Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-21
NEW RUBBER SUPPLY.
A NEW YORK DEALERS CHAT CON-
 cERNINo cAoUTcHouc.
The Reason Why the Modern Rubber Shoe Wears Out So Quickly - Process of Making . Rubber Overshoe-For Hu- manity's Sake.

weas Out So Quickly - Process of
 Making . Rubber Overshoe-For Hu-
 manity's Sake.
 Gotham rubber manufacturers were con- siderably astonished recently by seeing in print an advertisement for man who had had experience among the rubber plantations of Central America and Para to start on an expedition to a new source of rubber supply.
 "Excuse me" said dealer, with laugh, 'the new source is a secret Suffice it to say that in some way have discovered a new field of operations 1t will be Q sort of exper- imental flyer. The new field may not yield five pounds of rubber, and, again, it may be an exceedingly rich source I want to settle for myself which it is"
 "Why do you start the expedition, ,n the re- porter asked "Have the present known sources given evidence of exhaustionf'
 "Well, I guess not" the dealer replied "We get about 20, ,000, 900 pounds of rubber yearly from Borneo and Africa and Para, in South America But so great is the con sumption of rubber in American commerce that there is plenty of room for new supply of the material
 'It is curious how little people generally know about rubber any how,n the dealer added suddenly. "They kick up row and possibly swear when they find out that their new rubber shoes sometimes wear out in a couple of days. but they don't seem to under stand enough about rubber to know that if they knew more they could get rubber shoes that were really made of rubber gum, and wouldn't wear out in hurry. Inspired by the complaints that went on all about me during the blizzard by people who had got stuck on what they declared to be paste board and paper overshoes, made jour ney into history recently and jotted down. some things about real rubber for the benefit of my friends and the American pubic-that is, if the American public wants the benefit of it. When Columbus discovered America he found those old Fifteenth century Ameri- cans were fussing away making things of rubber, among them rubber shoes. But even before the time of Columbus the East Indians knew that rubber was @ useful thing, and they made shoes of it, too. They made it out of the juice of a tree called Fcus elasticus, and if anybody wants to know right here why rubber shoes, so called, wear out right of, you can tell them that it is because there isn't Ficus elasticus juice, so to speak, in the shoes.
 BOOTS AND BOTTLES
 Columbus Indians and the natives of East India made rough rubber boots and bottles and things of rubber in those old days, and ever since the rest of mankind woke up to the fact that rubber was a good thing, the manufacture of boots and bottles and things has gone on boomingly. The rub bers of those old days, though, were rubbers that would wear we'll, although they had an uncouth and clumsy appearance. Now we get enough rubber from the valley of the Amazon and from Para and Brazil to justify every manufacturer in making rubbers of rubber instead of something else, and the reason that people have a chance to growl so much about "bogus rubbersr is that the bogus rub bers are not made by the honest process a, all
 s'The making of a rubber overshoe is ar interesting process indeed, if you travel back i to the beginning and follow it from the very outset. To get the rubber in the first place a hole is drilled in rubber tree, and the sap is drawn off just like sugar is drawn from the maple tree, and the juice is dried over the smoke from a fire of wild nuts in Para, and when thickened is hung up to dry further. This crude material contains S3 per cent. oi raw caoutchouc or rubber. This raw rubber has to be cleaned with great care, and dried afterward to exclude 54 per cent of water that is part of it It takes all the way from one to four months to do this thoroughly. Before being fully dried it is kneaded as is paper pulp, and crushed and ground and torn up generally to remove al the impurities. All the time this is going on the rubber is thoroughly washed by a steady flowing bath of water. With rubber that is treated in this style you can make rubber shoes that are lasting and also waterproof, but you will have to pay more than fifty cents or s1 pair for them. When spread upon the cloth shell of the overshoe, this style of honest rubber shoe makes @ shoe that is really gum shoe, and will keep out the wet and the snow, and will wear without going out at the heel or the toe, or breaking en- tirely away from the upper. And that's the kind of rubber that hope to get from this new source of supply, and if do, perhaps ] will become sort of public benefactor by giving to Gotham commerce a material for making gum shoes that my fellow citi-
 zens, after they have worn them once, will not be obliged to sit up the next three nights in succession completing their vocabulary of
 strong language to furnish fitting terms of
 abuse for shoes that aren't rubber. The new expedition is a journey for the good oi
 humanity."-New York Sun.
 I Ara foIo