318 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 



1902. 



SURFACE ORNAMENTATION OF RUBBER GOODS. 



THE different ways in which India-rubber goods may be 

 ornamented affords a very interesting study, besides 

 which they often have proved exceedingly valuable. 

 It is not a far cry to the time when the plain black 

 gossamer suddenly became much more attractive through the 

 invention of the India stripe. Of course, when that was once 

 accomplished, a great many surface patterns were produced, 

 some of them so ornate that they found no wearers ; they were 

 useful only in showing what could be done along such lines. 

 In single texture mackintoshes beautiful lining effects have 

 been attained by running colored silk threads on the surface 

 of the rubber, which is but one of many styles of surface orna- 

 mentation. 



The rubber clothing business, however, knows very little of 

 this art as compared with such lines as boots and shoes, drug- 

 gists' sundries, and carriage cloth and imitation leather lines. 

 There are three ways in which this work is done, by using en- 

 graved rolls, flexible impression sheets, and dies. These im- 

 pressions, known by a variety of terms, such as embossing, 

 printing, etc., are all done on unvulcanized rubber in sheet form. 

 For heavy goods, such as carriage drills, the rubber is first 

 calendered to the desired thickness, and upon the fabric 

 which is to be its permanent backing, and afterward varnished 

 and hung in festoons in a dry heater for curing. For lighter 

 goods, like shoe uppers, the calendering and embossing are 

 done by the same roll at one and the same time. 



Where the flexible impression sheet is used, which is chiefly 

 in the druggists' sundries line, the sheet of rubber is calen- 

 dered upon a sheet of fabric which has raised figures which are 

 transferred to the lower side of the sheet. The rubber is then 

 stripped off, made up into the desired form, and cured in a bed 

 of French talc to hold it until set by the cure. Metal plates at 

 best were but a make shift, and were often of lead, from which 

 many rubber duplicates weie taken vulcanized, and then used 

 as flexible impression sheets on unvulcanized stock, the print- 

 ing being done in a cold press. 



In rubber footwear special calenders are constructed, in 

 which are placed engraved rolls for producing soling, fancy or 

 plain uppers for shoes, and pebbled legs 

 for boots. This work is of course 

 almost wholly black, and highly var- 

 nished. The public taste some years 

 ago ran to exteme ornamentation of 

 shoe uppers, calling for a large stock 

 of engraved rolls. Plain effects are 

 to-day in vogue, the only real attempts 

 at ornamentation being the pebbled 

 boot leg and a very pretty effect used 

 both in shoes and boot legs known 

 as " watered silk." The illustration of 

 an engraved roll on the opposite page 

 shows one engraved to give this effect 

 to sheets designed to be cut into shoe 

 uppers. 



In carriage cloth and 

 s imitation leather for 



upholstery work, 

 another type of calen- 

 der is used, having 

 WATERED SILK BOOT LEG. s t e 6 1 cngravcd rolls 



running against specially prepared paper rolls. In druggists' 

 sundries, surface impressions for goods like fountain syringes, 

 water bottles, and tobacco pouches, are sometimes made by an 

 engraved roll that is run in connection 

 with a regular sheet calender and some- 

 times by calendering the stock upon 

 rolls of fabric having a raised surface 

 which transfers itself to the rubber. 

 About the only survival of the die, 

 which, by the way, at one time was a 

 series of engraved metal plates and used 

 in the press, is the die used in the 

 machine for making corrugated tubing. 

 The vast majority of the goods that 

 are embossed are black, there are, how- 

 ever, certain lines that are produced 

 in green, tans, reds, and white. In ar- 

 tificial leather of course the colors are 

 very brilliant, and of infinite variety. 

 If there was need of such work, there 

 is almost no end to 

 the variety of pat- 

 terns that could be 

 secured either by the 

 use of the engraved 

 rolls or by the flex- 

 ible impression sheet. 

 The few illustrations shown herewith will give a very good 

 idea of some in actual use to-day. 



PEBBLE LEG BOOT. 



IMITATION WATERED SILK TOP. RUBBER SOLING. 



To produce lining effects, fabrics may be coated in the 

 usual manner, and then given a coat of tinted rubber solution 

 or dusted with tinted farina, dyed bone dust, arrowroot, 

 aluminum dust, or other similar material, and then covered 

 with a transparent coating of rubber and vulcanized. Or two 

 tints of powder, one under and the other over the transparent 

 coating, give a shot or luminous effect. For printing patterns 

 upon rubber the surface is coated with shellac, powdered glass, 

 tin, or asbestos, etc., and a transparent coating put upon the 

 outside before the cure. Mechanical devices are also used in 

 connection with the above, wavy stripes being formed by giving 

 a transverse motion to the feed roll, and a watered silk eflfect 

 by a roll with straight ribs followed by one with wavy lines, or 

 by two straight ribbed rolls between which the cloth is given a 

 reciprocating motion as it passes through. 



