JrxE I, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



335 



RUBBER RECLAIMING AT MISHAWAKA. 



A NEW rubber reclaiming plant on an important scale has been 

 established at Mishawaka, Indiana, and is now in operation. It 

 has been constructed by and is the property of the Rubber Re- 

 generating Co., who have been operating for some years past 

 in Chicago, under the presidency of Raymond Beach Price, who 

 is the inventor and patentee of various processes and appliances 

 for reclaiming rubber. The new plant at Mishawaka consists of 

 a main building of concrete, brick, and iron, 340 X 100 feet, and 

 40 feet high. Parallel with it is a warehouse connected with the 

 factory by tunnel, the two buildings being separated by double 

 sw'itch track. The management advises The Indi.\ Rl'bber 

 W'oRi.n : "This plant operates under several different processes 

 and we believe it to be the most efficient reclaiming plant ever 

 erected. Our Chicago plant is still operating at full capacity, 

 24 hours a day, and it is uncertain how long we will continue to 

 operate it." At Mishawaka the company are using water power 

 at a small percentage, it is stated, of the cost of steam in Chicago. 



CONVERSE RUBBER SHOE CO. 



At the starting of work at the factory of the Converse Rubber 

 Shoe Co., the new company located at Maiden, Massachusetts 

 [see The India Rubber World. May i, 1909 — page 298]. There 



the Superior Rubber Manufacturing Co., but for several years 

 past idle. The new company purpose making bicycle and auto- 

 mobile tires, and mechanical and molded goods. Some remodel- 

 ing of the building will be necessary ; and additional machinery 

 is being put in place. The officers are : J. H. Weld, president ; 

 Dr. S. H. Sturgeon, vice-president; H. F. Siegrist, secretary and 

 treasurer. William E. Sherbondy, who will be superintendent 

 of the works, is a practical rubber man, with experience for some 

 years with important companies in this industry. The offices of 

 the company will be in .^kron, Ohio — 59 Central Office building. 



RECLAIMED RUBBER AND THE TARIFF. 



SiNiE the discussion of the tariff has been taken up at Wash- 

 ington there have been developments of special interest to the 

 rubber reclaiming industry, and incidentally to all users of 

 reclaimed rubber in the United States. Recently, as reported in 

 The Indi.\ Rubber World, an importation of reclaimed rubber 

 was admitted free through the New York custom house, as a raw 

 material. This is stated to have been learned with great interest 

 in Russia, in which country the price of old shoes at once ad- 

 vanced, presumably with the idea that the Russian reclaimers had 

 at their command an important new market in America for 

 their products. The Russian conipanies would have in their 



F.-\CT0RV OF THE CONVERSE RUBBER ShOE Co. 



was some ceremony, including the raising of a flag presented by 

 Councilman Owen P. Doonan, of Maiden, while the employes 

 sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America." Afterward 

 three cheers were given for the United States flag and for the 

 new company. It is stated that the first order made out complete 

 on Converse Rubber Shoe Co. order blanks was credited to I. P. 

 Wells, their western Massachusetts salesman. The new com- 

 pany will be represented at their Boston oflSce — No. 50 High 

 -treet — by Edward B. Pearson, originally with Converse & 

 Pike (Mr. Marquis M. Converse, the president of the new com- 

 pany, was the head of this company), and later matiager and 

 treasurer of the Tremont Rubber Co., of Boston. 



"GALVANIZED RUBBER ROOFING." 



Wh.\t is called ""Gahaiiizcd KuIjIht Ki>iiling" i- made of long 

 fiber wool felt, saturated with a mineral rubber composition, 

 after which the material is put through a bath of the same com- 

 position, which thoroughly coats both sides. The sheets are 

 then run between heavy iron rolls, which puts on a surface 

 finish referred to as being of a particularly durable character. 

 This roofing is described as being hard elastic, non-absorbent, 

 and heat proof, and to be used very largely. It is made by the 

 l-"iir<l M.inufacturing Co. (Chicago). 



NEW COMPANY AT CUYAHOGA FALLS. 



The Falls Rubber Co. is a new corporation under the laws of 

 Ohio, capitalized at $75,000, organized for the purpose of opera- 

 ting the plant at Cuyahoga Falls. Ohio, some time operated by 



power (I) the possibility of buying old shoes more clieaply than 

 the same stock can be bought elsewhere. [There is an export 

 duty on Russian waste rubber sold abroad]; (2) cheap labor; 

 and (3) free entry for reclaimed rubber into the United States. 

 As shown on page 309 of this issue, the Washington authorities 

 have since decided that reclaimed rubber is a manufactured prod- 

 uct, and therefore liable to duty, since which time, it is reported, 

 the price of old shoes in Russia has declined. Reclaimed rubber 

 has not been specified in the tariff schedules hitherto, however, 

 and in order to clarify the situation the Hon. Elihu Root, one 

 of the United States senators for New York, has offered an 

 amendment to the pending tariff bill, the object of which is to 

 include reclaimed rubber among manufactures of india-rubber, 

 which arc dutiable. 



In support of the new measure it is pointed out that a duty 

 on imported reclaimed rubber wculd tend to keep open to Ameri- 

 can reclaimers the Russian supply of waste rubber. The exist- 

 ence of such a source in the past often has prevented a "corner" 

 in the American supply, by way of making other material avail- 

 able. The broader the market, of course, the less the opportunity 

 for speculation and the less liable fluctuations in prices of old 

 shoes, and. similarly, in prices of the reclaimed products. Un- 

 doubtedly tlie whole rubber industry is interested in having 

 stable prices for reclaimed rubber, and this, it is urged, is en- 

 couraged through discouraging the importation of reclaimed 

 stock, while admitting raw materials free. Free reclaimed rub- 

 ber, however, would encourage its importation from abroad and 

 restrict the supplies available of foreign waste rubber 



