are not included in
the above estimate. I will briefly de-
scribe the various processes through
which this material passes from the tree
to the completed shoe.
The native Indians in South America
cut incisions in the tree as deep as the
second layer of the bark, and collect the
juice in earthen cups, fastened to the tree
with plastic clay. tree will yield enough
in three days to make three pounds of
| rubber. When sufficient OF the juice has
been collected a stick tipped with clay is
dipped IN the Juice and held over the
white vapor arising from fire of oily
palm nuts, the fire being confined in an
earthen pot with a narrow neck. The
process Of alternately dipping and dry
ing is continued until a ball is formed On
the end Of the stick, when it is cut open
and removed, and becomes the rubber
"biscuit" of comm cree. Rubber pre-
pared In this way Is the finest that can be
obtained. The form ard character of
rubber varies very much, the coarse be-
ing called "niggerhead." Some comes
in fiat cakes, some in nuts, the latter from
the Benguela and Gaboon county in At
RIGA, and some in large chunks packed in
bamboo baskets from Assam, Sumatra
and Borneo.
Rubber is valuable in proportion to its
| purity. Some contains as high as thirty
five per cent of water, clay and sticks.
The price varies from forty-fve cents to
80 cents per pound. The price has, in
years of scarcity, advanced to $1.1O per
pound for good gum.
On its arrival at the factory. the pieces
are cut into and soaked in boiling water
until quite soft. Then it is cut in slices
and passed back and forth through cor
rugated rolls. upon which water is kept
running, until the rubber is entirely hon
| eycombed and every particle of clay or
other impurity is washed out. It is then
dried ard taken to the mixing mills, where
a proper proportion of whiting, lamp
black, litharge and sulphur is added TO
the mass, and the whole is ground to the
consistency Of putty, and comes out in
the shape of huge cigar.
The composition is then taken to the
calenders, machine with heavy rollers
| capable of exerting pressure OF many
| tons. The rolls are capable of being
heated and some are engraved with such
designs as may be demanded by the
trade. These calenders are adapted to
the various kinds Of work req uired by the
different parts and kinds OF boots and
shoes. The cloth used for lining the
shoes is coated with rubber; some cloth
needed for joining parts is practically
adhesive on both sides, and the vamps,
soles, ETC.. are run in continuous sheets
between the engraved rolls, which
impress the design permanently upon the
rubber. A continuous apron leads the
rubber up to the emitting room. There it
is cut into lengths and removed on
frames covered with cotton cloth. It is
allowed to stand day or two, and is then
cut into the thousand and one parts nee
essay to the proper shaping Of the great
varieties Of boots and shoes.
a portion of the cut cloth parts are
then taken to the quarter room, where
small girls put the vamps, counters and
lining in shape for the shoemaker to IAN
die. This work, together with the other
warts, is then taken to the makers, and,
by liberal ase of cement, the knife, roll
lei and hammer, the parts are Joined on
to the last or tree, and the shoe or boot
perfected and practically completed. It
is then vanished, if necessary, and
placed in ovens capable of holding many
thousand pairs, and objected to about
265 degrees Fahrenheit for some seven
hours. By this process the sulphur
mixed with the com position is driven off
in vapor and vulcanizes the rubber.
The packing room then receives the
shoe, strips it from the last, trims the
ed yes and gives it its last nunb erS, and il
is then ready for market, a thing Of
beauty and utility. the demand for which
is growing every day.
The late CORTLAND Palmer, New York's
exponent of agnosticism, and the foun
der Of the Nineteenth Century club, had
a standing contract with one of mis- fol-
lowers that the one to pass first TO the
other side, should gend a message to the
other. MIR. COURTYARD died last and as