f patent leather, would also be water-proof. His
experiments extended over a period of several months, during which time
he kept his plan a secret. He dissolved a pound of the gum in three
quarts of spirits of turpentine, and added to the mixture enough
lamp-black to produce a bright black color, and was so well satisfied
with his compound, that he felt sure that the only thing necessary to
his entire success was a machine for spreading it properly on the cloth.
Like a true son of New England, he soon overcame this difficulty by
inventing the desired machine. His compound was spread on the cloth, and
dried in the sun, producing a hard, smooth surface, and one sufficiently
flexible to be twisted into any shape without cracking. Mr. Chaffee was
now sure that he had mastered the difficulty. Taking a few capitalists
into his confidence, he succeeded so well in convincing them of the
excellence of his invention, that in February, 1833, a company, called
the "Roxbury India-rubber Company," was organized, with a capital of
thirty thousand dollars. In three years this sum was increased to four
hundred thousand dollars. The new company manufactured India-rubber
cloth according to Mr. Chaffee's process, and from it made wagon-covers,
piano-covers, caps, coats, and a few other articles, and, in a little
while, added to their list of products shoes without fiber. They had no
difficulty in disposing of their stock. Every body had taken the
"India-rubber fever," as the excitement caused by Mr. Chaffee's
discovery was called; and so high were the hopes of the public raised by
it, that buyers were found in abundance whenever the bonds of the
numerous India-rubber companies were offered for sale. The extraordinary
success of the Roxbury Company led to the establishment of similar
enterprises at Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, and
Staten Island. The Roxbury Company could not supply the demand for its
articles, and the others appeared to have as much business as they could
attend to. Apparently, they were all on the high road to wealth.

Their prosperity was only fictitious, however, and a day of fearful
disaster was pending over them. The bulk of the goods produced in 1833
and 1834 had been manufactured in the cold weather, and the greater part
of them had succumbed to the heat of the ensuing summer. The shoes had
melted to a soft mass, and the caps, wagon-covers, and coats had become
sticky and useless in summer, and rigi