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LINK BELTING.

[Footnote: From a paper read before the "Technischen Verein" of New
York, May 28, 1887.]

By CHAS. A. SCHIEREN.


The old saying that "there is nothing new under the sun" may well be
applied to leather link belting. It is generally believed that these
belts are of recent invention, but that is an error. They are over
thirty years old.

Mr. C.M. Roullier, of Paris, experimented that long ago with small
leather links one and one-half inches long by three-quarters of an inch
wide. These links had two small holes at equal distances apart, and were
joined with iron bolts, which were riveted at the ends, thus making a
perfectly flat surface, and in that way forming a belt entirely of
leather links.

Mr. Roullier's idea was to economize; he therefore utilized the material
left over from the manufacture of flat belting. He perfected his belt
and came to this country in 1862, when he patented the article here and
tried to introduce it. At first it produced quite a sensation, and many
tests were made, but it was soon found that Roullier's belts were not