November 



[917] 



NATURE 



175 



THE UTILISATION OF CONDEMNED 



ARMY BOOTS. 



'T'HE London Section of the . Society of Chemical 



■■■ Industry has recently established what for lack 

 of a better term we must call a club — that is, a society 

 of its members and their friends, who seek to combine 

 a chastened conviviality with an interest in technical 

 chemistry. At a meeting of the club, held on May 21, 

 Mr. M. C. Lamb, by permission of the Director of 

 Army Contracts, brought to the knowledge of the 

 members the various methods that have been sug- 

 gested in order to utilise the leather in condemned 

 Army boots, and which, in the absence of proper 

 organisation, might lead, when we have regard to the 

 present rnagnitude of our Army, to an enormous waste 

 of material of considerable intrinsic value, even after 

 it has served its primary purpose as footwear. 



Mr. Lamb's paper appears in the issue of the 

 Journal of the society tor September 29, and as it 

 affords a good illustration of what may be accomplished 

 by the intelligent co-operation of experts and officials 

 in dealing with a problem of special importance at the 

 present time, a short summary of its contents may be 

 of general interest. War is so terribly wasteful that 

 any efforts to minimise its effects, even if they are 

 only concerned w'ith discarded boots, merit attention 

 and appreciation. 



It is not to be supposed that this particular problem 

 has only just arisen. Even in peace-time the worn- 

 out boots of "a contemptible little Army" had to be 

 condemned. They were sold to contractors, who 

 doubtless found means to turn them to more or less 

 profitable account. But with millions of men under 

 arms and in active service, the whole matter had to be 

 dealt w4th in a very different fashion from that in 

 pre-war periods, and the object of Mr. Lamb's com- 

 munication was to show. the results which have fol- 

 lowed from attempts to discover means for the better 

 utilisation of discarded footwear. 



It will doubtless surprise many people to learn that 

 waste boot leather has been found to be a good 

 material for road-making, the scrap leather, preferably 

 of soles (since a more profitable use can be found for 

 the uppers), being mixed to the extent of from 5 to 

 10 per cent., depending upon the character of the road, 

 with slag, granite, or limestone, in conjunction with 

 asphalt and bitumen. It is claimed for this mixed 

 material, which is known as " Broughite," from the 

 name of the patentee, that it possesses the hardness 

 and rigidity of the ordinary tar macadam road, with 

 reduced attrition and dust and greater resilience. The 

 method employed is to mix the scrap leather with the 

 asphalt, bitumen, limestone, etc., lay the surface of 

 the road with the composition, and give a top facing 

 of slag, granite, or limestone. One ton of the tarred 

 material is needed to cover six square yards with an 

 application 4 in. thick, or some 8g,ooo pairs of dis- 

 carded boots to each mile of a roadway eight yards 

 wide. It seems a just and fitting retribution — a sort 

 of poetical justice — that boots in their old age should 

 be condemned to make good the roads they have 

 trodden and worn down. 



Experience has shown that " Broughite " is a cheap 

 and satisfactory substitute for wood-paving ; it 

 possesses greater wearing qualities, and is equally 

 silent ; it costs much less than wood and no more than 

 bituminous macadam. It affords a good grip for 

 rubber tyres and an excellent foothold for horses. The 

 Roads Board is making trials of its value, and several 

 pieces of roadway have been laid down under its 

 direction. 



Waste leather makes an admirable form of animal 

 charcoal. When subjected t6 destructive distillation 

 leather yields about a fourth of its weight of a com- 



NO. 2505, VOL. 100] 



paratively pure charcoal, which has a decolorising 

 power, as tested on sugar syrups and gelatin, in nowise 

 inferior to bone-char. At the same time, the distilla- 

 tion products afford from 23 to 25 per cent, of crude 

 ammonium sulphate, suitable as a fertiliser. 



The leather of boot uppers contains on an average 

 about 15 per cent, of extractable grease and fatty 

 matter, melting at about 38° C, and quite suitable 

 for currying leather, and for other purposes in which a 

 moderately hard low-grade grease suffices. The 

 approximate present value of these products to be 

 obtained from a ton, or 560 pairs, of condemned 

 boots is rather more than i6i. ixs., of which the 

 charcoal and ammonium sulphate are by far the more 

 important items. 



On account of its nitrogen content leather w-aste is 

 regarded as possessing considerable potential value as 

 a manure. It, however, decomposes very slowly, and 

 requires special treatment to make it effective. 

 Chrome-tanned material is found to be hurtful to plant- 

 life. 



Other uses for condemned military boots are in the 

 manufacture of leather board, leather pulp and powder, 

 clogs, washers for screw-down water-taps, mats, 

 cyanides and prussiates, glue and size. 



Evidently, as the time-honoured adage says, " there 

 is nothing like leather," even from old boots. 



THE ORGANISATION OF ENGINEERING 

 I TRAINING. 



{ A CONFERENCE on the above subject was held 

 j -^^"^ at the Institution of Civil Engineers on October 

 I 25, delegates representing the chief engineering insti- 

 tutions and educational bodies, various Government 

 departments, and a number of universities and tech- 

 nical colleges being present. Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, 

 president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, took 

 the chair. 



Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, in opening the proceedings, 

 remarked that there was a great gap between the 

 period when a boy decided to become an engineer and 

 when he actually entered on his training. There was 

 general recognition that youths entering the engineer- 

 ing industry should receive uniformly sound training, 

 and the proposals to be brought before the meeting 

 related to the establishment of a central representative 

 committee to secure better co-ordination in this matter. 

 The council of the Institution of Civil Engineers felt 

 that nothing but good could come of this meeting, in 

 which all interests, educational, professional, and 

 manufacturing, were represented. 



A letter was read from Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, the 

 President of the Board of Education, regretting his 

 unavoidable absence from the meeting, and stating 

 that the Board of Education would be glad to co- 

 operate in any well-considered scheme which the en- 

 gineering industry might adopt. 



Mr. A. E. Berriman, one of the honorary organisers 

 of the meeting, then gave a brief account of the origin 

 of the movement, which was also the subject of a 

 memorandum placed in the hands of those present. 

 The proposal to form a central organisation for im- 

 provement in and better co-ordination of engineering 

 training originated at an informal conference of en- 

 gineers and educationists, which held several meetings 

 at the Board of Education during the early months 

 of 1917. It was considered desirable that in its initial 

 stages the proposed organisation should be free from 

 the need of Government finance, while co-operating 

 with the Board of Education and other educational 

 bodies. Mr. Fisher had concurred in this view. The 

 chief objects of the organisation would include : — (i) 

 Cc-ordination in engineering training, the fostering oif 

 apprenticeship as a national institution, and promo- 



