314 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1909. 



to the dictionary the Maltese cross is a cross with eight points, 



and is worn by the Knights of Malta. Looking at the Maltese 



crosses depicted in the advertisements of the firms mentioned, it 



is noticeable that they vary considerably from one another, and 



I don't see how any one could confuse the respective goods 



when the illustrations as well as the title Maltese cross are used. 



The article on the history of the North British Rubber Co., 



Limited, which appeared in the April number of The India 



Rubber World (page 237), has been 



NORTH BaiTlSH j.gj^jj ^jji^ j^Q lifjlg interest in British 



HUBBEE 00. , • , Ti 1 T u n J 



trade circles. Perhaps I may be allowed 

 to enlarge somewhat upon one of the references. Among the 

 American works superintendents at Edinburgh, at various times, 

 the name of "Mr. Stevey" is mentioned. Evidently this is a mis- 

 print for "Storey." There was a Mr. Robert Storey there for a 

 short time about i860. He came from New Haven, Connecticut, 

 where he had been an assistant to Lewis Elliott, so long the 

 superintendent of L. Candee & Co., the rubber footwear manu- 

 facturers. Mr. Storey's stay in Edinburgh was brief, and he 

 passed on to the then newly established Russian-American India- 

 Rubber Co., at St. Petersburg, where he remained for some time 

 as works manager. Returning to England he joined the Liver- 

 pool Rubber Co., Limited, as manager, from which position he 

 retired about 1873; afterward he continued a director in the 

 company until his death in March, 1892, at Frankfort-on-the ■ 

 Main, Germany, at the ripe age of 80 years. At the time of his 

 death he is understood to have held a considerable financial 

 interest in both the Russian- American and the Liverpool Rubber 

 companies. 



Whether the increasing use in recent years of reclaimed rub- 

 ber has had much effect upon the production and sale of oil 

 substitutes is a matter in which it is 

 SUBSTITUTE. ^ difficult to get reliable informa- 



TRADE NOTES. . ^ . ,, ■ j ,, , 



tion. It IS generally recognized that 

 owing to competition there is very little profit at the present day 

 for the substitute manufacturer. Despite this, new firms con- 

 tinue to enter the field. One of the most recent of these is the 

 Rubber Substitute Co., proprietors Central Works, Oxford 

 street, Hull. This town ranks with Marseilles as a center of 

 the oil seed crushing industry, and no doubt the making of sub- 

 stitutes by firms connected with seed oil business is associated 

 with advantages not obtainable elsewhere. 



Another new firm in the line is T. Hallas & Co., of Cinder- 

 hill Mill, Halifax road, Todmorden. In this case machinery has 

 also been installed for the production of reclaimed rubber. 



A few months ago I noticed the fact that G. W. Laughton & 

 Co., Limited, substitute and reclaimed rubber manufacturers of 

 Clayton, Manchester, had opened a branch works at Steinklamm, 

 near Vienna. One of the main reasons for this step was the 

 avoidance of the heavy duties they have had to pay on their ex- 

 ports to Austria. The rubber manufacture is being taken up 

 to a certain extent at the new works, and Mr. Dawson, formerly 

 of Charles Macintosh & Co., Limited, and the W. T. Henley's 

 Telegraph Works Co., has recently gone out to superintend the 

 operation. 



William Rowley & Co., Limited, of Manchester, although con- 

 tinuing their old established business in substitutes and re- 

 claimed rubber, have a special and important department as 

 dealers in second-hand rubber machinery. This branch may or 

 may not be very profitable, but it is practically a monopoly of 

 the firm, and so free from the increasing competition in the 

 substitute line. 



WHAT GIVES QUALITY TO RUBBER. 



"Vulcanization Tests in Plantation Rubbers," by Clayton Beadle 

 and H. P. Stevens. According to The Times, they described cer- 

 tain chemical and physical tests made on samples of rubber from 

 plantation block, crepe and biscuit from young and old trees, 

 and also a specimen of fine hard Para rubber. These experi- 

 ments were made on the raw rubber, and on this material vul- 

 canized either with sulphur only or with sulphur and mineral 

 matter. These experiments, together with viscosity tests on raw 

 and manufactured rubber, lead to the conclusion that the method 

 employed in coagulating and treating the latex has a greater 

 influence on Variations in the quality of plantation rubber than 

 any difference in the ages of the tree. 



PRESIDENT TAFT'S SUMMER COTTAGE. 



THE President of the United States, following the example 

 of his predecessors, will not remain in Washington during 

 the hot months, and there has been much speculation as to where 

 the nation's "summer capital" would be located under the new 

 administration. Mr. Taft has settled the matter by leasing "Stet- 

 son cottage," at Beverly, Massachusetts, which is shown in an 



"Stetson Cottage," Leased by President Taft. 

 [At Burgess Point, Beverly, Massachusetts. Owned by Mr. Robert D. 



Evans.] 



accompanying illustration. It is the property of Robert Dawson 

 Evans, of Boston, the beginning of whose fortune were made 

 in rubber, and who was sometime president of the United States 

 Rubber Co. Beverly is situated in an inlet of the Atlantic, 3 

 miles north of Salem, and has a population, exclusive of summer 

 residents, of about 15,000. The estate which Mr. Taft has 

 chosen is known as one of the beauty spots along the shore. The 

 "Dawson cottage," at Beverly, also belongs to Mr. Evans, and is 

 his summer residence. The cottage which President Taft is 

 taking has been occupied during recent summers by Costello C. 

 Converse, vice-president of the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. and a 

 director in the United States Rubber Co. 



Mr. Evans of late has been interested largely in copper, par- 

 ticularly as one time president and since a director in and largest 

 shareholder of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining 

 Co., operating in Utah. He was mentioned in the newspapers 

 recently as having received $5,000,000 in cash for shares held in 

 this company and sold to a fellow director. 



AT a meeting of the London section of the Society of Chem- 

 ical Industry, held on May 3, Dr. J. Lewkowitsch being 

 in the chair, among the papers read and discussed was one on 



The United States cable ship Burnside, lately sent to dis- 

 cover the cause of the interruption of the cable service between 

 Valdez and Sitka, Alaska, found that it was due to a whale 

 becoming tangled in the cable. More than 200 feet of cable 

 was twisted into a knot, but the cable did not part. 



