GOLOSHES (formerly called galoshes), from galoche, a word through the French, from galocha, the Spanish for a patten, clog or wooden .slioe. The French applied the term at first to shoes partly of leather and wood, the soles being wood, and the uppers of leather. The term was introduced to this country as a cordwainer's technicality, to signify a method of repairing old boots and shoes by putting a narrow strip of leather above the sole so as to surround the lower part of the upper leather. It was also adopted by the patten and clog makers to distinguish what were also called French clogs from ordinary clogs and pattens. Clogs were mere soles of wood with straps across the instep to keep them on; pattens were the same, with iron rings to raise them from the ground; but the galoshes were wooden soles, usually with a joint at the part where the tread of the foot came, and with upper leathers like very low shoes.
By the term goloshes is now generally meant the India-rubber over-shoes which were introduced into Great Britain from America about the year 1847; but it was sonic time after this before the trade in Wein had reached much importance, as at first they were clumsily made, and of inferior quality, However, mainly by the exertions of the Hayward rubber company in America, their quality and appearance were soon much improved, and the demand for them increased rapidly. Many mills for their production were then started in America, and several were also set agoing in Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia; but there are signs that the trade in these shoes is somewhat on the decline. In the. populous districts of Great Britain, at all events, the demand for them now is not a fifth part of what it was 12 or 15 years ago. Their' comparative cheapness however, still facilitates the sale of them in the outlying districts, and in poor countries generally.
As-these shoes are at present made, they keep the stockings constantly clamp, and the feet uncomfortable, by preventing the escape or the absorption of the perspiration. It is a little strange, too, that even when the uppers are almost entirely of some woven texture, and nothing but the sole of vulcanized rubber, they are not wholly free from this fault. Most kinds of rubber shoes have their separate pieces held together entirely by the adhesiveness of the rubber when treated by some solvent, such as turpentine. There are therefore no seams like those in the leather shoe, and this, taken along with the close texture of the rubber itself, is the cause of the discomfort we have mentioned. Still, when well made, they have several good qualities, such as their imperviousness to damp, as well as their softness, durability, and neatness. Leather shoes have become so costly, that one cannot hid hope something will be dune so to improve those made from this remarkable material, that they will at leaSt retain their place as a partial sub stitute for leather ones.
The largest and manufactory for the production of vulcanized rubber goloshes and other shoes in Great Britain, is that of the North British rubber Company at Edinburgh. Here the material is prepared by processes which are to some extent described under the head CAOUTCHOUC. That is, the rubber is (1) torn up into
small pieces, washed, and rolled together in granulated sheets. (2.) It is then mixed, by the aid of heated rollers, with the vulcanizing materials, consisting of sulphur, Enlarge, lamp-black, pitch, resin, and sometimes other materials. (3). The final stage in the preparation of the material is done after the shoes are consists in sub jecting them for nine hours to a temperature of between 200° and 300° F. Rubber so treated is said to be vulcanized, for the properties of which see CAOUTCHOUC. After the rubber is thoroughly mixed with the materials we have mentioned, of which sul phur is the most essential, the so far prepared sheets of material are again rolled out between the heated rollers, till they are of the required thickness for the shoe uppers. For this purpose, the rollers, which are fitted into machines called calenders, are very carefully adjusted. The sheets for the soles are made in the same way; only, in their case, the rollers are so constructed as to produce a certain breadth for the heels of au extra thickness, and to indent the surface with grooves, to prevent slipping.' Both soles and uppers for each shoe are cut out scp`ttrately with a knife, since the material will not admit of a number of these cut at a time by di,Js,.which, however, is done in ,thq case of the linings, as they are of cotton or wool, and will not stick together by pres sure. Thin metal molds are used by the workmen for shaping the separate parts of a shoe—i.e., the rubberparts. The calico or other linings are coated round the edges with some strongly adhesive cement,'probably dissolved rubber, and tly.,n all the pieces are ready to be put together.
Up to this stage, all the work has been done by men, but woilin a.t'ntlly make the shoes, a kind of work for which their nimble fingers are well 31,ated. The lasts are of hollow cast-iron, and the company has no less than 170,000 pairs of them. Working with: a number of lasts exactly the same, the girl first, covers them with the various pieces of liniug and insole, all of which are held together by the eetnent. Returning again to the first one, she now puts on the various outer pieces of the shoe, sticking them together quickly with a little turpentine at the junctions; aud then byway of ornament, still more quickly runs a small notched wheel along where the seams in a leather shoe are, to finish her work. A clever girl will make fifty pairs a day; a very clever one, seventy. That is to make a pair of shoes in ten or twelve minutes. The next process is to coat the shoes with a varnish which gives them a beautiful gloss, and it is one of the great'aims of the manufacturers to excel in this. Finally, they are put on light iron frames, and exposed to the heat of the vulcanizing chamber.
In the India-rubber works at Edinburgh, more than twenty distinct kiiids of boots and shoes are made, and their average production is 4.000 pairs a day. BeSides those worn in Great Britain, large numbers are exported to other countries, especially Ger many, where, however, an inferior kind is largely made. For Norway and BWecien, a kind with warm felt lining has lately been much in demand.