October 1, 1913.) 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



21 



THE FIRST RUBBER SHOES MADE IN AMERICA. 



AV/lliCN Cliarlcs tiuodjcar secured a iiatcnt on his viil- 

 *• canizatioii process, sixty-nine years ago. he began at 

 "lue to issue licenses to different manufacturers to use his 

 l>rocess in the production of various rubber goods. The 

 lirst license he issued was one for making rubber footwear, 

 and this went to Leverette Candee, of New Haven, Con- 

 necticut. Very soon thereafter, however — that is, within a 

 few months — he issued similar licenses to Ford & Co., of 

 Xew Brunswick. New Jersey (which later became the ]\Ieyer 

 Rubber Co.), to the New Brunswick Rubber Co., of the same 

 place, and to Goodyear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., of 

 .\augatuck, Connecticut; and all of these companies began 

 making rubber shoes by the Goodyear process. The licenses 

 included boots also, but rubber boots did not appear on the 

 market until several years later. 



.Mr. Candee's first attempt to market these Goodyear rub- 

 bers was very interesting and rather e-xpensive. Owing to 

 the unfortunate experiences that consumers had had with 

 earlier rubber products — those made before Goodyear's dis- 

 covery — the wliole rubber industry had come into ill repute, 

 the products of the rubber mills growing hard and brittle 

 in winter and melting in hot weather, so that it proved ex- 

 tremely difficult to interest the hard-headed Yankees in these 

 new vulcanized goods. 



.\s a result, the Candee salesman who started out through 

 Xew England with his rubber shoes found that a great many 

 people were disinclined even to give them inspection; and 

 in order to secure a market the salesman gave away a good 

 many introductory pairs. It was not necessary, however, to 

 do this a second season, because it was soon discovered that 

 the new vulcanized shoes were entirely different from the 

 unvulcani/.ed footwear of a few years before. 



Probably not many pairs of the shoes made in 1844 — tlu- 

 lirst year of rubber footwear manufacture in this country or. 

 as far as that is concerned, in any country — are still extant, 

 but through the courtesy of the "Commercial." of Winnipeg, 

 we have secured photographic illustrations of two shoes 

 made in that year liy tlic Xew Brunswick Rulibcr Co.. the 

 cuts showing both a side and a sole view. These are 

 women's shoes, and it will be noticed that they have no 



A Relic of 1844. 



heels. Women in iliosc days were content to walk on such 

 feet as Heaven had vouchsafed to them, and had not learned 

 to resort to French heels and Cuban heels for the purpose 

 of subtracting from the length of their feet to add to their 

 stature. They wore heelless shoes and. naturally, rubbers to 



lit them were also made heelless. .\nother noticeable fea- 

 ture is the squareness of the toes, pointed toes being at that 

 time not at all in vogue. 



.\nothcr point of difference from present-day footwear 

 will be noticed in one of the shoes, which has four straps 



Four Str.m- L.\uv's S.\.\I).\i,, 1844. 



over the instep. These open-vamp strap sandals were very 

 popular in the earlier days, notwithstanding the fact that it 

 was something of a nuisance to get all these straps on over 

 the leather shoe. To obviate this difficulty and still keep 

 the same effect, a few j'ears later rubbers were made in 

 imitation of the strap style, the vamp being a solid piece 

 with raised lines showing the strap pattern. And for a long 

 lime rubber sandals with some sort of pattern stamped in 

 the vamp were exceedingly popular, but they liave not been 

 .-ecu now for at least two decades. 



The sale of rubber footwear, while it grew continuously 

 from the first year after Goodyear issued his licenses, grew 

 \ ery slowly, for the records show that seventeen years 

 afterwards, in 1861, the entire rubber footwear production 

 of the United States only amounted to 1.250.000 pairs, valued 

 at a trifle over $750,000. These figures look rather small 

 when contrasted with the present output, which equals 

 .'.lout 70.000,0(X) pairs of rubber boots and shoes a year, with 

 a valuation of almost that many dollars. 



BULLET PROOF TIRES FOR MEXICAN USE. 



It is desirable in most parts of the world that automobile 

 tires should he proof against stones, glass, nails and similar 

 destructive objects that may naturally be found in the roadway; 

 tiut in addition to all these qualities, tires meant for Mexican 

 use ought to be bullet-proof. The publicity promoter of The 

 Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. states that General Lucio Blanco, 

 commanding the constitutionalist forces in Mexico, undoubtedly 

 owes his life to the ability of his tires to withstand the bullets 

 of the federal sharpshooters. 



"Through flying bullets." the story runs. '"General Blanco drove 

 his Firestone-shod car into the thickest of the recent battle at 

 Matamoros. Mexico. Tires, riddled with bidlet holes, and with 

 lagged scars, are mute testimonials that the federals could shoot 

 straight, altho none of their shots penetrated the tough fabric. 

 One large cut especially appears to be made by a glancing ball 

 from a machine gun. The tires certainly proved their worth and 

 quality, for Blanco never stopped. Firestone tires saved him 

 from being taken prisoner." 



Other manufacturers desiring to invade the Mexican market 

 will take their cue from the above paragraph and see that their 

 tires are proof against any and all of the projectiles used in 

 modern warfare. 



