252 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1907. 



ALEXANDER M. PAUL. 



ALEXANDER MACADAM PAUL is not at all ashamed 

 of the fact that he was reared in Boston, the year of his 

 birth being 1867. He was educated in the public schools and in 

 the Boston Latin School. In 1885 he began his business career 

 by working in the store of the Conant Rubber Co., then at No. 

 72 Federal street. He remained there for three years and then, 

 still employed by the same company, took a position in their 

 Hartford store, where he remained three years. In 1891 he went 

 to Andover, New Jersey, and connected himself with the Stand- 

 ard Musical String Co. In 1896 he was a factor in amalgamat- 

 ing all of the fac- 

 tories making 

 strings for musi- 

 c a 1 instruments, 

 the company being 

 known as the Na- 

 tional Musical 

 String Co. Of 

 this he was secre- 

 tary and treasurer. 

 In 1897 he built 

 an up-to-date fac- 

 t o r y at New 

 Brunswick, N. J., 

 for this corpora- 

 tion, and two years 

 later sold out his 

 interests at a 

 handsome protit. 



In 1900 Mr. 

 Paul became gen- 

 eral manager of 

 the Boston Woven 

 Hose and Rubber 

 Co., which posi- 

 tion he has held up to this time with conspicuous success. When 

 he took hold of this company the annual sales were about $1,000.- 

 000; to-day they are more than $3,000,000, and the business is 

 exceedingly profitable. Mr. Paul is a gifted organizer, and when 

 getting things into shape is a glutton for work. 



Physically he is won^iCrfully strong, and not only has great 

 executive capacity, but remarkable endurance. He is an en- 

 thusiastic sportsman, as far as shooting and fishing go, and 

 while not specifically a club man, is a member of the Algonquin 

 Club in Boston, and the New York Athletic Club. He is also 

 one of the honorary vice presidents of the New England Rubber 

 Club. 



* * * 



What is now the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co. dates 

 from 1880, in which year, under the name Boston Woven Hose 

 Co., the manufacture of rubber lined, multiply-woven cotton 

 hose was begun in a small way under a new process at Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts. The company w'as composed of Colonel 

 Theodore .^. Dodge, as capitalist, and the late Robert E. Cowen, 

 a practical machinist, who had assisted in the development of the 

 special loom used. The first year's sales reached 15.000 feet of 

 hose, after which the business expanded rapidly, and in 1884 

 the Boston Woven Hose Co. was incorporated with $150,000 

 capital, J. Edwin Davis becoming associated with it. Gradually 

 the production of other lines of rubber goods w-as taken on, and 

 in 1891 the corporation style was changed to the Boston Woven 

 Hose and Rubber Co. For many years the list of directors 

 was unchanged — Messrs. Dodge. Cowen, and Davis, together 

 with James N. Smith, now president of the company, and the 

 late Rhodes Lockwood. In 1898, at a time when the bicycle 

 tire trade was suffering a decline, the company, then very large 

 makers of tires, became embarrassed, and for a time the factory 



.Alexani'Ki. 



was operated by assignees. In the following year there was a 

 reorganization, with a paid in capital of $1,200,000, since when 

 the company has had an uninterrupted career of success in the 



manufacture of all kinds of mechanical rubber goods. 



* * * 



Recently Mr. Paul purchased the entire capital stock of the 

 Davidson Rubber Co., since which time he has resigned the 

 management of the Woven Hose company. The Davidson 

 Rubber Co. takes its name from the late Dr. Herman E. David- 

 son (1815-1895), inventor of a notable improvement in rubber 

 syringes, but who was never concerned in their manufacture. 

 The patents were purchased just before i860 by H. D. Lock- 

 wood, a nephew of Dr. Davidson, but until Goodyear's patent 

 expired, in 1865, the rubber parts had to be purchased from 

 licensed rubber manufacturers. Mr. Lockwood, with whom at 

 various times his brothers were associated, then put in a rub- 

 ber plant, and in 1868 the present factory, at Charlestown, 

 Massachusetts, was built, though important additions have since 

 been made to it. At various times, from 1858 until his death 

 (in 1905), Rhodes Lockwood was interested in the business, 

 and for some years conducted it alone. There were various 

 co-partnerships, at different times, involving members of the 

 Lockwood family, but all the while the trade name "Davidson 

 Rubber Co." was used, and in 1904 the business was incorpor- 

 ated under that name, with Rhodes Lockwood president. The 

 company manufactures a wide range of druggists' and stationers' 

 sundries, and various other specialties. 



AMERICAN CONGO INTERESTS. 



■"PHE departure of the first expedition in the interest of the 

 ■*■ American Congo Co. to the region covered by their con- 

 cession was noted in The India Rubber World for April i (page 

 218). The same group of capitalists, as has been stated already, 

 are interested also in the Societe Internationale Forestiere et 

 Miniere du Congo, formed to exploit a larger concession than 

 that of the American Congo Co. While the larger company's 

 territory embraces, as is believed, mineral resources of great 

 value, which are to be developed, the company will also be pre- 

 pared to work any rubber which may be found within the limits 

 of the concession. The India Rubber World is informed, on 

 authority, that King Leopold is particularly desirous that the 

 forest and mining company shall engage extensively in rubber 

 planting. On May 30 a prospecting and exploring party of 

 twelve will leave Belgium for the Luebo region, in the interest 

 of this company, headed by Colonel R. Dorsey Mohun, an Ameri- 

 can, who has had much experience in Congo affairs, having been 

 at times in the service of the Free State. Mr. S. H. Ball, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, will also be in the party. 

 the United States Geological Survey, will also be in the party. 

 Mr. A. Chester Beatty has returned to the States. 



E*"#^' 



.^-H .^ 



Works of the Davidson Rubber Co. 



[Recently purchased by .Alexander M. Paul.] 



