El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-10-06


use. and it is said that we shall need
three hundred for our home service
alone These balloons are equipped
with pOntoons which ena Bile them TO
settle upon the water. Other dirig1-
bles when not inflated can be
squeezed into q small compass and
can easily be shipped TO any point
where they are needed And then
there are the kite balloons and captive
observational balloons which are in
use among the armies abroad and
which we shall have TO supply for
our force in the field. Some Of these
balloons must be able to fly thirty
five miles an hour and that at
height of SIX thousand feet They
are to be built for the navy They
are testing these balloons somewhere
in Ohio and they have a school there
for teaching men 10 fly them This
school is presided over by Ralph H
Epson, who viii be remembered as
having won the last James Gordon
Bennett balloon trophy race which
was held at Paris shortly before the
war began. Some of the largest Of
these dirigible balloons cost as much
as $4,000 each
Making Boots For the Army.
In one Of the large establishments
here I saw hundreds Of men and Wo-
men making boots and shoes for the
men in the trenches, and in another
place they were making rubber slick
ers and ponchos The trenches are
often full Of water and hip boots are
a part OF the soldiers equipment some
Of the men wear rubber stockings,
between wooden and cotton ones, and
some of the officers have RUBBER
sheets upon which they sleep TO keep
out of the wet Every man we send
TO Europe will have TO have a rubber
coat or slicker and the rubber shoes
and boots required viii be numbered
bv millions. In one Of the factories
here ] saw them vulcanizing nun
dreds Of pairs OF boots at one time
The boots were on steel frames which
were about two feet taller than the
workmen who pushed them into the
great iron ovens or retorts, lined with
iron pipes, where this was accom-
plished. A touch of a button dropped
the steel door of the oven when the
steam was turned on and the vulcan
ization began
Early Indians Used Rubber.
But before I 90 farther. let me tell
you something as to how the crude
rubber is turned into the manufac-
tured rubber Of commerce The
first rubber manufactures were In the
shape of balls, which Columbus found
used by the Indians on the West
Indies Islands shortly after he dis
covered America A little later Cortez
was taught by the Aztecs in Mexico,
to spread it over the coats OF MS
soldiers TO keep out the rain and
about 26 years before our Declaration
OF INDEPENDENCE a Freuchman
brought some of the Juice of the rub
Der tree from Ecuador TO Europe IN
the shape OF rude bottles. The first
manufacture OF rubber by civilized
man was by Dr. Joseph Priestley, an
English scientist. who came TO the
United states while George Washing
. Tn-fa q @
the first rubber erasers- They were
cubes much smaller than the kind
we now buy for a nickel They were
half an inch-lonE and solid for IS
cents
The first waterproof cloth was
made 10y an EnElishman in 1897, about
the time that John Adams was inau-
gurated president Of the United
states. but it would not stand the
heat. and 70 was not until the presi-
dencv Of John Quincy Adams that
Charles Macintosh, a Scotchman,
discovered how to dissolve rubber in
uaphtha. and make a liquid which,
spread upon cloth. caused IL to shed
water That was the birth OF the
Slfcke- and the rubber coats Of all
kinds that our men will wear in the
field.
Greatest Rubber Invention.
The greatest Of all rubber inven-
e
American This was Charles Goodyear,
who discovered the process Of vulcan
fzatfon. Goodyear was a Connecticut
Yankee. who began life as a hardware
man. He became interested in the
study Of rubber, and when he saw
some shoes made Of the pure gum.
which had been imported from Brazil
he conceived the idea Of making some
thing OF the kind for the trade. He
used pure gum, which was then cheap,
but the shoes softened during the
summer and gave out a bad odor.
Goodyear tried to harden the rubber
by treating its surface with nitric
acid. and he was able to improve II
thereby.
He then tried mixing il with sui
phur. but the process was not a sue
cess until one day when he was bak-
ing a mixture OF sulphur and rubber
on his kitchen stove some Of the gum
melting. the stuff hardened like
leather. and he discovered that great
heat would make rubber hard. He
took the rubber outside and nailed IL
to the wall of the house 10 see
whether 10 would stand the cold There
was a frost that night but the next
morning the piece Of rubber was as
elastic as ever, and il had none Of
the brittleness of the cold rubber he
had previously made. He then went
on until he learned just how the gum
should be treated and the amount Of
heat needed for vulcanization- He
took out his first patent in 1874. and
upon that patent has grown the great
rubber industry OF today. Various
Improvements have been added to