Gum blanket repair

[Clark Badgett]

I hope I got this in the right area. I have a passable gum blanket that has a 1" x2" rip that needs to be repaired. What would be a proper period way to repair rubbercoated cloth.

[kevin]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Ummmm... don't.

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Ask your Orderly Sergeant for a new one. How would a soldier obtain the things needed to repair a rip in a gum? He wouldn't. He'd deal with it until the QM got him a new one.

[Sheikh Al Stranghi]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Sew a patch on it on the inside so that the edges will be together on the outside, but the regular fabric will be on the inside.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Gum blanket repair

[Geek alert -- the following is the opinion of a known clerk.]

Grumpy, I think a soldier of the time might try to make a repair if he could, depending on the location of the tear.

Here's why I think that. The rubber blanket is clothing and, though issued by the quartermaster, will still cost the soldier from $2.48 to $2.90 each depending on the time of war, and that's a big chunk of the $3.50 (late war $4.00) monthly clothing allowance. In terms of purchasing power, it makes the current cost of a quality reproduction seem like a pretty good deal.

That's in the U.S. service. In the Confederate service the waterproof will, for a variety of reasons, cost more and probably not be in stock. (Imagine trying to order something from your favorite vendor but needing it for a real war going on right now.)

Before 1862, it's probably direct private purchase, though some states provided them with the soldier's initial kit. Stanton didn't authorize regular procurement of rubber blankets until formally requested to by Meigs fairly late in 1861. One company clerk in a western regiment got his first gum blanket by writing home for it and sending the cash (A Damned Iowa Greyhound [letters of William Henry Harrison Clayton], Donald C. Elder, ed. University of Iowa Press, 1998 -- sorry, I don't have the page number). His outfit seems to have got everything about a year later than the AOP -- they didn't draw shelter halves till mid-1863.

Other options for getting a blanket would include theft, discovery, or purchasing it at auction from the effects of a dead comrade, none of which would seem entirely reliable.

So the soldier has some incentive to repair rather than let it get worse or get a new one altogether. How you would repair it, I don't know, but I suspect it would more likely involve patching than rubber cement, using, if possible, pieces of another rubber or painted article.

That said, Mr. Badgett, you could try some searches on the "Memory of America" site or Google Books (I suggest a date range of 1850-1880) and let us know what you come up with. New material comes to light each day, so even if someone does have one answer to your question, you could be the first to find another, better one.

[benjclark]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Any known repaired ones out there? Yesterday I pulled out a gum blanket poncho for a school program and noticed one of the "collar"" pieces had come unglued.

[JohnTaylorCW]

Re: Gum blanket repair

My suggestion would be to take a piece of fabric similar to the original backing, and slightly larger in all directions than your rip, and, using a flexible period glue (- any suggestions here folks?) glue it to the back of the tear (the inside of the blanket.) Makle sure you glue the ruberized fabric edges down as close as possible while still being flat. Where edges of your tear meet, put a little glue over the tear to act as a sealant. Where you can see the fabric through the tear, apply an oil-based coat such as used for painted ground cloths. You want to minimize the damage, prevent further tearing by reinforcing, and waterproof the patch.

Hope that's helpful.

[Jimmayo]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Stitch a piece of fabric or rubber blanket over or under the tear. Use what would be commonly available to the guys back then. Or do nothing.

I tore my poncho getting out of a truck when in VN and never worried about it. It leaked but everything was always wet anyway during the rainy season. All you had to do was wait a month or so and things would dry up.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Stitching or nothing sounds good to me.

Or you could take Hermann Haupt's advice:

Cement for Repairs.—To make rubber cement, cut some gum into small pieces (a common overshoe, if not made of vulcanized rubber, will answer), and dissolve it in camphene or pure spirits of turpentine, which, to hasten the solution, may be slightly warmed by a hot-water bath. A little sulphur, or finely pulverized charcoal, may with advantage be added to the dissolved gum.

That's for repairing pontoons, and comes from Military Bridges, a report made in 1864.

The full process is:

For the permanent repairs of small shot-holes, the torn edges should be trimmed off, making the opening of the inner thickness of the pontoon, say about an inch in diameter, while the outer thickness should be removed for a diameter of about 3 inches, and all the old gum (which, after being vulcanized, will not adhere to new) carefully scraped off from the outer surface of the inner thickness for the same diameter of three inches, and from the outer surface of the outer thickness, for a diameter of six inches. The hole being thus prepared, three or four coats of india-rubber cement, thinned, if necessary, with a little camphene, is put on the outside surface of the pontoon by the finger or brush for a width of about two inches around the hole—each coat of cement being dried in the shade before putting on the next. A patch of strong duck, 5" in diameter, and coated on one side with cement, is then adjusted on the inside of the pontoon, so that the centre of the patch shall correspond to the centre of the hole ; a second patch, 3" in diameter, and coated with cement on both sides, fills the opening cut out of the outer thickness of the pontoon; and a third patch, 6" in diameter, of vulcanized india- rubber cloth, coated on one side and cemented on the other, is put concentrically over all. Great care should be taken to coat well with cement the surfaces to be brought in contact, and to press them very hard to drive out any retained air, and thus secure a perfect adhesion. After completing the repairs, the pontoons are soonest fitted for use by exposing them, for a couple of hours, to the sun.

These repairs can readily be performed by the pontoniers; but it would be better, for permanent repairs, to send the pontoons to a manufactory, that the patched part of the pontoon might be vulcanized.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RA8mxMxVccEC&pg=PA176&dq=%22rubber+cement%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1840&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1865&as_brr=0

There are any number of period recipes for rubber cement and it was also sold commercially, but I have a difficult time imagining its use in the field for ponchos and gum blankets. On the other hand, I have a feeling that the moment I say it would never happen, someone will find the reference.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Gum blanket repair

I'm trying to get away from this subject, but I just discovered that Haupt is quoting from the British Aide Memoire to the Military Sciences, 1852.

Also, The Art of Travel (1867) suggests that travelers take along, for repairing shoes and rubber boots, a number of articles, including "Rubber Cement and Patching," which makes the idea of using such for gum blankets seem suddenly not so far fetched after all.

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Yea, Mike, but, I'm lazy. And, I dont care if I'm wet.

[Clark Badgett]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Thanks a bunch Pvt Schnapps. I did approach this with a little bit of research. I researched glues, and first tried one of the oldest documented glues from archaeology, egg whites. The patch fell off. I do know that hide glues have been used since pre-history times, even the American Indians used it. So I got some drill which was common enough for any soldier to find, and used hide glue that was very commonly available (even Elmers originally was a form of hide glue), to glue on the piece of cloth and then will coat the repair piece with another layer of hide glue after that.

My research on rubber cement claimed that it was developed around 1900, so I am gonna guess that what we have now is probably not the same as what you posted.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Thanks a bunch Pvt Schnapps. I did approach this with a little bit of research. I researched glues, and first tried one of the oldest documented glues from archaeology, egg whites. The patch fell off. I do know that hide glues have been used since pre-history times, even the American Indians used it. So I got some drill which was common enough for any soldier to find, and used hide glue that was very commonly available (even Elmers originally was a form of hide glue), to glue on the piece of cloth and then will coat the repair piece with another layer of hide glue after that.

My research on rubber cement claimed that it was developed around 1900, so I am gonna guess that what we have now is probably not the same as what you posted.

If you go back to Google Books and run a search, you'll find many references to rubber cement like the one the British Army and Herman Haupt cited. There are also references like this one, from Boston in 1856, to commercial products:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZTQNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA71&dq=%22rubber+cement%22+sold+OR+cost+OR+price&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1850&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1880&as_brr=1

"Rubber Cement, For Rubber Belting, Soling, and Repairing, in Tin Canisters, securely packed, one doz. in a box. Per dozen, $3, $6, and $12 per dozen."

Better evidence for another kind of repair, this one sewn, comes from the Summer 1995 issue of Military Collector and Historian, in the article "Rubber Poncho and Blankets from the Union Transport Maple Leaf":

"Most rips and tears in Maple Leaf blankets are due to their deteriorated condition. However, at least one rip in the body of artifact #01138 has small stitch holes running along each edge. The line of stitching is approximately one inch in length with twelve holes per side. This probably represents a repair."

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Gum blanket repair

Yea, Mike, but, I'm lazy. And, I dont care if I'm wet.

That's authentic, too. :)

I should also mention that just getting a new one, as you originally suggested, would probably be a preferred option for a New York soldier who enlisted or reenlisted in late '63 or early '64. Some of those boys got over a thousand dollars in bounty money and not all of it was portioned out like the $400 Federal. Why sit around sewing a gum blanket when you have that kind of cash?

[Hank Trent]

Re: Gum blanket repair

and used hide glue that was very commonly available (even Elmers originally was a form of hide glue), to glue on the piece of cloth and then will coat the repair piece with another layer of hide glue after that.

Well, basic hide glue was commonly available, but it gets sticky when wet and eventually dissolves when exposed to enough moisture. I think the average person in the period might have looked a little further...

My research on rubber cement claimed that it was developed around 1900, so I am gonna guess that what we have now is probably not the same as what you posted.

What Schnapps said. A similar search for waterproof glue may also be useful.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net