ol
absolutus and carbon bisulphuratum, in a closed vessel, without the
application of heat. Later he obtained a patent for accomplishing the
same result by "boiling waste rubber in water, after it has been
reduced to a finely divided state;" and still later, one for treating
the waste to the direct action of steam.

Patents were granted in 1858 to Hiram L. Hall, for the treatment of
waste rubber by boiling in water; also, by subjecting it to steam; and
again, by combining various resinous and other substances with it. The
two inventors named assigned their patents to the Beverly Rubber
Company, of Beverly, Mass., controlled then by the proprietors of the
New York Belting and Packing Company, and their processes became the
basis of an important business in rubber clothing.

The low cost of the devulcanized rubber, as compared with new rubber,
alone gave them a great advantage over other manufacturers, in
addition to which they escaped the payment of a license to work under
the Goodyear patents.

Many army blankets, made for the government during the civil war, were
waterproofed with Hall's devulcanized rubber, and from that period
little new rubber has been used in the manufacture of heavy rubber
coats. The other patents in this class do not deserve special mention.

It having been established that rubber is rubber, no matter where
found, manufacturers gradually turned their attention beyond the
scraps and cuttings which remained after making up their goods. There
was beginning to be a good demand for ground-up rubber car springs,
wringer rolls, tubing and other rubber goods free from fiber, after it
had been so treated as to remove the sulphur contents and restore the
gum to a workable condition. But this left out of account rubber
footwear, belting, and hose, not to mention the later heavy production
of bicycle tires. There were only a few uses to which rubber waste
containing fibrous material could be put when ground up and
devulcanized without the removal of the fiber. It could be put into a
cheap grade of steam packing or mixed in a powdered form with new
rubber for the heels of rubber boots and shoes. There was an early
patent for a process for "combining fibrous materials with waste
vulcanized rubber, rendered soft and plastic." But all the other
patents which come within the scope of this article had for their
object the separation of fibers from the rubber.

An important advance was marked by the Hayward p