Hi Alexander -- on Nov 15 2019 at 09:09, you wrote:

AK> "He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes"

AK> What are patent shoes? 8-) Can it be a patent violation?

Excellent question - turns out that the process was sort of patented!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_leather

...patent leather is a fine grain leather that is treated to give it a
glossy appearance. An early reference to patent leather is in the 1793
British periodical The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer, which
notes, in an article entitled "Hand's patent leather", that "a gentleman
of the name of Hand" in Birmingham, England, obtained a patent for
preparing flexible leather having a glaze and polish that renders it
impervious to water and need only be wiped with a sponge to restore it
to its original luster.[4] In November 1799, inventor Edmund Prior, of
Holborn, London, England, received a patent for a method of painting and
coloring all kinds of leather;[5] and, in January 1805, inventor Charles
Mollersten, of Hackney Wick, received a patent for applying a chemical
composition in the preparation of hides, skins, and leather to give "a
beautiful gloss".[6] However, patent leather primarily owes its
popularity to Seth Boyden. (who did NOT patent his process. dh)

I'd never looked into this before - thanks for pointing me at it!



Cheers... Dallas

--- timEd/NT 1.30+