166 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1909. 



company selling it. The city is amply protected, and it has bought 

 the best." 



The representative of another rubber company said : "Speaking 

 for our company, I know that our material was all that could 

 have been asked for, and in every test that was made our per- 

 centage was practically perfect. The specifications required 400 

 pounds pressure to the square inch. Our hose was built to with- 

 stand 800 pounds pressure. The outer casing and the inner tube 

 were both made of the very best Para, and all of our rubber 

 material stood without fault the stretching tests required. I do 

 not see how stronger hose could be built than the New York 

 fire department is requiring us to make at this time." 



The result of this introduction of the high pressure system 

 means the retirement of the picturesque fire engine from the 

 downtown district. Althougli it was the best thing of its kind 

 for fighting flames in its day, the high pressure system offers a 

 very much better remedy. The hose carriage is now given the 

 right of way in certain sections over the old-time engines. 

 Water can be turned on in every tall building at a higlier pressure 

 than any engine in the city of New York could ever furnish. 

 The delays which traffic and congested streets offer to the arrival 

 of fire apparatus are practically eliminated, because almost every 

 building and certainly every block has its fire apparatus on hand. 

 The racing horses and the clanging engines were a picturesque 

 feature of city life, but, like many other picturesque features, 

 they have been retired by the practical achievements of modern 

 invention. 



The fact that the chief of the fire department and all of the 

 veteran fire fighters are delighted with the efficiency and the 

 promise that the high pressure system offers indicates that it is 

 an improvement that has come to stay. As the service is made 

 better it will be extended, and it is not out of reason to e.xpect 

 that the fire engine will within a few years be relegated exclusive- 

 ly to the outlying sections of the city and to suburban districts. 



Mayor McClellan, in his annual message to the board of alder- 

 men of New York, dated January 4, said : 



"The almost immediate effect on insurance rates is one of the 

 most gratifying results of the installation of the high pressure 

 service. On December 9 last the New York Fire Insurance Ex- 

 change ordered a general reduction of rates in the Manhattan 

 high pressure zone. This reduction, I am reliably informed, will 

 mean an immediate saving in premiums of $500,000 a year, and 

 is to be followed shortly by another reduction." 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



SCRAP RUBBER IN RUSSIA. 



TO THE Editor of The Indi.\ Rubber World: In your issue 

 of December i (page 87) I have read the article headed 

 "Russian Tax on Scrap Exports." Regarding this subject I 

 should like to say: 



First, that it is still very doubtful whether Russia will yield 

 in repealing the export duty on old rubber, and while such 

 concession may be made after a while, it will not be very soon. 



Second, if Russia should yield, it will have no effect on the 

 price of old rubber shoes, because the stock of old rubber shoes 

 in Russia is almost exhausted, and the rubber factories in 

 Russia are now in need of much material. 



The American rubber reclaiming works could only gain 

 through it, since the Russian rubber factories will then not be 

 able to compete with them in the sale of reclaimed rubber. Now 

 the Russian rubber works buy the old rubber shoes by r ruble 

 50 copecks per pood (Russian weight) cheaper than the Amer- 

 ican rubber manufacturers, and as there is no export tax on 

 reclaimed rubber in Russia, the Russian manufacturers are at 

 present enabled to compete with the Americans. But if the ex- 

 port duty in Russia should be stopped, this will no longer be 

 the case, for then the Russian manufacturers will get the old 

 rubber shoes no cheaper than the American works. 



Odessa, Decfmber 25, 1908. MERCH.\NT, 



JOHN JOSEPH BANIGAX, elder son of the late Joseph 

 Banigan, a leading rubber manufacturer, died of apoplexy 

 on December 31, 1908, at Mount Clemens, Michigan, in his 

 forty-sixth year. Joseph Banigan was the founder of the Woon- 

 sccKet Rubber Co., and later of the Joseph Banigan Rubber 

 Co., and in the interval was president for three years of the 

 United States Rubber Co. John J. Banigan was born in Rox- 

 bury, Massachusetts, July 7, 186.3. He was graduated from St. 

 John's College, Fordham (New York), and during the life- 

 time of his father was associated with the corporations con- 

 trolled by the latter. He married Mary C. Davis, a daughter of 

 the late Richard Davis, a prominent dry goods dealer in Prov- 

 idence, who survives with three sons — Joseph, Richard Davis, 

 and John Joseph Banigan, Jr. Mr. Banigan's brother, William 

 Bernard Banigan, died in February, 1901. 



R. LiNDS.w Coleman, who died recently at his home in Somer- 

 set, Virginia, was some time president of the Western Wheel 

 Works (Chicago), an important bicycle manufacturing concern. 

 When this company became a part of the American Bicycle Co., 

 he was for a while president of the latter, at a time when it 

 controlled a number of rubber tire factories. He was one of 

 the receivers of the American Bicycle Co., in the first steps 

 toward its liquidation. 



* * * 



Ferdinand Hecht, since 1881 a member of the firm of George 

 Borgfeldt & Co., importers of rubber goods in New York, died 

 on January 4 in Berlin, where he represented the European in- 

 terests of his house. He was born in 1853 at Nesselroeden, 

 German}'. 



A NEW RUBBER SHOE MACHINE. 



r A. SAUNDERS has always had original ideas and notably 

 *—" sound ones, and it is therefore of more than passing in- 

 terest to the shoe trade that he has brought out a new shoe- 

 making machine. To be really ex- 

 act, it is not a shoemaking machine 

 — it is a combination of a dry heater 

 and a press. The press part engages 

 only the sole and the heel, and the 

 heat is so graduated that vulcaniza- 

 tion takes place at the same rate as 

 the upper, whicli is not in a press, 

 but is cured in hot air. The mold- 

 heater is exceedingly simple, and 

 looks perfectly practicable. The 

 product should be in appearance bet- 

 ' ter than the ordinary shoe, the whole 

 of wliit'h is cured in dry heat with- 

 out pressure. The invention here 

 ^S'jims\sssssssmss\sssms\ss^^ ^^ referred to is covered by United 



" States patent No. 905,105. 



TARIFF CONVENTION CALLED. 



A CALL for a National Tariff Commission Convention, to 

 be held at Indianapolis, Indiana, on February 16-18, has 

 been issued by a number of representative organizations, in- 

 cluding the National Association of Manufacturers, the Mer- 

 chants' Association of New York, Boston Chamber of Com- 

 merce, Western Association of Shoe Wholesalers, Farmers' 

 National Congress, boards of trade and chambers of commerce 

 in cities throughout the country, and various other bodies. The 

 object is to promote the establishment of a permanent, non- 

 partisan, semi-judicial tariff commission, for the purpose of 

 making studies pertinent to the tariff question. 



