64 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1908. 



The Late Theodore S. Bassett. 



THE news will be heard with widespread regret of the death 

 of Theodore Sheldon Bassett, which occurred on October 

 7, at his summer residence, at Fort Trumbull Beach, Mil- 

 ford, Connecticut, after a brief illness, in his sixty-ninth year. 

 At the commencement of his last indisposition his friends looked 

 for his early recovery, on account of the known excellence of his 

 general health. The end came suddenly and quietly. 



The subject of this sketch was the son of Sheldon Bassett. 

 long identified with the industrial development of the Naugatuck 

 valley in Connecticut, and who married Harriet Hull, a niece 

 of the tw-o brothers, Commodore Isaac Hull and General William 

 Hull, who rendered such distinctive service during the War of 

 1812. Sheldon Bassett, shortly after the establishment of what 

 is now the Birmingham Iron Foundry, at Derby, in 1836 became 

 a member of the firm operating it. Upon the incorporation of 

 the present stock company, in 1850, Mr. Bassett was elected 

 president, which position he held until 

 his death, fifteen years later. 



Theodore S. Bassett at an early age 

 evinced an aptitude for business. As 

 early as his sixteenth year he was 

 employed in a manufacturing estab- 

 lishment in New York city conducted 

 by an uncle. He was interested in the 

 Robert N. Bassett Co., one of the 

 oldest factories in Derby, making cor- 

 set steels and the like. During the 

 period of construction of the Union 

 Pacific Railway Mr. Bassett established 

 a rolling mill at Laramie, Wyoming, 

 for the manufacture of a large quan- 

 tity of the rails required, and he was 

 present when the last spike was driven 

 and travel was opened on that road. 

 Thirty years ago Mr. Bassett became 

 interested in the Birmingham Iron 

 Foundry — the business with which his 

 father had so long been connected — 

 and at the time of his death filled the 

 office of vice-president of the corpora- 

 tion. 



It was partially owing to the fact 

 that the Birmingham concern engaged 

 largely in the manufacture of equip- 

 ment for rivbber factories that Mr. Bassett began, a number of 

 years ago, to take a deep interest in the rubber industry. In 

 1889 he assisted in the establishment of a rubber reclaiming 

 plant at Shelton (Derby), Connecticut, which business, con- 

 ducted as a copartnership, in 1895 took the name U. S. Rubber 

 Reclaiming Works. In June, 1900, the business was incorporated 

 under this name under the laws of New Jersey; at the same 

 time the reclaiming business of the Loewenthal Rubber Co. be- 

 came associated with it. Mr. Bassett was elected president of 

 the corporation, which position he held until the time of his 

 death. The positions of vice-president and treasurer have been 

 held during the same period by R. A. Loewenthal and Max 

 Loewenthal, respectively, while lately a son of Mr. Bassett has 

 been secretary. Meanwhile the company, now operating at Buf- 

 falo, New York, has grown to be the largest in its field. 



In addition to the businesses named, Mr. Bassett was in- 

 terested, as a shareholder or otherwise, in various other in- 

 dustrial enterprises. For many years he was a resident of 

 Birmingham, serving for some years as treasurer of that city. 

 He was also at one time postmaster there, under appointment 



Knight Templar. Mr. Bassett was a member of the New Eng- 

 land Rubber Club, and took a lively interest in its entertainments. 



Mr. Bassett possessed a very great number of friends — friends 

 who were steadfast and strongly attached to him. While gentle 

 and kindly in disposition, he was firm in the maintenance of his 

 standards of character and in his devotion to others. Through- 

 out life his quiet, unostentatious benefactions lightened many 

 burdens, without the knowledge of any except those who were 

 aided. Mr. Bassett married Miss Caroline Wells, daughter of 

 Harmon K. Wells, a New York merchant, who passed away 

 on January 27, 1907, after forty-five years of devoted com- 

 panionship. There were two sons — Theodore W., who survives 

 his father, and Harmon S., who died in May, 1900. 



Funeral services were held at the Second Congregational 

 Church, at Derby, on the afternoon of October 10, and the in- 

 terment was in the family plot in the cemetery at Derby. 



I'uKdiioKE Shf.i.I'On 1;.\.ssi:tt 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



The late Valentine B. Lang, vice- 

 president of The Hartford Rubber 

 Works Co., whose death was re- 

 ported in The India Rubber World 

 last month (page 46), at the age of 

 25 entered the employ of the West 

 Shore Railroad as a machine shop 

 foreman, under the late Charles H. 

 Dale, whose connection with that road 

 was mentioned in the sketch of the 

 life of the latter which appeared re- 

 cently in these pages. Mr. Lang con- 

 tinued successfully in the railroad 

 field until Mr. Dale had become pres- 

 ident of the Rubber Goods Manu- 

 facturing Co., and was looking for 

 some one to superintend the erection 

 of the new factory of the Morgan & 

 Wright rubber company at Detroit. 

 Mr. Lang was sent for at that time, 

 after which he remained connected 

 with the rubber interest. 



S. N. Aldrich. president of the 



State National Bank of Boston, who 



died on September 27, was a brother 



of Edward I. Aldrich, selling agent 



for the Hood Rubber Co., and long a member of the Boston 



School Board. 



The death is reported, in De Indische Meraiur, of Samuel R. 

 Stokvis, chairman of the board of R. S. Stokvis & Zonen, 

 Limited, of Rotterdam. [See The India Rubber World, Au- 

 gust I, 1908— page 378.] 



F. A. C. PERRINE. 



Frederic A. C. Peerine, ph.d., a well known authority on 

 electrical science, died at his home in Plainfield, New Jersey, 

 on Ottober 20, of Bright's disease, at the age of 46. He was 

 born at Freehold, N. J., and was graduated from Princeton Uni- 

 versity. He devoted some years to practical engineering, first 

 as superintendent of the insulated wire departtnent of the John 

 A. Roebling's Sons Co., and later as consulting electrician of 

 the Crescent Insulated Wire and Cable Co. (Trenton, N. J.). 

 Dr. Perrine later became professor in electrical science at the 

 Leland Stanford, Jr., University, in California, and afterward 

 president of the Stanley Electric Co. (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). 

 Latterly he was engaged as consulting engineer. He was an 

 active member of the American Institute of Electrical Engi- 



by President Cleveland. He was a Scottish Rite Mason and a neers, and the author of a number of works on electricity. 



