THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



793 



processes, and gave away. So once more new molds were de- 

 signed, with the result that, now, nearly standard types arc found 

 in use among the most successful manufacturers. 



Sliapis. Foreparts, Shanks. 



Men's IJ iron and lOM iron 7 iron 



Boys' 12 iron and lO'/i iron 7 iron 



Men's 14 iron 



9 iron 



Child's J lAn iron is equivalent to 1/48-inch.) 



In Fig. 3 we show a rough idea of these various shank changes 

 in sketches a, b. and c, while in d and e we show the spring heel 

 mold in the old and new designs. The reader can easily imagine 

 how great was the improvement in this particular case. Some 

 shoe manufacturers wanted spring-heel soles with varied heights 

 of heels and thus we soon found on the market heels as high as 

 fi-inch. This necessitated the plying up of the heel portion of 

 the blank used to fill the mold. It was later found much more 

 practicable to make all spring-heel soles with heels Yz-'mch. m 

 height and then have the shoe manufacturer insert a wedge lift 

 underneath the heel portion of the sole during the process of 

 manufacture. 



EFFECT OF POOR COMPOUNDS. 

 If rubber manufacturers were slow to improve their old molds 

 and compounds, they were not so slow when it came to realizing 

 the possibilities in the new fiberized product and in a short time 

 there was not enough fiber of the proper kind obtainable nor were 

 there sufficient iiberizing machines available to supply the demand 

 for this material. In the crying need of the hour, with many 

 fearing they would be outclassed by competitors, they were not 

 so particular about the kind of fiber they got so long as they got 

 it quickly and in sufficient quantities to enable them to flood the 

 market with their products. Thus it came about that soles were 

 soon on the market whose fibrous content might once have been 

 leather refuse, hemp or jute rope, cork shavings and even grape 

 packing, cotton waste, waste tire duck, silk fiber waste and even 

 paper pulp — anything that could be reduced to a fibrous state 

 quickly. 



Of these over-night discoveries and compounds, some were 

 remarkably good, while the vast majority of them reached an 

 early grave. It was immediately recognized that the use of fiber 

 in the soles gave them a much better bonding compound and 

 stitchers in shoe factories found that they could now apply these 

 soles in quantities without cutting the soles through in the stitch- 

 ing process. The fact that these fiberized soles were much 

 lighter in weight was not overlooked and these facts together 

 with their being better adapted to shoe-factory processes, led 

 many to predict that they would soon replace leather. 



These favorable points having been brought out through ad- 

 vertisements and trade press comment, the rubber manufacturers 

 rushed to get their new compounds on the market, giving much 

 time to quantity production problems but less attention to the 

 needs of the shoe industry. This lack of diagnosis could but 

 lead to unsatisfactory results and when these new products ap- 

 peared from various makers they were of varied shapes, colors 

 and thicknesses and not at all in conformit\^ with the needs of 

 the shoe manufacturers. Thousands and thousands of dollars 

 that had hurriedly been invested in additional equipment for 

 molds was wasted and more new equipment was necessary be- 

 fore the soles were fit for the market. 



.Ml this happened just prior to our entry into the great con- 

 flict and to give some idea of the demand for these soles at that 

 time, it was reported that one large manufacturer was 400,000 

 pairs short of sales in September, 1915, and this in spite of a 

 daily production of approximately 10,000 pairs. In six months 

 his unfilled orders had almost reached the million pair mark 

 and this in spite of increased production to about 17,000 pairs 

 daily. But the war was on and sole leather had sky-rocketed 

 in price. An economizing public was ready to substitute for 

 leather and it was not long after this that the unfilled orders 



of this same concern reached a goodly total of nearly 2,000,000 

 pairs. This is only one case and might be duplicated by several 

 other large firms and imitated in lesser volume by many smaller 

 firms. 



AN IMPERFECT PRODUCT. 

 With all this apparent prosperity fiir manufacturers of fiberized 

 soles and with the public acceptance practically assured, one 

 hardly reckoned with the rude awakening that all were to get 

 when it was found that many of the compounds failed to with- 

 stand the tests of time and every-day usage. Thousands of pairs 

 of shoes were returned to the retailer— to the jobber— to the shoe 

 manufacturer, because they failed in service. Other thousands 

 which had not been applied to shoes were returned from the 

 shoe factories to the rubber luanufacturers. Realizing that rub- 

 ber soles of the previous type had not always given serviceable 

 wear, and anxious to put their new products "across" on the 

 market, many enterprising sales managers had conceived the 

 happy idea of guaranteeing their soles for wear, believing that 

 this guaranty would decrease the sales resistance and make the 

 product more acceptable with the consumer. Had they been 

 sure of their product, all might have been well, but many tempted 

 fate and the poorer compounds came rushing back by fast ex- 

 press and slow freight. 



Very likely this was the best thing that could have happened, 

 although it seemed at that time like a near calamity. Through 

 all the disappointment, one fact sticks out clearly, however, and 

 serves as indisputable proof that the process of rubber sole 

 manufacture had undergone a change— a sufficient number of 

 these new-born soles gave extraordinary wear and demonstrated 

 that fiberized soles were extremely practical and worthy of 

 further development. 



THE NECESSITY OF IMPROVED COMPOUNDS AND METHODS. 

 With this fact pasted in their hats, a number of rubber chem- 

 ists set to work and revised their formulas while others in the 

 manufacturing line set about to study the varied needs of the 

 shoe manufacturers. In this work they were aided by a 

 prominent shoe machinery company, who arc directly responsible 

 for important changes in iriachines and parts used in the appli- 

 cation and working of these soles on footwear. 



It was learned that the tendency of rubber soles to stretch in 

 wear must in some manner be greatly lessened and reduced to a 

 minimum. Certain rubber ingredients were discarded as in- 

 jurious to keeping qualities because investigation showed that 

 soles were not often used as soon as received by the shoe manu- 

 facturer. Often they laid in the stock room for weeks and even 

 if applied to shoes, the shoes might lie on the retailer's shelf 

 for a season or more before finding an ultimate purchaser. In 

 this way it was estimated that a proper sole should have keep- 

 ing qualities for at least two years in addition to having wearing 

 service after that time. 



K large percentage of soles already marketed, trade-marked 

 as well as unbranded, were unable to pass this test and realizing 

 this, their makers dumped upon the market hundreds of thousands 

 of pairs at a price said to average around 10 cents per pair and 

 without removing or defacing the brands. Naturally this re- 

 sulted in some of these soles being worn by the unsuspecting 

 public and thus they were easily turned against a product that 

 had not lived up to its advertised goodness and they promptly 

 classified all such soles as unworthy of their patronage. 



Such practices were not calculated to inspire confidence in the 

 public mind and more especially at a time when every eflfort should 

 have been made to restrict the circulation of undesirable mer- 

 chandise. In fact, these failures threw a chill around the good 

 as well as the bad soles with the result that a number of na- 

 tionally known firms discontinued their lines and others who 

 were about to launch a new product upon the market, profited 

 by these experiences and indefinitely postponed its production. 



