lastic,
and India-rubber, was first introduced into Europe in 1730, where it was
regarded merely as a curiosity, useful for erasing pencil marks, but
valueless for any practical use. Ships from South America brought it
over as ballast, but it was not until ninety years after its first
appearance in Europe that any effort was made to utilize it. About the
year 1820 it began to be used in France in the manufacture of suspenders
and garters, India-rubber threads being mixed with the materials used in
weaving those articles. It was also used in blacking and varnish, and
some years later, Mackintosh brought it into prominent notice by using
it in his famous water-proof coats, which were made by spreading a layer
of the gum between two pieces of cloth. The gum was thus protected from
the air, and preserved from injury.

Up to this time, it was almost an unknown article in the United States,
but in 1820 a pair of India-rubber shoes were exhibited in Boston. Even
then they were regarded as merely a curiosity, and were covered with
gilt foil to hide their natural ugliness. In 1823, a merchant, engaged
in the South American trade, imported five hundred pairs from the Para
district. He had no difficulty in disposing of them; and so great was
the favor with which they were received, that in a few years the annual
importation of India-rubber shoes amounted to five hundred thousand
pairs. It had become a matter of fashion to wear these shoes, and no
person's toilet was complete in wet weather unless the feet were incased
in them; yet they were terribly rough and clumsy. They had scarcely any
shape to them, and were not to be depended on in winter or summer. In
the cold season they froze so hard that they could be used only after
being thawed by the fire, and in summer they could be preserved only by
keeping them on ice; and if, during the thawing process, they were
placed too near the fire, there was danger that they would melt into a
shapeless and useless mass. They cost from three to five dollars per
pair, which was very high for an article so perishable in its nature.

The great popularity of India-rubber induced Mr. E.M. Chaflee, of
Boston, the foreman of a patent leather factory in that city, to attempt
to apply the new substance to some of the uses to which patent leather
was then put. His hope was that, by spreading the liquid gum upon cloth,
he could produce an article which, while possessing the durability and
flexibility o