My improvements in boots, shoes, gaiters, overalls, and other like articles of apparel, consist in rendering the same more or less weather and water-proof, and more easy of wear, by the application of the same, in whole or in part, of the substance recently imported from the East Indies called gutta-percha. _First._ I coat the pieces of leather, or other material, of which the boots, shoes, gaiters, overalls, or other articles of apparel, are made, on either one or both sides, with a solution of gutta-percha, or a solution of gutta-percha mixed with a portion or portions of caoutchouc, or sulphur, or coloring matter, or any other substance or thing which may be calculated to improve the quality of the said solution as directed and explained in the specification of certain letters patent, of date March 11th, 1845, granted to Richard Archibald Brooman, for “certain improvements in the preparation and application of artificial fuels, mastics, and cements,” and this I do either once, twice, or oftener, according to the thickness of the solution, and the thickness desired to be given to the coating; and sometimes, instead of so coating the whole of the said pieces, I coat those pieces which are likely to be most exposed to the weather or wet, as for example, the outer sole and upper leathers only. _Second._ I protect in like manner the said pieces of leather, or other material, some or all of them, by covering the same, either on one or both sides, with a layer or layers of gutta-percha in the plastic state, or of gutta-percha combined in the said plastic state with a portion or portions of caoutchouc, or sulphur, or coloring matter, or of French chalk, or other soft powder, as directed in the aforesaid specification of the patent of Richard Archibald Brooman, applying the said layer or layers by the means and in the mode also described in the said specification. _Third._ Instead of either coating or covering, as aforesaid, the materials of which the boots and other articles before mentioned are made, I sometimes interpose between the same or certain portions of the same, as for example, between the inner and outer soles, or between the upper leathers and linings, pieces of gutta-percha in any of the sheet states in which it is manufactured under the said patent of Richard Archibald Brooman. _Fourth._ I manufacture boots, shoes, gaiters, overalls, and other like articles, in whole or in part, of a compound fabric, formed and described by the specification of the said Richard Archibald Brooman, by adding to the gutta-percha while in the kneading machine (whether previously combined, or not combined with caoutchouc or sulphur, or coloring matter, or French chalk, or other soft powder, as aforesaid) a portion of leather, dust, or hair, or bristles, or ground cork, or woolen shearings, or other membranous or fibrous substances, in a finely comminuted state.