The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-02-27
Practical Demonstration Made This
Morning at $40 Main Street and
Spectators Were Guests Of
Huiskamp Bros.
MANY ARE INTERESTED
Speed With Which Rubber Goods is
Made is Marvellous and Dem
onstration Was Greatly
Enjoyed.

Probably very few people were
awake to the fact that the industry of
making rubber TO twear was recently
started in this city. Such was the
case however. 1t began In the selling
rooms of Huiskamp Bros, and con
tinued for an hour, during which time
a whole rubber boot and a whole rub
Der shoe were made, not a large cut
put. but very interesting.
The Boston Rubber Shoe Company
of Boston, Mass, which for the last
fifty odd years has enjoyed the dis.
tfnction of being the largest rubber
shoe manufacturing company l.. the
world, sent four Of its representatives
to this city, Mr.. A. F. Solbery and Mr..
G. Balien, their selling agents, Mr.. J.
j. Hawkins and Mr.. w. H. Palmer. to
show the selling force and friends of
Hulskamp Bros, who for many years
have been large distributors of "Bos-
ton" rubbers, just how these famous
old rubbers were made. Mr.. Hawkins
was the lecturer, and had in front of
him table covered with all manner
of specimens of crude rubber and part.
ly made boots and shoes. Mr.. Palm
er was the practical rubber maker
and while Mr.. Hawkins was giving q
very interesting talk to the forty or
fifty people resent-mostly statesmen
connected With Huiskamp Bros, on
rubber-what it is, where it comes
from, how 1t is made and how the "Bos-
tom boots and shoes are put together,
Mr.. Palmer, with boot tree in front
of him, a shoe last and all the tools
that the workman uses IN the factory,
was busy building up a rubber boot
and a woman's Storm Slipper so
that the audience could see exactly
the process of footwear manufacture.
| Rubber, as Mr.. Hawkins explained,
/ is the sap of ? tree native to the
tropics and growing most luxuriantly
along the banks of the Amazon. The
| tree Is tapped, just as the New Eng
| land farmer taps his maple trees, the
sap is collected in little cups; then
poured into a large pan. A paddle
| about the size of canoe paddle is
dipped into this sticky sap and held
over the smoke of palm nuts, which
! coagulates it. 1t Is then re-dipped in
to the sap and another layer dried on
the lump of rubber is too large for
easy handling, when it is cut open
and another lump started.
! These Jumps of crude rubber, that
| look very much like the familiar ham
that hangs in the grocery store, are
then sent to this country to be made
into foot wear They first go into a
vat of boiling water to wash out the
dirt and then are crushed and torn
! between steel rollers until thoroughly
cleaned. The rubber, row in the form
of long sheets foot and half wide
and fifteen feet long, is then hung up
in the drying room, where it remains
for several weeks, until the last yes
! tage of moisture has disappeared II
/ is then rolled through steel rollers I'M
/ til it Is fiat, even sheet,-then put
| through another set of steel rollers in
conjunction with the various COM
pounds, sulphur litharge, lamp black
all of which serve some useful purpose
in rubber manufacture. When thor
oughly compounded the rubber is
again run between another set of
steel rollers, and that part of it which
/ is intended for the uppers of the shoes
! is united with various fabrics, mostly
cotton. AS the rubber passes through
these rollers sundry patterns are
marked upon the sheet. These pat
terms are cut out later. Some by
hand some by machinery, and then
/ all these parts are collected and hand
| ed to the workman, who puts them to-
/ gether over the boot trees and shoe
lasts, as Mr.. Palmer did today
Some seventy different pieces go in
to the construction of pair of the
Boston short rubber boots. and TWEEN
ty-two different pieces go into the
construction of a pair of Storm Slip
pers'' Every piece serves its partic-
ular purpose, and the proper uniting
of all these pieces and cementing them
comes with long experience.
After the boot and shoe are com
pletely constructed they are dipped in
varnish and then put in vulcanizing
oven. where they stay seven or eight
hours. The rubber then becomes a
compact whole with all the pieces in
separately joined together.
Though many of the men in the aud
fence had been selling rubbers for a
good many years, they learned more
about the construction of a rubber in
this hour of lecture and demonstration
than they had ever known before
This is very good idea on the part of
the Boston Rubber Shoe Company, to
send these capable men around among