" This policy has had the curious result of
compelling the cowhide men to take full pages in the magazines to call
attention to the forgotten virtues of good old-fashioned sole-leather!
There are now upon the market synthetic shoes that a vegetarian could
wear with a clear conscience. The soles are made of some rubber
composition; the uppers of cellulose fabric (canvas) coated with a
cellulose solution such as I have described.
Each firm keeps its own process for such substance a dead secret, but
without prying into these we can learn enough to satisfy our legitimate
curiosity. The first of the artificial fabrics was the old-fashioned and
still indispensable oil-cloth, that is canvas painted or printed with
linseed oil carrying the desired pigments. Linseed oil belongs to the
class of compounds that the chemist calls "unsaturated" and the
psychologist would call "unsatisfied." They take up oxygen from the air
and become solid, hence are called the "drying oils," although this
does not mean that they lose water, for they have not any to lose.
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