June i, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



289 



MR. HENRY A. REED AND HIS WORK. 



AT a recent meeting of the directors of the Bisliop Out- 

 ta-1'erclia Co. (New York), ^[r. Henry A. Reed, wlio 

 had been treasurer of the company since Januarj-. 

 1S93, tendered his resignation, and his eldest son, 

 William Boardman Reed, was elected to fill the vacancy. 

 Mr. Reed continues as president and another son, Harry D. 

 Reed, has been elected vice president. Mr. Reed is now in 

 his seventy -eighth year. He has now completed his fifty- 

 seventh year in the electrical interest, and his twenty- 

 seventh year with the Bishop company. A sketch of the re- 

 tiring treasurer would not he complete without going back 

 a little into the history of the Gutta-percha industry, lead- 

 ing up to Mr. Reed's connection with it. 



About 1S45 Gutta-percha first became an article of com- 

 merce in England, it having been 

 found to be particularly adapted for 

 making water pipes and lining cis- 

 terns. It soon attracted the atten- 

 tion of Stephen T. Armstrong, who 

 was a rubber manufacturer at Green- 

 paint (Long Island), New York, and 

 in 1847 Mr. Armstrong went to Eng- 

 land and purchased the patent rights 

 for the United States. Gutta-percha 

 pipe was then cheaper than lead, the 

 market price being about 25 cents a 

 pound, and its specific gravity only 

 one-ninth that of lead, so it soon be 

 came widely used for manj' purposes 

 for which lead had up to then been 

 used, but chiefly as a material for 

 water pipes and cistern linings. It 

 had the advantage over other water- 

 proofing materials in that it was anti- 

 septic. 



In the same year (1847) the Prus- 

 sian government used Gutta-percha 

 as an insulating material, this being 

 its first use for that purpose. The henry 



Prussians laid 138J miles of telegraphic cables insulated 

 with Gutta-percha and covered with a thin shell of lead. 

 The vulcanization of rubber having been successfully ac- 

 complished by Goodyear, it occurred to the Prussian gov- 

 ernment that Gutta-percha might be treated in the same 

 manner. After a series of experiments the vulcanization 

 was pronounced to be a success. But the process so 

 shortened the life of the Gutta-percha that it was soon 

 abandoned. On October 23, 1858, Samuel C. Bishop, a 

 dealer in rubber goods in Cedar street, New York, bought 

 Mr. Armstrong's business, including the patent rights. In 

 1S61 he moved the factory to East Twenty-fifth street, to the 

 present location of the Bishop Gutta-Percha Co., where he 

 continued the business until his death, on July 4, 1872. 

 Mr. William Willoughby Marks, a nephew of Mr. Arm- 

 strong, and who had been superintendent for Mr. Armstrong 

 from the beginning, continued in that capacit}' and after- 

 ward took full charge for Mrs. Bishop, the widow, and con- 

 tinued to run it successfully until her death, in 1S81. 



Mr. vSanuiel Boardman, who was executor of Mrs. Bishop's 

 estate, ran the business for the estate until July, 1885. when 

 the present company was formed. The capital stock was 

 divided among the legatees of Mrs. Bishop, with Mr. Board- 

 man as president. The suit of Clinton G. Colgate v. the 

 Western Tnion Telegraph Co. was being fought out in 1878, 

 the plaintiff prosecuting on the ground that the defendant 

 was infringing the Simpson patent for a Gutta-percha insu- 

 lated cable, which patent had then come into the possession 

 of Colgate. 



It was at this time that Mr. Henry A. Reed came into 

 contact with the Gutta-percha interest. He had learned 

 telegraphy as a boy and had long been recognized as an 

 authority in electrical and insulation matters. In 1856 he 

 was the first in America to test for 

 faults by galvanometer, using an in- 

 strument made by Henlej-, of Lon- 

 don, and presented to Mr. Reed by 

 Professor S. F. B. Morse. This in- 

 strument, by the way, is now in the 

 Smithsonian Institution, at Washing- 

 ton, having a place alongside the 

 Morse collection. The Colgate suit 

 was decided adversely- to the Western 

 Union company, who were assessed 

 damages amounting to $100,000. 



Mrs. Bishop feared she might be 



made defendant in suits brought by 



Colgate, and Mr. Reed was employed 



to gather evidence for the defense. 



He made a careful stud}' of the his- 



torj- of insulation up to that time, and 



especially watched the progress of the 



case against the Western Union. But 



the suits feared by Mrs. Bishop never 



materialized. Mr. Reed advised her 



tacit acknowledgment of the validity 



of the Simpson patent. B}' doing 



*• REED. this, and agreeing upon the payment 



of a s per cent, royalty, Mr. Reed secured for Mrs. Bishop 



the exclusive rights to the patent during its life — a matter 



of a half dozen years or so. 



Upon the organization of the Bishop Gutta-Percha Co., in 

 July, 1885, Mr. Reed was made secretary. He continued his 

 work as an expert until 1887, when he was made manager of 

 ihe company. In 1893 he was elected treasurer and filled 

 that position tintil he resigned in April of the present year. 

 He was chosen president of the company in 1905, which 

 position he still holds. The business of the company has 

 outgrown the present factory-, and in the near future an ad- 

 ditional one will be erected. The new factory- will adjoin the 

 present one, and will cover a lot 50 X 100 feet in area and 

 will stand five stories high. 



Mr. Reed was born in Carmel, New York, on February 1 1, 

 1S29. He was teaching school in his native village when he 

 learned telegraphy. He soon became proficient and in 1849 

 was placed in charge of the telegraph office in Carmel. In 

 March, 1S50, he opened, at Croton Falls, the first office of 



