People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1893 — A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHER. [ARTICLE]

A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHER.

An Interesting and New Material Called “Flexus Fibra.” Leather possesses such excellent qualities for the many purposes to which it is put that it would seem idle to seek a substitute. there are many persons who, while they find that leather serves as an effectual protective covering for the foot, find also that it is often obstinate in adapting itself to the requirements of individual feet or to the more or less physical abnormalities to which so many are subject. In such cases, if comfort is to be expected, only the most supple and yielding quality should be worn. At the same time, of course, it should be waterproof and durable. These qualities, so far as we have been able to judge, belong in a satisfactory degree to an interesting and new material called “flexus fibra.” It appears to be a fiax-derived material, suitably prepared and oiled, so that to all appearances it is leather. It is particularly supple and flexible and takes a polish equally well with the best kinds of calf. We have recently had occasion to wear a boot of which the “vamp” or cut-front section consists entirely of flexus fibra, and have purposely submitted it to somewhat undue strain, in spite of which no cracking of the material was perceived, while the sense of comfort to the foot was very evident. Flexus fibra, being a material of vegetable origin, is calculated also to facilitate free ventilation and thereby to obviate the discomfort arising from what is called “drawing” the feet Teste with a view to .prove its damp-resisting power were made with the material by placing a small section over an open glass tube with true ends, so that on applying pressure at the other end of the tube it was found to be practically air tight This having been ascertained a little water was placed in the tube resting on the flexus fibra and pressure once more applied. After some time traces only of liquid had oozed through; but, of course, this was an exaggerated state of things, and, as a matter of fact, no oozing of water took place at all when it was simply allowed to rest on the material several hours. The structure of flexus fibra is better seen when the oil in it is removed with ether, to which it imparts distinct fluorescence, and when the black dye is washed out (being at the same time changed to red) by hydrochloric acid.— London Lancet.