NovEMIiER I, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



57 



but the most healthful of tonics may be taken in overdoses. 

 The Diinlop company has struggled vigorously against compe- 

 tition in the past by buying up competitors, such as the Palmer, 

 the Clincher, the VVestwood Rim — but their name is legion ; 

 and, by ordinary market methods, or by amalgamations, it will 

 probably so deal with competitors in the future. That is a mat- 

 ter m which the public may stand aside, so long as it gets 

 served with good articles at reasonable prices, and so long as 

 the competition is home competition ; but there are threats 

 and prospects of foreign competition, now that the protection 

 of the patent is gone, and as that menaces the employment of 

 English workmen, it will not be proper for the English public 

 to stand aside ; it will be its business to see that the Dunlop 

 company— and, of course, its competitors within the kingdom 

 equally— gets protection of another kind ; for our admiration 

 of the Anglo- French entente cannot be carried to the pitch of 

 watching the English tire trade handed over to the French 

 manufacturers. 



THE END OF THE DUNLOP (WELCH) PATENT. 



ON the evening of September 16, at the Hotel Cecil (Lon- 

 don), a company numbering over 400 assembled at din- 

 ner, in response to the invitation of the chairman and directors 

 of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co., Limited. " in honor of the 

 expiry of the Welch patents." Mr. Harvey I^u Cros (the chair- 

 man of the company) presided. 



Mr. Arthur Du Cros, in proposing the toast of " The Guests," 

 said that many of the gentlemen present had helped to elevate 

 the cycle industry to the foremost position among British in- 

 dustries. Although the trade had seen many vicissitudes and 

 many changes, still they might justly be proud or the position 

 to which it had been brought by the energy and ability brought 

 to bear. The success of the Dunlop tire had been due to its re- 

 liability, and in this matter the colonists had materially as- 

 sisted. The English trade had successfully withstood the 

 shock of foreign competition, where other industries had seri- 

 ously suffered. Their foreign friends had thought the British 

 nation was not only slow to move in such matters, but slow to 

 think; but he thought they might now congratulate them- 

 selves on the fact that they had overtaken the long lead that 

 the foreigner had obtained on them in the motor industry, and 

 were to-day racing him neck and neck for the premier posi- 

 tion. Certainly this company had broken all records in regard 

 to all cases connected with patents. This dinner had been 

 given to celebrate the reaching of the end of the first volume 

 of the history of the invention. The possession of a patent 

 was not an unmixed blessing. Ordinary business was suf- 

 ficiently trying; but, having regard to the bitterness and jeal- 

 ousy surrounding a successful invention, they could not view 

 the expiry of a patent with feelings other than those of relief 

 and equanimity. Messrs. Walter Hewitt, Frank Bowden, and 

 G. Vernon Pugh responded to the toast. 



" Our Hosts " was then proposed by Mr. Eadie. Mr. Harvey 

 Du Cros, in responding, said that, while the Welch patent 

 expired that night at 12 o'clock, the Dunlop motor-tire patent 

 would continue for another nine weeks ; but from now the 

 price of automobile tires would be reduced to the amount 

 charged by foreign standard makers. 



The advent of the midnight hour, and .consequent expiry of 

 the Welch patent, was marked by an interesting ceremony. 

 The official document relating to the patent was solemnly con- 

 signed to the flames, amid the strains of Chopin's " Funeral 

 March " and the tolling of a bell in a grandfather's clock, situ- 

 ated behind the presidential chair. Then Mr. Du Cros pro- 



nounced an elegy in the following words : 



" Here lies Welch ; he was saddle or arched shaped ; he rest- 

 ed on a median convexity ; his boundaries were inextensible ; 

 he dies, and yet he lives — no longer for the few but for the use 

 of all. According to Irish custom, this is his wake; these are 

 his ashes. But according to another monumental legend, there 

 arises from these ashes a phoenix. That phoenix is Dunlop, 

 the manufacturer. Welch is dead — Dunlop lives. He, too, is 

 saddle or arch shaped ; his median convexity is the world ; his 

 boundaries are extensible — may they extend. Long live Dun- 

 lop I " (Loud applause.) 



The proceedings were diversified by an agreeable concert. 



RUBBER INTERESTS IN EUROPE. 



GRAND PRIZES hOR THE CONTINENTAL COMPANY. 



THE international jury of awards at the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition at St. Louis awarded two grand prizes to the 

 Continental Caoutchouc- und Guttapercha-Compagnie (Han- 

 over, Germany). The first was for their exhibit of pneumatic 

 tires of the widely known " Continental " pattern, and the sec- 

 ond for their extensive display of balloons (or meteorological 

 purposes and for details of balloon construction. 

 A NEW ENGLISH COMPANY. 

 Kensington Rubber Co., Limited ; registered September 

 26, 1904. Capital, ^1000 in £\ shares. Object, to carry on 

 the business of manufacturers of and dealers in India-rubber 

 materials, goods, wares, and articles of all kinds, including 

 inner tubes and outer rubbers for pneumatic tires for cycles, 

 motor cars, and other vehicles, insertion sheeting, hose and 

 general piping, brake blocks, mats, valves, and washers, etc. 

 No initial public issue. Registered without articles of associa- 

 tion. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Herp. Adam Zinkhan, for many years chief of the shoe de- 

 partment of the Oesterreichisch-Amerikanischen Gummifab- 

 riks A. G. (Wien-Breitensee), has retired from the rubber busi- 

 ness, the first named firm being absorbed on agreement by 

 the Vereinigten Gummiwaren Fabriken Harburg-Wien. Herr 

 Zinkhan has entered, as a partner, the firm Johann Pacher's 

 Nachfolger, Zinkhan & Hiebleitner, machinery and fine tools 

 manufactory, Siebensterngasse, 30, Vienna. 

 GERMANY. 



The directors of Deutsche Gummi- und Guttaperchawaaren- 

 Fabrik, vormals Volpi & Schliiter, Aktiengesellschaft (Berlin), 

 are disposed to make a sale of the property and business. 

 This is a long established factory, engaged in making technical 

 (mechanical 1 rubber goods, to which boots and shoes were 

 added in 1896. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAl^HY ON THE AMAZON. 



ON the steamer Marenhense, which sailed from New York 

 on October 25 for the Amazon, was Mr. R. H. Mardock, 

 concessionaire for wireless telegraphy on the Amazon, and sec- 

 retary to the commission from the state of Amazonas at the 

 St. Louis World's Fair. The concession referred to is to be ex- 

 ploited by the Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Co. 

 [See The India Rubber World, October 1 — page 28], which 

 shipped by the same steamer the necessary material for the in- 

 stallation of two wireless telegraph stations in the state of Para 

 — at Para and Ereves. The material for the other stations re- 

 quired to complete the service to Manaos will be forwarded in due 

 course. A party of experts to install the service also sailed on 

 the Marenhense. 



