Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-01-13
WITHOUT RUBBER.
Little Of the Material Used in Maxine
Rubbers.
The Evolution OF the Rubber Shoe ard Incl
dental Remarks.

well. ] Woht assert positively tina
1t is impossible to find a live. dodo al
great aux on even well preserved
specimen Of the roc's egg. but you
might as well give up your hunt for !;
pure gum rubber shoe. for there is nj
such thing on the market" said =
water street shoe dealer one morning
recently.
journal reporter. Disguised witt
a pair of so-called rubbers. one Of
which had torn down the side the third
tlme II was worn, had vowed by all the
lesser gods known to the newspaper
fraternity to get pair of rubbers that
mad some rubber in them, even if il
took a days time and called for the
expenditure of weeks salary. In
quiry at several stores invariably
brought forth practically the same re-
ply: We've got the best there is. but
there's nothing in our stock that APP
proaches even 80 per cent pure rub
berr
The dealer quoted above continued
Rubber boots and shoes at the pres
ent time are manufactured on the same
principle that applies to the manufac-
ture of camel's hair goods. The pro-
prietor of a wooden mill. where So
called camei's hair blankets were ex-
tensiNely manufactured. told me once
in confidence. when | asked him what
per cent Of camel'S hair entered into
the composition Of his blankets, that
one Gamers hair not the hair of one
camel. mind you, but just one solitary
hair. was generally considered suffi-
Gent for two blankets of the best
grade. in which no shoddy was allowed.
And that's about the proportion of
pure gum rubber that enters into the
manufacture of rubber boots and shoes
a the present time
Inquiries at several other places
brought out the following facts re-
garding the evolution Of the rubber
shoe of commerce:
The first rubber shoes were made Of
pure rubber They had no resemblance
to a shoe, being simply hollow tubes,
tapcring nj one end. An irr agular hole
was left So that they could be drawn
on over the foot. and this hole was en-
larged by til, retailer TO suit the fancy
or necessity of his customer. These
goods We're first made in EoXbury.
Mass. in 1893. and the first attempts to
place them on the market were far
from successful and n large amount of
money was lost in experiments. Thesa
shoes were extremely heavy and
clumsy. 4 pair of lady'S shoes weighing
at least two pounds. and they We're
kept stuffed with straw in order to
keep them in something near the SHAPE
of a shoe while in stock. one dis
agreeable feature about them was that.
while they answered every purpose in
cold weather. they would not stand
heat and in warm weather had 4 way
Of melting that was not conducive to
wide and immediate popularity. At
tempts to remedy this defect resulted
in arriving at the opposite extreme.
and cold weather made the shoes 50
brittle that they could neither be put
-on nor removed until they had been
thoroughly warmed. This trouble was
rot overcome until nine years after
rubber shoes had been on the market
when Charles Goodyear perfected his
vulcanizing process and invented his
method for spreading the rubber gum
on elastic textile fabrics. Since that
time more attention mas btt'il given "
the shape of the shoe. but the various
uses to which rubber is now put has
increased its cost SO materially that
very small piece in each shoe serves TO
ease the conscience of the manufac-
turer.
A white-haired business man says he
distinctly remembers the first pair of
rubber shoes he ever owned They
cost him $215 and We're five or six
times as heavy as the rubbers now
sold. He says that in putting them on
thew stretched over the foot so tightly
that they were painful things to wear
and that they made a person look de-
c.dedly club-footed.
Statistics show that the United
States is fast getting control of the
markets of the world in the matter of
rubber boots and shoes. 1t is est-
mated that at least 40 per cent of all
The rubber shoes sold in Europe. out
side of Russia. where there is a tariff
high enough to keep out foreign goods
are of American manufacture. This IS
attributed not entirely to pushing
American business methods, but to
s,1perior style. Eghtness, finish and
dnrability as compared with goods of
foreign manufacture. Wherever the
American article has been introduced
the sales have shown a satisfactory
yearly increase