Claim connecting the whole or any portion of the sole of a boot or shoe, substantially as described, of India-rubber, with its inside or edges covered and protected by leather, which is united with it by any water-proof cement, with or without stitching, and forms a hard, firm leather edge. _Seventy-eighth_, to Charles Goodyear, New York, October 11, 1853. For improvement in coating metals with gutta-percha. The nature of this invention consists in the application of “caoutchouc or gutta-percha” when mixed with pulverized sulphur (six or eight ounces of sulphur to one pound of gum) to the surface of metal. The article covered is subjected to a high degree of heat, from 260° to 300° Fahrenheit, from three to seven hours. The hard compound covering may then be polished and varnished. _Claim._—The art or method of coating articles composed wholly or in part of metal with compound of India-rubber or gutta-percha, and subjecting the same to a high degree of artificial heat, or the process of vulcanization, substantially as specified. _Seventy-ninth_, to L. Otto P. Meyer, Newton, Conn., December 20, 1853. For improvement in the manufacture of caoutchouc or other vulcanizable gums. The nature of this invention consists in producing by means of oil and other fatty substances, smooth and glassy surfaces upon the material commonly known as hard compound of vulcanized caoutchouc, or gutta-percha, or other similar gums, which may be manufactured according to the process described in letters patent granted to Charles Goodyear, May 6, 1851. _Claim._—The producing smooth and glassy surfaces upon hard compounds of caoutchouc and other vulcanizable gums, by means of the use of oil, or other equivalent substances, applied to the surface of the prepared gum, and between the gum and the plates or the moulds. _Eightieth_, to William E. Rider and John Murphy, of New York. For improvement in sulphurizing gutta-percha and like gums. Patented November 7, 1854. The improvement consists in the removal of superfluous sulphur from India-rubber or gutta-percha, when it has been vulcanized or is in the act of being vulcanized, by filling the vulcanizing oven with hydrogen gas during the heating process, called the curing, and allowing the gas to escape as fast as it becomes neutralized; by which, as the inventor alleges, the after accumulation of sulphur upon the surface of said gums, is prevented, and consequently the necessity of boiling them in caustic alkali, entirely avoided. _Claim._—The claim covers the whole ground, substantially as set forth. No illustration.