The Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Assistant and Guide.: Containing a Brief History of the Trade. History of India-rubber and Gutta-percha, and Their Application to the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes. Full Instructions in the Art, With Diagrams and Scales, Etc., Etc. Vulcanization and Sulphurization, English and American Patents. With an Elaborate Treatise on Tanning.
History
The Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Assistant and Guide.: Containing a Brief History of the Trade. History of India-rubber and Gutta-percha, and Their Application to the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes. Full Instructions in the Art, With Diagrams and Scales, Etc., Etc. Vulcanization and Sulphurization, English and American Patents. With an Elaborate Treatise on Tanning.
Footwear industry; Gutta-percha; Rubber; Tanning
I may here observe, that carbonates work best in all moulded goods, but
not otherwise, and it is necessary they should be retained therein until
quite cold, or they swell out of shape; but in packing, &c., vulcanized
openly, oxides should be selected, as there is little or no chemical
action with sulphur or heat. I have made no mention in these papers of
very finely pulverized talc, or French chalk, which, from its cheapness,
if well bought, and its being unaffected by heat, and its slippery
nature, is invaluable as a top dressing, well rubbed in, upon the
surface of all white goods for open vulcanizing, as well as dusting the
sheet zinc upon which they are laid. It is equally valuable in all goods
cured in rolls, such as medical sheeting, &c., and renders entirely
unnecessary the rays of the sun afterwards, needing only to be wiped off
with a dry cloth after vulcanizing.
* * * * *
There are many most respectable manufacturers, and these should have
their sense of honorable integrity acknowledged, and, as far as
possible, be protected from their inferiors in morality. In writing
these papers off hastily, one is really tempted to get into a violent
rage with this vicious system; especially when one calls to mind that,
no sooner does an ingenious man invent something really valuable and
useful, but these kidnapping and adulterating traders counterfeit the
same instantly, and render their make to all appearance (and to the
unsuspecting) equally good, though, in reality, not so, being merely
cheapened by this adulterating and tricky system. Added to which, if the
originator is not very sharp in obtaining his protection for the really
valuable service he has rendered to science, and to the sale of which he
is looking very naturally and justly, as a remuneration of what may have
probably cost the inventor many days and nights of weariness, and
possibly involved the spending of his money capital, and perhaps, even
besides, months of labor, disappointment, poverty, and sorrow, I say, if
he is not very quick in his protection, the unblushing effrontery and
impudence of these “second hand people” will rob him of the whole. I
believe no pen can sufficiently protest against those individuals who
thrive “and make haste to become rich” from the oozings of other men’s
brains. Theirs is the basest class of felony our laws cannot reach, and,
consequently, their infamous and nefarious habit continues unheeded and
untouched, and often (because unknown) unscorned. This applies to
caoutchouc. Special reference to particular manufactures must be
discussed another day; but, if I am rightly informed, Mr. C. Goodyear
especially, and others, to some extent, have suffered from these
copyists very egregiously and seriously. Though my testimony would be
confirmed by our best men in every branch of trade, where there is scope
for genius. I must not digress, and trust you will excuse my hasty
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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