260 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1909. 



returned from his trip among the factories in the East where 

 he engaged in the selection of some choice Hnes, and on his 

 return he became identified with the Eccles & Smith Gd., who have 

 taken in Mr. Grant for the purpose of opening up their new me- 

 chanical rubber goods department. The two principal lines he 

 is starting with are the New Jersey Car Spring and Rubber 

 Co., of Jersey City, of which they have the agency on the coast, 

 north of Bakersfield, California, and interlocking tiling of the 

 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., of Akron. Mr. Grant 

 and Mr. George Sweeney will do the "hustling" for the new 

 department. The Smith & Eccles Co. have branches in Los 

 Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, and are figuring on put- 

 ting in another at Seattle 



Mr. J. J. Fields, Jr., president of the New Jersey Car Spring 

 and Rubber Co., is now visiting on the coast, spending some time 

 at Paso Robles Hot Springs, and coming on to San Francisco 

 shortly. 



The Bowers Rubber Works have been turning out a large 

 quantity of the new hollow edge conveyor belt, for which a 

 patent has been secured by Brooks & Bateman, of San Fran- 

 cisco. The edges of the conveyor belts are turned and molded,' 

 so that there is a large hollow tube on each edge, the tank being 

 even with the back of the belt and coming up on the upper side so 

 that the belt forms a trough. It has the advantage of being able 

 to be run flat, without bending like the ordinary conveyor belt, 

 and the edges being hollow, they do not break on the turn. They 

 are also making a concentrator belt with the hollow edge. T. 

 R. Brooks, of the latter firm, who is also manager of the mining 

 department of the Risdon Iron Works, will make a trip east 

 this spring with his new belt. 



Messrs. R. H. Pease, Sr., and R. H. Pease, Jr., president and 

 treasurer of the Goodyear Rubber Co., are now making their 

 usual spring trip through the eastern states. Mr. Runyan, the 

 secretary, reports that business is beginning to pick up, the 

 heavy rains having started an increased prosperity for both 

 the mining and agricultural industries. 



Francis A. Hardy, president of The Diamond Rubber Co., of 

 Akron, is now visiting at Del Monte, California, and will come 

 on to the company's branch at San Francisco. He is ac- 

 companied by W. B. Miller, secretary of the company, and on 

 the arrival of Mr. Miller it is probable that the retail branch 

 store of this firm on Golden Gate avenue will have its per- 

 manent location selected. C. E. Mathewson, Pacific coast man- 

 ager, has returned from Seattle, Wash., where he opened a 

 branch store for the company. 



Mr. John H. Kelly, of the Republic Rubber Co., accompanied 

 by Mr. Hendrie, of their Denver branch, has just paid a visit 

 to the western representatives, the Phoeni.x Rubber Co. He 

 was well impressed with the conditions generally and with the 

 way his tires are gaining a foothold. 



Mr. L. L. Torrey, manager of the Pennsylvania Rubber Co.'s 

 local branch, reports that business is 50 per cent, better this 

 month than it was last year at this time, and that collections 

 are very fair. 



William J. Gorham, president of the Gorham Rubber Co., is 

 now down in Los Angeles, where his firm has a branch store, 

 which is reported as doing the bigest automobile tire busi- 

 ness it has ever known. Mr. Parish, of San Francisco, also 

 spent a few weeks in Los Angeles. This firm is doing a big 

 business in its fire department, having obtained lately a $25,000 

 order from the city of San Diego; another for a motor chem- 

 ical engine for Pasadena ; good fire hose orders from Marsli- 

 field and Bandon, Oregon, and so on along the coast. 



ATLANTIC CABLE BUSINESS. 



RxjBBER IN Suspenders. — In the latest styles of men's suspend- 

 ers, the New York Sun hears, there is less rubber than formerly 

 The elastic is confined to the back straps. The suspenders com- 

 posed largely of elastic have been found to stretch and get out 

 of shape largely from the heat of the body. 



'T'HE annual report of The Mackay Companies for the year 

 •*• ended February i, 1909, shows smaller earnings, but on 

 account of the more economical operation the customary divi- 

 dends have been declared. The corporation owns all or part of 

 the stock of 102 cable, telegraph, and telephone companies in 

 America and Europe, including the entire capital of The Com- 

 mercial Cable Co. and the Postal Telegraph system. The income 

 for ,1908, described as "from investments in other companies," 

 was $3,685,761.91. The dividends — 4 per cent, on both preferred 

 and common shares — aggregate $3,655,216. The lessened income 

 is attributed to the general business depression during part 

 of the year, and the interruption of submarine cables of The 

 Commercial Cable Co. by trawlers, the prevention of -which 

 troubles is now being studied by a British government com- 

 mission. 



In view of a demand in some quarters that the transatlantic 

 cable rate be reduced below 25 cents a word, the present figure, 

 George Gray Ward, vice president and general manager of The 

 Commercial Cable Co., has issued a statement to the effect that 

 the company's business could not be conducted at lower rates 

 than are now charged. It is stated in his report that 98 per cent 

 of the cable messages now transmitted are in cipher code, and it 

 is estimated that each code word represents on an average 20 

 plain vi'ords, so that cablegrams in code bring the rate down to 

 less than 2 cents a word for the translated message. Another 

 point made is that because of the difference in time between 

 Europe and America the business hours common to both coun- 

 tries are only a small part of the day. But for the necessity of 

 transmitting so much business within three or four hours each 

 day Mr. Ward says that one-half of the present number of At- 

 lantic cables would be sufficient to carry all the traffic now 

 offered. Mr. Ward says : "The Atlantic cable rate is the lowest 

 cable ra;te in the world except where a government pays the 

 deficit by taxes." 



THE GERMAN CABLE TO BRAZIL. 



An important amount of gutta-percha will be required for 

 the new cable now building in Germany to connect that 

 country with Brazil. The Brazilian government has granted a 

 concession to the Felten & Guillaume-Lahmeyer-Werke Actien- 

 gesellschaft, of Miilheim on Rhine, to lay a cable from either 

 Pernambuco or Maceio, in Brazil, to Teneriffe island, in connec- 

 tion with which arrangements are to be made with the South 

 American Cable Co. to the west coast of Africa, the cable to 

 Brazil to be in operation within three years from October 27, 

 1908. For the operation of this cable there has been formed at 

 Cologne, Germany, the Deutsch Sudamerikanische Telegraphen 

 Gesellschaft with a capital of 4,000,000 marks [^^952,000]. The 

 German government, it is understood, will grant a subsidy to the 

 concern which will guarantee the interest and the amortization 

 of the debentures which it may issue. The cable is to be 

 manufactured by the important company the works of which, at 

 Nordnham on Weser, were described in The India Rubber 

 World January i, 1908 (page 109). A fact which make^ this 

 information of interest to the trade in general is the connection 

 with the German cable interest of Herr Franz Clouth, the im- 

 portant rubber manufacturer of Cologne. 



PBOGHESS IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



About 70 British-owned ocean going steamers are now 

 equipped for wireless telegraphy, and the Board of Trade is 

 reported to be about to recommend legislation requiring all 

 British-owned ships to be so equipped. The Brazilian govern- 

 ment is reported to have ordered four land stations to be equipped 

 with the Marconi system, in the neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. 

 The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamers have 17 Marconi installa- 

 tions at work. 



