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 S

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.

In preparing the following pages, the author has aimed to supply a want hitherto unsupplied. No work devoted to the wants of the Boot and Shoe-maker, manufacturer, or merchant, has ever been compiled. Able articles upon the “Trade,” statistical statements, and general comments upon matters of interest local in their character, and having particular reference to the state of the times in which they were written, have been published, perused and forgotten. But no work, containing a history of this important mechanical interest, together with instructions in the science of the Boot and Shoe manufacture, has ever been written. The Author does not flatter himself that he has, by any means, exhausted so fruitful a subject, but that he has prepared and compiled important facts and rules, and submitted valuable suggestions which are correct in theory, and practical in their application, he has not a doubt.


In this work, we have endeavored to make clear, simple, but important facts, scientific discoveries and observations, which, from practical experience, we know to be of great utility. A collection of the most approved recipes for the preparation of compounds of India-rubber, and Gutta-percha, would alone, make a volume worthy of preservation. But we have endeavored to present all the important rules, practical hints, and observations, necessary to the manufacture of boots and shoes, also an important and economical method of repairing the same.

Particular attention has been given to the application of Gutta-percha, and India-rubber, in the manufacture of boots and shoes, inasmuch as it is a new field, and much interest is manifested by the “craft” to understand its value and use.

The history of Vulcanization, Adulterations of India-rubber, (caoutchouc) and gutta-percha, will be found to contain many important facts and suggestions.

All the practical and useful compounds herein described, with a few exceptions, are the results of long, patient, and laborious investigation; also the process of making boots and shoes by the new method, are from actual tests, and personal experiments. This portion of the work, or rather the facts therein set forth, were furnished by a gentleman who has devoted many years to the prosecution of experiments in gutta-percha, and India-rubber compounds. He is acknowledged to possess great practical knowledge, and scientific research in this department of mechanical art.