CHAPTER V. 

 The Form and Manufacture of Shoes. 



Horse-shoes are made either by hand or machinery. 

 In this country moat are hand-made — the front shoes 

 from new har-iron, and the hind irora old siioes welded 

 together and drawn out nnder heavy hammers. Probably 

 no method of working iron gives such good results as 

 this in producing a hard, tough shoe that will withstand 

 ■wear. The custom of the trade is to keep a stock of 

 shoes suitable for all the regular customers. From this 

 stock are selected sizes and forms, which are then- specially 

 iitted for each foot. 



Various materials have been tried in the production 

 of horse-shoes. Leather, compressed and hardened, has 

 been tried, and failed. Vulcanite was experimented with 

 unsuccessfully. Paper, or more correctly, a compressed 

 papier mdche, has also been tested, but proved unsatisfac- 

 tory. Steel has been pretty largely tried in many 

 different forms, but it is dlliicult to temper. As nearly 

 all shoes are applied immediately ailor being fitted, they 

 have to be rapidly cooled in water, and steel treated in 

 this way is raad.e so hard that, if the shoes do not break, 

 they are dangerously slipjwry on most paved streets. As 

 a material for sliOc?s good malleable iron has no equal. 

 It can be obtained in bars of vPerious sizes to suit any 

 form and Vv'eight of shoe, and tiie old shoes made from it 

 may be worked up over and over again. 



The chief objects to be attained in any particular 

 pattern or form of shoe are— that it be light, easily and 

 safely retained by a few nails, capable of wearing three 

 weeks or a month, and that it afford good foot-hold to 

 the horse. All siioes should be soundly worked and free 

 from flaws. 



The first shoes were doubtless app] ied solely to protect 

 the foot from wear. The simplest arrangomont would 

 then be either a thin plate of iron covering tiie ground 



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