378 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1903. 



can be repaired at another time. Still further, i( the casing 

 gives out at last, the inner tubes may be in such good condi- 

 tion that only the casings need be renewed — another stroke in 

 economy. 



The demand for the detachable or clincher tire— the words 

 are synonymous — has come so far to exceed the demand for 

 the single tube tire that it is said that few if any of the latter 

 will be manufactured another season. The detachable is the 

 tire. Improvements may be made upon it, but the right prin- 

 ciple of construction has been found and for a long time to 

 come, it is believed, the bettering process will be confined 

 largely to compounding. The solid tire will be steadily im- 

 proved in the same manner, and in the main there will be but 

 the two styles— solid and detachable pneumatic. 



More than ever before is the manufacture of tires— especially 

 automobile tires — being reduced to a truly scientific basis. 

 Where in time gone by pretty much all things were tires that 

 came to the mills of the automobile manufacturers, now tires 

 are being made to fit different machines with scarcely less 

 nicety and precision than milady's tailor displays in fitting her 

 gowns. The exact weight of the vehicle, the distribution of 

 the weight, the requirements which the machine is built to 

 meet — all these and minor considerations are being taken in 

 account. In other days, too, it was not an uncommon thing 

 for the tire manufacturer to discover that the automobile man- 

 ufacturer or owner had placed the lighter pair of tires upon the 

 drive wheels and the heavy ones in front. They don't do such 

 things anymore, save in rare instances, perhaps. 



The demand for tires of all kinds continues, but especially 

 that for automobile and carriage tires is excellent. Even now 

 there is a prospect that next season will discover a still busier 

 situation than this year presented. 



A new term is being used by tire manufacturers which may 

 or may not be generally adopted. That remains to be seen. 

 The word is " profile." A tire is described as being of such or 

 such a profile, according as the cross section appears in the 

 blueprint or in the tire itself, revealing the construction and di- 

 mension'. 



[A rubber manufacturer in New York, who is largely inter- 

 ested in tire problems, expresses opinions at variance with those 

 contained in the foregoing. He believes that in cases of punc- 

 ture the inner tubes of detachable tires are quite as likely to be 

 injured as is the inner layer of the single tube tire. Consider- 

 ing the higher first cost of the detachable tires and the cost of 

 replacing inner tubes, the single tube is enough cheaper in the 

 end to offset considerable trouble in repairing the latter. Most 

 of the trouble with single tube tires, he asserts, has been due 

 to the cheap class of goods on the market in the past, for vehi- 

 cle use as well as for bicycles. With such goods largely elim- 

 inated, however, he predicts a return to favor of the single 

 tube, particularly for the lighter vehicles.] 



A CARRIAGE MAKER ON TIRES. 



WRITING in The Carriage Monthly (Philadelphia) Mr. C. 

 Fred Kimball, of the important carriage manufacturing firm of 

 C. P. Kimball & Co. (Chicago), says : 



" I do not think that in all the years I have been in the car- 

 riage business I have ever known of a single invention that 

 might have been of as great value to the manufacturers (mean- 

 ing in this instance rubber manufacturers) and to the carriage 

 builder as that of rubber tires, and I do not think I have ever 

 seen so valuable an invention so completely lacking in good 

 results to the carriage builder as this same matter of rubber 

 tires. 



" Most of the carriage builders have put them on without 

 profit, thereby increasing their volume of business without a 



corresponding increase in profit; while the rubber manufactur- 

 ers have in most cases sold their tires to the carriage user as 

 low, and in many cases lower, than they would sell to the car- 

 riage builder. 



" This, together with the fact that many carriage builders, 

 seeing that they were deriving no profit from the business, 

 have urged the rubber manufacturer to make cheaper and 

 cheaper grades, has brought about a bad condition of affairs, 

 that is injurious both to the rubber manufacturer and the car- 

 riage builder." 



Commenting upon a number of letters from the carriage 

 trade published in its last issue The Carriage Monthly says: 

 " The drift is evidently in the direction of the very best grade 

 of rubber tires that can be made. The trade has had several 

 years' experience with good, bad, and indifferent tires, and it is 

 able to render a verdict against which it will be dangerous to 

 make an appeal. It will be gratifying to those interests devot- 

 ing themselves to the production of the best possible work to 

 know that their course is indorsed. They will receive encour- 

 agement to continue in their course. Whatever future compe- 

 tition may develop will probably be along the line of quality 

 rather than price." 



OBSCURE CAUSES OF FACTORY FIRES. 



BY JOHN L. KILBON. 



EXPERIENCE has taught rubber men, as well as manufac- 

 turers of other kinds of goods, that fire insurance com- 

 panies regard their factories as hazardous risks. True, more 

 money is made by insuring factories against fire than by any 

 other similar line of business ; but the risks are perhaps great 

 enough to justify the insurance companies for the policy they 

 pursue. 



Certain it is that the list of possibilities of fire is startling in 

 length. If bituminous coal is used, conditions under which it 

 may take fire by the development of heat within the mass are 

 not always easy to avoid. And a mass of bituminous coal on 

 fire in a basement or other place of storage presents a particu- 

 larly nasty problem to firemen, because the first application of 

 water causes the top of the mass to cake over, preserving the 

 fire indefinitely. Then there is cotton waste. Dry cotton 

 waste is safe enough, but as soon as any animal oil is on it, it 

 must be kept out of the rays of the sun and at a distance from 

 fires. Linseed oil and turpentine, especially when both are 

 present, are also dangerous associates for cotton waste, fre- 

 quently giving rise to spontaneous combustion. Naphtha and 

 gasolene require little comment, but much care in handling ; 

 and the same may be said of lubricating and other oils. Just 

 common looking dust, swept from the floor and left in a corner 

 or dumped in a wooden box, often contains matter that will 

 ignite under the sun's rays, especially it they fall through a 

 glass window in which some small bubble or other flaw serves 

 the purpose of a burning glass. 



All the above dangers the rubber manufacturer shares with 

 men in other lines of business, but he has special troubles of 

 his own. Of course, not all the litharge and whiting and lamp- 

 black are used in rubber factories, but at least there are factor- 

 ies in other lines where they are not used. The compensations 

 in the rubber man's freedom from the necessity of using certain 

 inflammable things that are used in other manufactures, need 

 not be dwelt upon here. But litharge and whiting and lamp- 

 black are all used in practically all rubber factories, and 

 all of them are subject under wrong conditions, to spontaneous 

 combustion. Coal tar also introduces an element of danger. 

 Sulphur needs to be kept with care, though probably not spon- 



