Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-02-06
NOTHING LIKE LEATHER
No Satisfactory Substitute Has fe
Diac0Vered.

No Satisfactory Substitute Has Yet
Been Discovered.
One Of the most promising fields for
the experiments Of the inventive gen.
ius. whether he be chemist, mechanic.
agriculturist or naturalist, is the search
for a substitute for leather, says the
Boston Transcript. In this day when
the supply of leather seems to have
reached its topmost record, and its
many uses are steadily increasing, the
balance Of the law of demand and sup
ply must be preserved by the produc-
ton of some substance which COM
bines attributes of leather. The old
expression, There's nothing like leath-
err" has never been contradicted, but
now research must be made till some
thing like leather is found suitable to
take the wear-and-tear Of the feet Of
millions, and endure as leather has.
The japanese present their mitsu-.
mata tree, the bark of which has some
Of the qualities of leather, but the
japanese are buying leather from
America, so that their bark is not like
ly to be produced in sufficient quaint
ties to be practicable The most natu-
raj substitute is some textile fabric Of
such a material, or SO chemically treat
ed, as to be impervious to water, and
able to withstand severe strain and
wear. Already the cotton canvas has
become a popular substitute for leather
S,1rf1 lTpNnr oh DIT foY, i1
water-tight. nor durable beyond a GER
tain short limit. Its use is confined to
the vamps and uppers Of the shoe, the
old-fashiOned leather being depended
upon for the sole. The heel of leather
has been crowded out in many in
stances by the rubber heel. The wood
en- heel figures prominently in Cuban,
Louis, common sense or military styles
for women's shoes. But the artificial
leather is still unprotected.
Some Kansas genius proposed to
press a substance from corn stalks
which he AYERS would serve the pur-
pose Another wizard of the Middle
West desired stone sole of a sub
stance composed of marble dust. saw
dust and glue. The ingenious japanese
have pressed a seaweed into a SUBJ
stance which is passable as an inner
sole, and still the secret is unsolyed.
Building on the cotton canvas has pro-
duced substances made of canvas
treated with rubber, but the porosity
of leather is not provided for and rub
Der is becoming itself a scarce sub
stance.
A Yankee genius has proposed the
shredding of old leather, then mixing
it with some binding substance and so
procuring a built-up leather. but the
life of the original has been destroyed.
Numerous paths have been blazed out,
1t will be seen, but the field is still to
be traversed in the right direction, and
the use of cotton, treated and woven
in some way, seems the most promis-
ing. The patent leather Of to-day,
which Is leather vanished and baked
till the varnish becomes a hard sur
face and the leather but f1brous sub
stance devoid of life and elasticity.
has been initiated by treating heavy
cotton cloth in the same way with
quite similar results. In that direc-
ton the problem is partially solved.
There is yet to be devised a material
which will make the shoes of the
schoolboy, of the farmer, the trench
digger and the business man.