LEATHER AND RUBBER PADS. 



121 



tliey save, by preventing falls and injuries to the horse 

 and fear and anxiety to the driver, far more than 

 balances the account in their favor. The cost, however, 

 is an item, and inventors have turned their attention to 

 the production of some other methods of applying rubber 

 in connection with the shoe for the prevention of slipping. 



Fig. 94.— Bar-pad with shoe. 



Fig. 95.— Without shoe. 



Shoes have been manufactured into which cavities 

 of different forms and sizes have been made. Tliese are 

 filled by correspondingly shaped pieces of rubber. The 

 cavity must be so formed as to retain the rubber, and 

 this renders the manufacture very difficult, except by the 

 employment of malleable cast-iron shoes. This is a great 

 disadvantage. 



Another plan is to make from rolled bar iron a 

 hollow shoe, section of which would be U-shaped, but 

 level to the foot. Into the groove so formed, a thick 

 cord of rubber is placed after the shoe is nailed on the 

 foot. This wears well and affords good foot-hold, but it 

 entails the serious objection that the nails are difficult to 

 drive and far from being so safe as in the ordinary shoe. 

 If rubber is ever to be available in a grooved shoe, it 

 should be designed so that the nails and nail-holes are 

 not interfered with. 



