January i, 1905] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



129 



FACTORY OF THE COMBINATION RUBBER MANUFACTURING CO. (BLOIMFIELD. N. J.) 



THE NEW COMBINATION RUBBER COMPANY. 



THE Combination Rubber Manufacturing Co. (Bloomfield, 

 New Jersey) are operating one of the historic factories 

 of the United States. It was started by John Greacen, one of 

 the pioneers of the business. For many years, although the 

 factory buildings were old fashioned and the machinery hardly 

 up to date, a safe and profitable business was carried on, the 

 firm name being the Combination Roll and Rubber Co. Later 

 the Greacen heirs sold their interests and the Combination 

 Belting and Packing Co. was incorporated, when a fine new 

 factory was erected and equipped with up to date machinery, 

 all of which is inherited by the present company, The Combi- 

 nation Rubber Manufacturing Co. 



The " new factory " is a fine four story brick building of mill 

 construction, 60 X 1 50 feet. The ground floor is in part a store 

 room for rubber and other supplies, the upper stories being 

 used as follows: The second floor for offices, sample room, 

 shipping, etc. ; the third for belting, and the fourth for hose ; 

 while above there is a spacious attic, which has been ad- 

 mirably fitted up as a drying room for crude rubber. 



The belting department is equipped 

 with everything necessary to turn out 

 a full line of rubber belting, including 

 a duck slitter, belt making machine, 

 Singer belt stitcher, a vulcanizer 8x12 

 feet, a Farrell belt press 34 feet by 60 

 inches and so on. In the hose room 

 are a hose making and wrapping ma- 

 chine, a 55 foot vulcanizer tubing ma- 

 chine, etc. 



Most of the heavy machinery is set 

 in the old mill, which adjoins the new 

 one. For a power plant there are three 

 boilers: One 300 HP. Hazleton ; one 

 350 HP. McNeil ; and one 150 HP. Zell 

 safety. The engines are one 175 HP. 

 high speed for the electric lights, and 

 one Allis-ChalmersCorliss of 375 HP. 

 with a 125 HP. auxiliary. There is also 

 100 HP. water power. The plant is well 

 supplied for shipping, being near both 

 the Erie and the D. L. and W. rail- 



PRESIDENT E H. QARCIN 



roads, and receives coal by the D. L. and W. canal, which passes 

 within a few feet of the boiler house. 



The rubber machinery consists of 2 washers, 1 5 mixers, 5 cal- 

 enders, 18 presses, 3 tubing machines, and 5 vulcanizers, in ad- 

 dition to what has been before mentioned. There are also a 

 fully equipped carpenter and machine shop. The factory is 

 fitted with automatic sprinklers, electric lights, freight eleva- 

 tors, and a Sturtevant heating system. 



Edward H. Garcin, the president and general manager, has 

 long been in the rubber business. At the age of 20 — he was 

 born in V'irginia, in 1864 — he became a salesman in the south- 

 ern field for the old Trenton Rubber Co. After a year, during 

 which his capacity was demonstrated, he left this connection to 

 establish at Richmond the jobbing house of Garcin, Moseley & 

 Bohmer. Again he joined the forces of the Trenton concern, 

 first in charge of their entire southern trade, to which was later 

 added the western field and the Pacific coast. In 1895 he was 

 called to Trenton as vice president and general manager of the 

 company, continuing his connection after the reorganization, 

 two years later, as the Trenton Rubber Manufacturing Co., un- 

 til his recent retirement to go to Bloomfield. 



Mr H. L. Hepburn, the vice president 



of the new company, a Cornell gradu- 

 ate, has had but a brief business career, 

 having left an important position with 

 the Western Electric Co., to master the 

 rubber business. Mr. W. Clark Syming- 

 ton is secretary and treasurer. These, 

 together with Mr. R. B. Symington, 

 controller, and Mr. J. W. Clark, treas- 

 urer, of The Spool Cotton Co., are the 

 directors and sole stockholders. 



As will be seen from the above par- 

 tial catalogue this is no small factory, 

 and the constitution of the company is 

 understood to involve ample capital for 

 the carrying out of its plans for the 

 manufacture of mechanical rubber 

 goods. It is fair to state that the loca- 

 tion of the various buildings is most 

 unsatisfactory for the purposes of pho- 

 tography, and that no single picture 

 could give an adequate view of it. 



