THE SOLUTION AND REPRODUCTION OF INDIA RUBBER, CALLED GUM ELASTIC, FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR PROOF AND WATER PROOF ARTICLES, &C. By Dr. F. Luedersdorff. Translated by James B. Angell, Professor of Modern Languages in Brown University.

- Octavo, 9-1/2 inches high by 5-3/4 inches wide. Softcover, bound in printed green wraps. The rear cover is detached as the spine is chipped with some loss along the top. The corners of the rear cover are also chipped and there is a tear to that cover's inner edge which has been repaired with archival tape. 48 pages. The pages are slightly toned with an occasional spot of foxing. Good. RARE. WorldCat locates only 6 copies.According to "The Boot and Shoe Manufacturers' Guide" by W.H. Richardson, Jr., published in Boston in 1858: "On the 24th day of February, 1839, Mr. Hayward secured a patent for vulcanizing India-rubber by means of sulphur, which patent was assigned to Charles Goodyear -- a man of shrewd and future grasping mind. Some idea of the importance of this improvement may be formed from the fact that it has been a subject of continual litigation for a number of years; yea, almost since the day the patent was issued. It is the real vulcanizing substance now used in the manufacture of India-rubber fabrics of every description. At the time of the famous contest between Goodyear and Day, testimony was produced by which it was endeavored to be proved that the vulcanization of India-rubber was discovered in Germany by F. Luedersdorff, six years before Hayward's patent was granted. Some doubts have been expressed concerning the statement. Whether true or false, we cannot see why the circumstance should detract in the least from the claims or position of Mr. Hayward, inasmuch as it is very conclusive that his discovery was purely accidental. A Prussian pamphlet published at Berlin in 1832, describes the experiments made by F. Luedersdorff with India-rubber, and the production of sulphurized India-rubber compounds. 'The question now arises, what reliance is there to be placed upon the authenticity of this pamphlet, published six years before Hayward's patent was obtained?' . 'Hayward was no doubt totally ignorant of the Prussian doctor's experiments; he probably could not read German.'" Nor apparently were Hayward and Goodyear eager to find the English translation of Luedersdorff's pamphlet published in the same year.…