482 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IJUNE 1, 1914. 



Relating to the Production of Rubber-like Substances." 



The invention consists in converting, by simple means, 

 alcohols of certain types into substances having all the char- 

 acteristics of natural rubber. It is found that alcoliols yield- 

 ing, by dehydration, hydrocarbons of the type 

 > C = C — C = C< 



I I 



where the free valences are saturated by hydrogen or by any 

 hydrocarbon complex, can be readily converted into rul>ber- 

 like compounds. The conversion of the alcohols into hydro- 

 carbons of the above type is in some cases effected merely 

 by the application of a suitable temperature, though pre- 

 ferably by means of substances which individually or to- 

 gether efiect dehydration and polymerization. Such sub- 

 .siances are glacial acetic acid, acetic anhydride, anhydrous 

 acid, potassium sulphate and formic acid. 



A series of U. S. Patents, No. 1,084,333 to .\'o. 1,084,338. 

 inclusive, has been issued to Fritz Hofmann and others, as- 

 signors to Farbenfabriken vorm. I'riedr. Bayer it to. Patent 

 1,084,333 discloses a process for producing a caoutcliouc-like 

 substance by the polymerization of alpha-methylbutadiene: 



[I 



> C = CH — CH = CH.. 



CH, 

 The polymerization may be effected merely by the applica- 

 tion of heat or by the addition of such substances as acetic 

 acid, acetic anhydride, butyric acid or creosote. 



The remaining patents claim as new substances the vulcanized 

 products obtained by vulcanizing certain polymerized hydro- 

 carbons having the properties of caoutchouc-like substances. 

 The hydrocarbons polymerized are isoprenc, erythrene, ery- 

 tlireiie derivatives, alpha-methylbutadiene and mixtures of 

 these hydrocarbons. The patents claim as new substances 

 the products obtained by vulcanizing these polymerized 

 hydrocarbons either with sulphur chloride or witli >ulpluir. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE WOOL BOOT. 



ONE of the pioneers in rubl)er footwear, who is a modest 

 man and specifies that he be made the suliject of no per- 

 sona! reference, gives the following very interesting history of 

 the birth of the wool boot and its complement, the lumberman's 

 over : 



"In 1877, on a visit to the shoe jobbing house of Pancost, 

 Sage & Morse, of Rochester, New York. Mr. Sage, sr., took 

 me to see an arti- 

 cle in which he 

 was much inter- 

 ested, which was 

 being made by a 

 couple of foreign- 

 ers — Frenchmen, I 

 think — who had a 

 little workshop in 

 a cellar, and were 

 there making a 

 felt boot. This 

 was the first at- 

 tempt at making 

 anything of the kind in the United States. 



"Mr. Sage's idea was that this felt boot would be a capital 

 thing if a rubber sole and vamp, or a rublicr over-shoe, might 

 be cemented on and made integral with the felt boot ; and he 

 sent on several pairs to New Haven, to which we attached the 

 rubber foot part, according to his idea. .And the way the felt 

 foot soaked up the cement — at about 80 cents a pound — was 

 something fearful. The boots were sent out to Rochester, and 

 after a trial were condemned because the felt boot absorbed 

 the perspiration from the wearer's foot, ;ind tlierc was no way 



One Bucklk "PERbEcrioN" for Wool 

 Boot. 



of drying it out ; so the matter was dropped for the time being. 

 "Shortly afterwards it appears that these foreigners in some 

 way connected with E. G. Studley. of Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

 It probably came about through the fact that Mr. Studlcy's 

 father-in-law was a manufacturer of felt goods at that time in 

 Mishawaka, and I always supposed that these l-'renchmen went 

 to Mishawaka, and in that way became acquainted with Studley. 

 who induced them to go to Grand Rapids, where he opened up 

 a factory which flourished for many years in the wool boot 

 business. The article met with such favor that a nunilier of 



companies started to manufacture 

 wool boots. One of these was a 

 concern in Chicago, or thereabouts, 

 under the auspices of Armour & 

 Co., who had wool remnants and 

 cows' hair as by-products from their 

 main business. This concern, how- 

 ever, was not a success, and was 

 shortly wound up. Then several 

 wool boot plants were started in 

 the East ; one by a prominent shoe 

 manufacturer at that time popu- 

 larly known as 'Joe' Davis, who 

 had a factory somewhere down in 

 .Maine. Another was started at 

 Matteavvan, New York state, and 

 another over in 

 Orange County at 

 Howells Depot. 

 .About the same 

 time the Mishawaka 

 Woolen Manufac- 

 turing C o . com- 

 menced to make the 

 felt socks which gradually developed into the wool boot busi- 

 ness, and after that a factory began operations at Hudson, Michi- 

 gan. 



"The rubber part was originally a plain rubber overshoe called 

 a 'lumberman's' shoe. This was so low that it was not much 

 protection against deep snow, and somewhere about 1885 one of 

 the big shoe jobbers in Chicago, who had made a large con- 

 tract for several hundred cases of felt boots, said that :f I 

 could get up a lietter overshoe than had been used to go over 

 the boots, he would not only give me a large order for l!ic:n, 

 but would get us a correspondingly good order from annther 

 shoe jobbing house which had joined him in taking the e tire 

 product of one of the felt boot factories above mentioned. 

 Under the stimulus of this proposition I got up what is now 

 called the 'Perfection,' and gave it that name, adopting that form 

 of foot covering because it was the cheapest form in which an 

 overshoe could be made and come up high enough on the ankle, 

 it bein.g the old rubber buskin shape, and not shaped like the 

 arctic or 'Brogan.' This had great vogue and sold oflf I'osc 

 two lots of felt boots like hot cakes, as they were put rji in 

 what was called a 'Coinbination,' that is, the overshoes fitted 

 ■ over the felt boots, the felt boots being sent to the Candee 

 factory for that purpose, where they were fitted to the overshoe, 

 repacked and forwarded to Chicago. The ne.xt year the other 

 factories copied the shoe, appropriated the name 'Perfection,' 

 and have been making them and calling them by that name 

 ever since." 



Wool Boot. 



Tires to the value of $180,823 were imported into the Philippine 

 Islands during the year 1913, and other accessories amounting to 

 $90,414. During that year 624 automobiles were imported, which 

 amounted in value to $886,710. This represents an increase of 

 196 cars over the imports of 1911 and an increase in value of 

 $319,533, while accessories show a gain for the same period of 

 $123,640. 



