126 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1905. 



together and as it sinks to the bottom and is taken out the crude rubber 

 will be found to be in roll shaped pieces, sometimes an inch or more in 

 diameter and from 3 to 5 inches in length. 



The Salida paper further says that " the cultivation of and 

 the extraction of rubber from the Colorado rubber weed are 

 two subjects which are and have been for months past fore- 

 most in the mind of scientists and rubber dealers all over the 

 world. - - - There is no doubt that the state has given birth 

 to a new industry which may excel any other interest." 



And Mr. Kennedy, above mentioned, writes to The India 

 Rubber World : 



We believe a new industry has been born. Everything has a begin- 

 ning, all things were once small, all things start from tiny initial point. 

 Had we " set down " on new things during the past, we would to-day 

 be walking around killing our game with a club and wearing breech 

 clouts. 



The Denver iVeivs says of the Colorado rubber district : " Sa- 

 lida is the most natural center for this territory, and it is the 

 desire of the board of trade to make it a manufacturing center 

 for the rubber industry. - - - The board has now in its posses- 

 sion the only available seed in the world." In a later issue the 

 same journal says : " It has been demonstrated that there are 

 mills which can produce a very fine quality of the rubber and 



caused death. Mr. Brownell had some of the substance exam- 

 ined by a Denver chemist, who said it was rubber." 



* » * 



In response to many inquiries received by The India Rub- 

 ber World as to the product of the plant above referred to, it 

 may be said here that the specimen photographed for the ac- 

 companying illustration would appear to be equally fitted to 

 yield rubber or gooseberry wine or counterfeit money. The 

 Editor has not yet found an opportunity, however, to test its 

 rubber properties, either by chewing it as an antidote to thirst, 

 on a western prairie, or by undergoing the experience of the 

 dying lamb shown in the second illustration herewith. 



THE HORN COMB INDUSTRY. 



^' 'ii/i' MW*iiVi'\ lilt win'a 



sc; 



f '■& 





THE TRUE DISCOVERER OF COLORADO RUBBER. 

 [The Inquisitive Lamb tliat Sacrificed its Life in Investigating its Properties.] 



there is a standing oflfer from the Salida board of trade of 70 

 cents to $1 for every pound of rubber produced from the 

 plant." 



» * • 



The true story of the discovery of rubber in Colorado is re- 

 lated at length in an article signed by C. F. Carter and " syndi- 

 cated" to a number of newspapers, Including the Brooklyn Daily 

 Eagle, v/h\ch published it on December 18 last. The salient 

 feature of Mr. Carter's article is the following paragraph, in 

 connection with which we reproduce from the Daily Eagle a. 

 very Informing Illustration of the ill-fated lamb: 



" The plant Is the first green thing to be found in the spring, 

 and for that reason is eaten up by sheep when they are permit- 

 ted to get at it. But the sheep men found that their sheep 

 grew weak and emaciated and finally died after feeding on rab- 

 bit weed. It never occurred to any one to ascertain the man- 

 ner in which the weed produced the fatal efTect until Myron G. 

 Brownell, a Denver real estate man, visited a friend engaged in 

 the sheep business near Buena V'ista. The friend had a valu- 

 able ram that had carelessly been permitted to browse on rab- 

 bit weed, and a couple of weeks later died with the usual symp- 

 toms. At Mr. Brownell's suggestion a post mortem was held on 

 the ram. The stomach was found to be filled with pellets of a 

 black gum. This gum was perfectly indigestible, and so had 



'T^O the Editor of The India Rubber World : Referring 



•^ to the article In your December i Issue (page 100), on 

 "An Old Comb Factory Closed," may add that, according to 

 Collin's " History of Newbury," the manufacture of combs was 

 established in Newbury (now West Newbury) by Enoch Noyes, 

 in 1759. Mr. Somerby N. Noyes, whose death you reported, 

 sustained the same relation to Enoch Noyes as ourselves— great 

 grandsons. His mother and our father were sister and brother. 



David E. and William, grandsons of Enoch, made many im- 

 portant improvements in machinery for making horn combs. 

 The firm of S. C. Noyes & Co., composed of S. C. Noyes, Hay- 

 den Brown, William Noyes, and S. N. Noyes, in 1859, were the 

 first to make a success of making rubber fine tooth combs, 

 William Noyes taking out a patent in that year for a machine 

 for sawing the teeth in fine combs. 



Somerby N. Noyes was the only survivor of the firm of S. C. 

 Noyes & Co., and he sold out his business to us before his 

 death — on October 22, 1904 — the machinery to be delivered af- 

 ter he had finished up the stock In process, which he did the 

 week before his death. 



The combs made by Mr. Xoyes and ourselves are all made 

 from steer horns, which come largely from South America, via 

 Europe. There are to-day only five factories that we know of 

 that are making horn combs: Jacob W. Walton Sons, Phila- 

 delphia; Ddvid H. Graham, Lancaster. Pennsylvania ; Joseph 

 P. Noyes & Co., Bmghamton, New York ; and G. W. Richard- 

 son Co., and ourselves in this city. 



In regard to the importance of the horn comb trade to-day, 

 as compared to Its past importance, we would say that, in our 

 opinion, while years ago there were a good many places where 

 horn combs were made, the larger part of them were small, al- 

 though we think the total number of dressing combs made was 

 bigger than to day. In Leominster, Massachusetts, where horn 

 was formerly used for fancy combs worn by the ladies, celluloid 

 has taken the place of horn, although the Leominster Directory 

 gives 22 workers of horn, which really means makers of hair 

 pins, which take practically all the horns that are produced in 

 this country. The Introduction of rubber as a material for 

 combs has had the effect to make the price of combs cheaper. 

 The use of horn for hair pins, together with the dehorning of a 

 large per cent, of cattle in the West, has made the price of horn 

 very high. 



Regarding the comb makers' trust, which some of the news- 

 papers mentioned the late Mr. Noyes as having been the head 

 of, we know nothing of any such organization. Yours very truly, 



w. H. NOVES & bro. CO., 



M. B. Noyes. Secretary. 

 Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 6, 1904. 



Samuel B. Thorp, a member of the firm of W. H. Noyes & 

 Bro. Co. since 1887, died at his home in New York on Decem- 

 ber 8, aged 59 years. 



