November i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



37 



CONGO CONSUL TO THE UNITED STATES. 



THE appointment of Mr. James Gustavus Whiteley, of Bal- 

 timore, Maryland, by the king of the Belgians as consul 

 of the Congo Free State in the United States was reported in 

 The India Rubber World, October i, 1904 (page 21). Ouite 

 recently Mr. Whiteley has been raised to the rank of consul 

 general, in recognition of services to the Congo state. He will 

 now have charge of Congo interests throughout the United 

 States, besides which this appointment makes him dean of the 

 consular corps resident at Baltimore. Mr. Whiteley sailed on 

 October 10 (or Brussels on official business. Mr. Whiteley is a 

 widely known writer on legal and economic topics and has rep- 

 resented the United Stales in several international congresses. 

 Among other important bodies to which he belongs is the In- 

 stitute of International Law, the membership of which includes 

 Baron Kaneka, who lately visited the United States as an agent 

 of the mikado of Japan, and Dr. Frederic de Martens, who acted 

 in behalf of Russia in drafting the treaty of peace at Ports- 

 mouth. 



INSURANCE OF OCEAN CABLES. 



THE submarine cable despatched from London to the 

 Mexican Telegraph Co., and arriving at Galveston, 

 Texas, by the steamer Faraday in June [See The India 

 Rubber World, July i, 1905, page 349], measured 900 nauti- 

 cal miles and was insured in London on a valuation of ;^ioo,ooo 

 [=$486,650]. In accordance with the terms of the contract 

 underwriters were liable for partial or total loss of the cable 

 not only while loading and in transit, but also during laying 

 and repairing operations. Unlike ordinary cargo shipments 

 the total value of the cable at risk diminishes as laying opera- 

 tions proceed. Underwriters have no further interest in cable 

 expended, as the same is then uninsured. It generally hap- 

 pens, however, that the length of cable shipped provides a 

 surplus at the termination of the work of laying and repairing. 

 This, of course, is covered by the original insurance, which, in 

 in the case of the Faraday, expired on the delivery of any 

 spare cable at Galveston. The insurance was accepted at a 

 premium which was quite moderate notwithstanding the fact 

 that the transport and work were effected by a steamer over 30 

 years of age. 



TIRE REPAIRING IN AKRON. 



[kROM the AKRON (OHlo) " TIM F.S-DtMOCRAT. "] 



•' ' I "HOUGH it has been the impression for a number ol 

 A years and it is still believed in many quarters that the 

 pneumatic tire is not a success and that the really practicable 

 tire remains to be invented, it is true that the rapid advance 

 that has been made in methods of repairing tires has had much 

 to do with removing this condition," said a well known local 

 rubber man to a reporter for the Times Democrat. 



" Akron has been the place where many of the tire repairing 

 inventions have been made. There was a time, once, in the 

 early days of the bycicle craze, when more pneumatic tires 

 were repaired in Akron than in any other place on the conti- 

 nent. Tires from Mexico and from Canada, tires from Califor- 

 nia and from Maine came into the big Akron rubber shops for 

 repairs, and their owners simply waited until they came back. 



" And the first repairs were crude. Sometimes they did not 

 last until the tires were out of the factory. But ibis has all 

 been changed. Now it is common to take one of the big auto 

 tires that are made in Akron, cut a faulty or injured section 



right out of it, build in another, vulcanize it so that the repair 

 is really a part of the original tire, and send the tire back to 

 the owner, good as new and as strong as when it was first made. 

 "The modern system of tire repairing has opened a field 

 for much special machinery for this purpose, and some of the 

 Akron machine shops are profiting largely by this kind of 

 work." 



WEAVING CURVED ELASTIC FABRICS. 



T N the specification of British letters patent No. 9510 (1904), 

 A H.J. Gaisman, of New York, says that narrow elastic fabrics 

 having rubber or other elastic strands interwoven longitudi- 

 nally with the warp and weft threads, are woven with the elastic 

 strands on one side of the central line thicker than those on the 

 other side, or with the elastic strands graduated in size from 

 one selvage to the other. When the fabric is in its normal con- 

 dition the thick strands tend to draw the fabric towards one 

 side, and thereby cause it to assume a curved form as indicated 

 by dotted lines. The strands on one side may be put under 

 greater tension in the loom, or the strands may vary in elastic- 

 ity from one selvage to the other. The fabrics may be used for 

 braces or suspenders, garters, armlets, and the like. When the 

 fabrics are used for straps of braces, the convex edges of the 

 two straps are connected at their meeting point by stitching or 

 otherwise. 



CAN YOU PREDICT RUBBER WEATHER ? 



I^Othe Editor of The India Rubber World; As an 

 amateur farmer, 1 am interested in the weather. I have 

 gathered meteorological data for years but have not as yet found 

 the slightest basis on which to ascertain the state of the 

 weather even twelve hours ahead. 



The government weather predictions are very faulty, and as 

 many laymen claim they can predict the weather more accu- 

 rately than the weather bureau, without any of the elaborate 

 apparatus of the government, I hereby appeal to all the weather 

 prophets of this country to enter a thirty day contest for a 

 cash prize of $100 which I will give to whoever predicts the 

 weather most accurately and will tell for the benefit of the pub- 

 lic by what methods he arrived at his conclusions. If the Ed- 

 itor wi!l kindly publish this and aid in advancing the science of 

 meteorology, I will be grateful. f. r. fast. 



No. 97 Nassau street. New Voik. October (\ 19^5. 



TAINTED MONEY" FOR RUBBER BOOTS. 



THE recent extended discussion over the propriety of the 

 acceptance by educational, religious, and charitable in- 

 stitutions of donations from persons whose wealth has been 

 obtained by methods morally indefensible, not only has ren- 

 dered the term "tainted money" a familiar phrase, but has 

 brought to the front other new considerations in ethics. Among 

 other things, contributions to "election funds" are likely to be 

 viewed in a different way by many people in future. In this 

 connection we quote as something rather odd the following 

 extract from a letter to the New York Sun, by a correspondent 

 whose guide through a rural district was a loquacious livery- 

 man, full of information about the methods prevalent there for 

 buying votes : 



" The funniest thing about this election boodle," said he, " is, nine 

 out of ten will buy rubber boots with it." On our way back to town, 

 late in the afternoon, we met two old fellows, each carrying a brand new 

 pair of rubber boots over his shoulders. 



