240 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1909. 



Charles Goodyear as his legal adviser and was a partner in some 

 of the most important rubber factories in America. He died at 

 Providence, Rhode Island, August 30, 1868. 



Benjamin F'ranklin Breeden in 1849 became selling agent in 

 New York for the rubber footwear manufactured by John R. 

 Ford's company. He retired with a fortune and went to reside 

 near London. He died at sea, in a steamer collision, December 

 22, 1873. Among the few fellow passengers saved was Tames 

 Bishop, mentioned in this article. 



John Ross Ford, born 1817, while in the drygoods trade mar- 

 ried a sister of James Bishop, master of a line of sailing vessels 

 between New York and Brazil, and having as correspondent at 

 Para Henry Lee Norris, the United States consul there. It was 

 due to Norris that Bishop became a rubber importer at New 

 York and due to Bishop that Ford took up the rubber manu- 

 facture, in which in time he became associated with Christopher 

 Meyer. Mr. Ford left a fortune estimated at $15,000,000. Two 

 of his sons have been directors in the United States Rubber Co. 

 from the beginning, and one, James Bishop Fotd, has long been 

 first vice president of the company. John R. Ford died 1896. 



Christopher Meyer was the only "founder" not a native Amer- 

 ican. He was born in Germany in 1818 and died in New York 

 in 1888, after having long been kncnvn to the public as the "rub- 

 ber king." He is reputed to have started a rubber factory with 

 $300 borrowed from James Bishop, and later was estimated to 

 be worth $20,000,000. Associated with him particularly was John 

 R. Ford, and at one time Lewis L. Hyatt, mentioned in Mr. 

 Firth's sketch as one of the American superintendents prominent 

 at Edinburgh. 



James Bishop, early in life, was taken into partnership with 

 his father, who had engaged in shipping successfully around 

 New York before the days of steam. Later the firm sent ships 

 to every continent. His beginnings in the rubber importing trade 

 are referred to in connection with John R. Ford, his brother-in- 

 law. At one time his house had a practical monopoly of this 

 trade in the United States. He was some time a member of 

 Congress (1855-57), and later won wide credit as chief of the 

 bureau of labor statistics in his state, New Jersey (1878-93). 

 He -was long one of the most influential laymen in American 

 Methodism. His narrow escape from death at sea has been 

 mentioned, but that was preceded by his survival of what was 

 at the time the most appalling railway wreck on record. He 

 died in 1895. 



James A. Williamson, son of a New York merchant and born 

 1816, was sent to Para by James Bishop & Co., becoming familiar 

 with the rubber trade. Later he was a partner in the firm, with 

 Mr. Bishop and Mr. Norris. Mr. Williamson went to Edinburgh 

 in connection with founding the rubber industry there, and an 

 early manager of the North British company was his brother, 

 Douw D. Williamson, previously comptroller of New York city 

 and later a bank president. Mr. Williamson died April 6, 1897, 

 only a few days after having been interviewed by this writer on 

 a matter relating to the North British Rubber Co. 



It may be mentioned that without exception the gentlemen re- 

 ferred to in the preceding notes held an important relation to 

 the American rubber industry, and their reason for investing 

 capital in Europe was that the American field in those days had 

 been filled so completely. 



RUBBER FOUNDATIONS FOR MACHINERY. 



RUBBER foundations for heavy macliinery are coming into 

 more general use. London Engineer describes an unusually 

 heavy steam turbine installed recently, giving particulars in re- 

 gard to the use of rubber in its foundation. The turbine set, it 

 says, is bolted to a special slab of concrete about 2 feet thick, 

 reinforced with a steel grid, and supported by a series of circular 

 rubber tools, which rest on the ordinary concrete built into the 

 ground. 



The top of the floating concrete slab is level with the engine 

 room floor, but the edges do not come in contact with the floor, 

 so tliat there is no connection between the concrete slab to which 

 the turbine set is bolted and the foundation, except through the 

 rubber. A trench is provided round the floating slab, so that 

 the rubber stools can be inspected. Each rubber stool is a 

 cylinder about 4 inches in diameter and 3 inches in height, when 

 compressed by the weight of the turbine set. The rubber stools 

 are all separately renewable, and can be withdrawn and rein- 

 serted by further compressing them, by tightening up the "jacks" 

 in which they are held by means of screws. It is stated, how- 

 ever, that as the rubber stools have a considerable life, their 

 renewal is not frequently required. 



From the above description it will be understood that the tur- 

 bine set is bolted to the concrete slab, and this rests on rubber 

 stools, the stools in turn resting on an ordinary concrete founda- 

 tion. The turbine in question is the largest hitherto mounted in 

 this wav. 



A MACHINE FOR "ROOT RUBBER." 



jV^ECHANICAL means for doing the work of stripping the 

 ^''■^ bark from "root rubber" continue to interest certain in- 

 ventive minds. The Gummi-Zcitung contained recently a picture 

 of a machine designed for such work. A chat with Captain 

 Felix H. Hunicke, who has just returned from the African root 

 rubber fields, however, leads one to believe that there is no real 

 need for machinery for this preliminary stripping. During his 

 experiments he made a tool which was simply an oak stake, 

 sharpened at one end, so that it could be driven into the ground. 

 At the upper end was fastened a piece of tool steel in which was 

 a V-shaped groove. Across this was laid a hinged lever. In 



M.\CHI.\'E FOR TrE.XTING "RoOT" RUBBER. 



use the lever was raised, and one end of a root laid in the 

 groove ; the lever then was held down upon it, and as the root 

 was drawn through the bark came off nicely. Simple as this tool 

 was, however, it was not found necessary, the natives being able 

 to strip the water-softened bark off with their hands just as easily 

 and quickly as they could by using the tool. This emphasizes 

 anew the fact often stated that only very simple machines or 

 appliances are available in the jungle, and also that the native 

 methods are often the most practical, however crude they may 

 look at first sight. The "root rubber" referred to is of the class 

 obtained from such plants as Landolfihia Tholtonii, the rubber 

 containing parts of which exist wholly underground. 



The feature of De Indischc Mercuur (Amsterdam) appearing 

 regularly under the heading "Rubber Scraps" and over the sig- 

 nature of Heer A. H. Berkhout, late conservator of forests for 

 Java and now resident at Wageningen, Holland, is a capital 

 summary, in brief, of current progress in rubber interests. 



