Popular Science Montlilij 



3 



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Shoes of Esparto Straw Which 

 Outwear Leather 



A Pair of These Esparto Fiber Shoes 

 Have Been Known to Outwear a Dozen 

 Pairs of the Ordinary Tanned-Hide Soles 



ESPARTO shoes, or shoes made of the 

 toughest and strongest of the coarse 

 fibers, are still worn in Iberia and in 

 some parts of Spain and Portugal. 

 There is no shoe made which will outlast 

 them, not excepting leather- shoes. One 

 pair of Esparto siiocs has been known 

 to outwear about a dozen tanned hide 

 soles. This is due to their faculty of 

 picking up and retaining in their inter- 

 stices stony or gritty particles 

 which wear like nails. 



As the shoes are worn 

 constantly pick up and 

 retain these foreign 

 particles, and as fast 

 as these are worn out 

 they are replaced auto- 

 matically by others, 

 providing the wearer 

 of the shoes continues 

 his walking. Thus a 

 self-soling process is 

 constantly going on. 



It is not uncommon 

 in some parts of Spain 

 or Portugal to hear the 

 nati\es boast of wearing 

 a pair of Esparto shoes 

 for twenty-five years 

 or more. The soles will 

 survive an aggregate 

 exceeding six thousand 

 miles of walking 

 w i t h o u t w earing 

 away appreciably. 



Several years ago an attempt was 

 made jjy a concern in this country to 

 manufacture the shoes in quantities 

 large enough to supply the demand from 

 abroad. A plant was built, people were 

 engaged, contracts for the delivery of 

 the fiber were closed and the manufactur- 

 ing was begun. This did not continue 

 for long, however, for it developed that 

 the company was obtaining an inferior 

 grade of coarse fiber with the result that 

 their shoes were not wearing well. 

 Accordingly the company went into bank- 

 ruptcy, with a net loss, it is said, running 

 well into five hundred thousand dollars. 

 At the present time genuine Esparto 

 shoes are to be obtained only in the 

 foreign sections of some of our large 

 cities. 



The Esparto fiber is also largely used 

 in the European paper industry under 

 the name of ECsparto grass. It makes a 

 paper of excellent durability, but .Ameri- 

 can paper makers have not used it. It 

 requires expert knowledge in its treat- 

 ment. Esparto shoes arc largely made 

 and worn in the rural districts of France. 

 f"or a comfortable shoe for all-round 

 wear the Esparto shoe has no peer. 

 Those who have worn them never put 

 them aside for leather shoes. At first 

 the shoes are very soft, simu- 

 lating velvet, but after they 

 have been worn for a short 

 time they become as solid and 

 hard as leather. 



Using the Waste Heat of a 

 Kerosene Lamp 



THIS illustration 

 shows how the 

 waste heat from an oil 

 lamp is utilized every 

 night to heat a kettle 

 of water in an English 

 engine-room. 



The photograph was 

 taken in the engine- 

 room attached to Platte 

 Fougere lighthouse, 

 Guernsey, England. 



The Engineer Who Util- 

 ized the Heat from the 

 Oil Lamp Is No More 

 Resourceful Than the En- 

 gineer Who Heats His 

 Coffee on the Radiator 



