January i, 1909.J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



149 



explains, is from the language of the Siwash Indian tribe, and 

 is the equivalent of the English word "bully," or "extra fine," 

 and is a word which is coming generally into use as an English 

 expression. The Bowers company procured a contract last week 

 for 12,000 feet of fire hose for Los Angeles, California, which 

 makes orders for about 58,000 feet of fire hose taken recently, 

 so that they feel that conditions are pretty good in that line, 

 at least. 



Mr. William Gorham, of the Gorham Rubber Co., is building 

 for himself a 44-foot, 50 hp. launch, which, when it is completed, 

 he intends to take down to Los Angeles for use when he is at 

 the southern ports, and he is also going to build a mate to it for 

 use here around San Francisco, in connection with his other 

 launches, and still he says that business is "rotten." Mr. Gorham 

 is in Los Angeles now looking after the business of the branch 

 store there, and at Headquarters in San Francisco the report 

 is that business has kept up fairly well. This firm reports that 

 shipping business is getting active again, as all of the steam 

 schooners are coming back to work, and orders are very frequent 

 from the shippers. 



Mr. Griffin, superintendent and manager of the American Rub- 

 ber Manufacturing Co., whose offices and factory are over at 

 Emeryville, across the bay, reports that business is going ahead 

 with them in a very satisfactory manner. This firm secured the 

 order for all of the 3-inch and a portion of the 2^-inch hose for 

 the San Francisco fire department. 



The first and most important of the new system of salt water 

 pumps which are to be constructed for San Francisco to be used 

 in case the water supply system is again incapacitated on account 

 of earthquake, is now being dug at Market and Battery streets, 

 in the midst of the wholesale district. 



The Gutta Percha and Rubber Manufacturing Co. report that 

 conditions are naturally quiet now, but are showing improvement 

 all the time. Merchants are looking forward now hopefully and 

 with certainty that conditions will be good in the spring. Not 

 much can be expected before that time in the mechanical line, 

 as the winter rains will make the roads to the mines and lumber 

 camps so 'bad that practically no goods will be taken in before 

 April. 



Mr. Mortimer Smith, of Boston, has been in San Francisco 

 for the past 30 days on a pleasure trip. He is the son of the 

 president of the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co., Mr. 

 Joseph N. Smith, of Lynn, Massachusetts. 



Mr. Joseph V. Selby, Pacific Coast agent for the Boston Woven 

 Hose and Rubber Co., states that the prospects for the spring 

 business are quite bright, although the business during the past 

 99 days has been unusually quiet. And yet, he said, with the 

 bountiful rains which we have had all over this coast, and the 

 improved feeling which exists in all mercantile pursuits, every- 

 thing points to a prosperous business for the coming spring and 

 summer. 



Mr. Kanzee, of the Phoenix Rubber Co., states that the factory 

 is running full force and that everything is getting firmly estab- 

 lished in their new four-story and basement quarters, in First 

 street. He reports that business is very good in all departments. 

 The firm's new sanitary toilet seat has proved to be a big seller. 



Mr. Perkins, of the Sterling Rubber Co., on Second street, 

 states that the druggists' sundry lines continue active, al- 

 though there is little work for the mechanical lines. Retailers 

 are letting their stock go now, and will not begin to buy until 

 they have taken stock after the holidays, and as only about one 

 lumber mill out of 20 is running, and as that one is using up all 

 of the old belting of the other 19, there is almost no demand from 

 the mills, although just as soon as they all start up again, and 

 he hopes it will be next spring, there will be nothing on hand at 

 all, and business will be rushing. 



The Gladiator Rubber and Packing Co. has been incorporated, 

 to carry on the rubber business in San Francisco. 



Maurice Gibson, manager of the Fisk Rubber Co., on Golden 



Gate avenue, states that business in the rubber tire line is ex- 

 ceedingly good. All of the tire men are agreed that automobiles 

 are being driven more numerously this winter than ever before 

 during the winter season, which has caused an increase in the 

 rubber tire business all around. 



ANALYSIS OF A HOT WATER BOTTLE. 



AWELL-KXOWX rubber superintendent who has been 

 visiting rubber mills (not in the United States by the 

 way) sends the following description of work done in a rubber 

 factory, but docs not give the location, which, perhaps, is just 

 as well. 



Rubber manufacturing calls for varied talents, but it has not 

 been apparent until recently that surgery is included. The follow- 

 ing is a description of what has to be done in the manufacture 

 of water bottles : 



Cutting I woman Yi hour. (revolting). 



Making i woman i hour. (a miracle)^ 



Carrying down and bringing back i woman 54 hour. fhard labor) _ 



Examining i woman 7 minutes. (intcresting)- 



Dispatching i girl 17 minutes (murder). 



Cure 17 minutes. (quick work). 



The manager of this branch of work, our correspondent says, 



has missed his vocation. He should be in charge of a hospital 



or a harem. | 



ARTISTS IN GUTTA-PERCHA. 



IT may not be generally known, but the Dyak head hunter 

 ■^ of Borneo is not only a picturesque warrior, but quite a 

 a sculptor, or more exactly, a modeller. With the various ship- 

 ments of gutta-percha that come into Singapore arc figures of 

 animals made of gutta, some of them showing considerable 

 artistic ability. 



The Curiosity Corner of The India Rubber World office has 

 several of these figures — tigers, sacred cows, monkeys, and beasts 



A Sacred Cow, Worked in Gutta-Percha. 



of that sort. It is said that each of these figures is the trade 

 mark of a family or clan, and that the Chinese traders by these 

 tokens know e.xactly with whom they are trading. This may be 

 fact or it may be fiction. At all '■vents, the figures are interest- 

 ing and rare. 



The sales of a certain Fulton street (New York) rubber store, 

 which formerly carried a line of rubber clothing and footwear in 

 the early 8o's when Fulton Ferry afforded practically the only 

 transit facility between that section of New York and Brooklyn, 

 amounted, in stormy weather, to $500 a day. Since the provision 

 of so many other avenues between the two cities, the footwear 

 and clothing departments have been abolished as unprofitable, 

 and the concern at present does a small jobbing and retailing 

 business in mechanical and molded goods. 



At the annual automobile show at Olympia. London, during 

 the past month, of the 2,218 cars exhibited 678 — or over 30 per 

 cent. — were equipped with "Continental" tires. 



