ANCIENT SHOES SHOW LEATHER’S LONG LIFE.

Shannon News, 31 December 1928, Page 2

ANCIENT SHOES SHOW LEATHER’S LONG LIFE.

In this age of the competition betAveen materials, the leather trade w r ill be interested in the fact that recently a construction .crew excavating in the heart of London for the foundation of the neAV Bank of England found old pieces of leather that were, originally soles of Roman shoes. P. W. Wilson, 'manager of the United Tanners’ Federation of Englaifd, hvho saw them, vouches for their authenticity. : which i*s proved by the fact that the official ■Roman eagle is stamped on one of the inner soles so plainly that it might liave been embossed there but yesterday. Photographs were sent to the American Leather Producers, Inc., who have sent them out to the American trade. $

The soles evidently were those of the sandals Worn by women and children. Bronze rivets were used to hold together two or three thicknesses of leather and no doubt counted in part for the life obtained from the footwear, which must have been much greater' in weight than present day shoes. Up till quite recently reinforcement vvita metal was the means relied upon to insure ' longevity,* if ’hot comfort, in. footwear.

'The,, old leather, it was unearthed, was in about the same state of preservation as might be expected of a moaorn shoe that had lain weathering on a dump heap for a couple of months. Although modern .men learned how to produce leather with more speed and less mechanical crudity than the Romans, tile processes of preserving, toughening and softening leather -are not materially different from those practiced by hhe Romans in England. —From the “American Exporter.”

For a threepenny wager a young man essayed to climb ‘‘a telegraph pole at Patea the other evening. When he had almost reached the top his hold slipped an|d Ithere followed a rapid descent to the pavement. He struck ■a verandah on his way down. A broken arm and a. bruised head were the results of his venture.

The beaches are well patronised this season. At Hokio the cottages all appear to be in occupation, and in. addition a number of tents have been erected and are being used by holidaymakers. The spell of warm weather experienced since the beginning of the week has made for ihe full enjoyment of sea-bathing and fishing.

Over fifty thousand people travelled from Croydon to the Continent by air in 1928, a record since the inception of the service in 1919. Over thirty thousand flew in British air liners. The majority of the . air -travellers wore women, although an Imperial Airways official says that one of the most satisfactory of recent features is the number’ of business men who are now realising the extent to which airways save valuable time.

Over 1000 pounds of condemned cordite, some of which had been in store for 15 years, was burned at the fort at North Head, Auckland, on a recent morning. Cordite, the explosive used in small arms ammunition; is harmless when burned, provided it has free access to the open air. The Defence Department’s store of explosives'is inspected 'at regular half-yearly intervals, and any portion that, has deteriorated below ( a certain standard is condemned.