Talk:Cowboy bedroll

Page was made worse...

There were several people who made 'corrections' to this page, and included unsourced material, and even erroneous statements. "Goodyear", "rubber", and "latex" was only invented during the late 1890s, while the bedroll goes back many decades before that. It also needs proper citations, which there are none now. I will give the author(s) a few days to re-work this article before I revert it to an earlier post. Dinkytown talk 23:01, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

The observation on the mention of latex, rubber, and ect., being incorrect is refuted by facts and surviving artifacts.

Charles Goodyear, an engineer and chemical experimenter, accidentally discovered the vulcanization process used to transform the sap of the latex tree into usable rubber that we know today. He patented it with the US Patent office in 1844. Many examples exist of the American Civil War " rubber' blanket". They are (approximately) 10 oz weight canvas with a hand painted coating of black vulcanized rubber waterproofing. Most are stamped with "Goodyear Patent" in india ink on the uncoated side ( Including the original in this contributor's personal relic collection. The patent stamp is centered in the corner. It is still quite flexible, a sign the "Vulcanization Patented Process" was well done and was in control by the manufacturer. ( This was according to a Chemical Engineer familiar with rubber production who inspected it in late 1968 for authenticity verification prior to it's purchase from a military relic dealer.) This inspection was warranted as exact replicas are currently manufactured for reenactment use, stamped very similarly, with slight changes to prevent confusion with originals. It was captured in 1862 by a Confederate soldier and was used by him for the rest of the war. It is currently in this contributor's personal relic collection. Goodyear died a wealthy man in 1860. Vulcanized tarps and utility products were in wide use by that time. 2600:1700:3926:1270:1C76:9312:3A4F:1ECC (talk) 09:21, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

If you revert it then please remove the frankly silly remarks about soldiers sleeping wet and cold before the shelter half / rubber sheet era. Just because people lived a long time ago doesn't mean they were stupid and various types of oilskins and tarred cloths were used for centuries before rubber came along. There's no cita5ions for the "soldiers woke wet and shivering" because it's utter nonsense. Thx. ChekovsMoustache (talk) 02:38, 22 February 2026 (UTC)