Ai'Kii. I, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



249 



an aggressive business policy. During the two years referred 

 to more than $350,000 has been spent for new machinery and 

 equipment, and it is proposed to expend $200,000 to $250,000 

 this year in further extending the plant. The report referred 

 in complimentary terms to the work done by Mr. D. Lome 

 McGibbon, the general manager, under whose direction the 

 company had shown such good progress. The board and the 

 officers were rt elected : Sir H. Montagu Allan, president ; J. B. 

 Learmont, vice president ; Charles F. Smith, Lieutenant Colonel 

 F. C. Henshaw, H.Markland Molson, Lieutenant Colonel Hector 

 Prevost, Hugh A. Allan, .Andrew A. Allan, and Alfred Pidding- 

 ton. E. Alex. Wright was reelected secretary-treasurer, and Mr. 

 McGibbon general manager. 



PERSONAL MENTION. 



Ttu'. Editor of The fNDiA Ruuhkk World is in receipt of 

 a beautiful album of photographs showing rubber tapping, co- 

 agulating, grading, and handling along the Amazon. The 

 donor is Dr. Alberto Pirelli, of the important firm of Pirelli iS: 

 Co. (Milan, Italy), who has just returned from a trip up the 

 Amazon. 



= Mr. Richard H. Pease, manager of the Pacific coast busi- 

 ness o( the Goodyear Rubber Co. (New York), together with 

 Mr. R. H. Pease, Jr., has lately been on a visit to the East. 



= Mr. Lester Leland, second vice president of the United 

 States Rubber Co. is back from his Mediterranean trip, in 

 which he took in the Nile, going as far as the first cataract. 



= Mr. D. N. Graves, of the Mutual Rubber Production Co. 

 No. I (Boston), has just returned from a visit to their Mexican 

 plantation, and reports excellent progress. 



— Mr. F. H. Appleton, of F. H. Appleton »% Sons, rubber re- 

 claimers (Boston), has just returned from a trip to Bermuda. 



= Mr. E. A. Saunders, of the Mishawaka Woolen Manufact- 

 uring Co. (Mishawaka, Indiana), is spending a short time on 

 the Pacific coast, to return early in April. 



= (Juite a party of men interested in the rubber business 

 sailed for Europe on the Lucania on March 25. Among them 

 were Messrs. Arthur W. Stedman, of George A. Alden Co., 

 Boston ; William Symington, of Alden, Symington & Co., Lon- 

 don ; the Hon. L. D. Apsley, of the Apsley Rubber Co., Hud- 

 son, Mass., and F. C. Hood, of the Hood Rubber Co., Boston. 



= Mr. Le Baron C. Colt, manager of the National India Rub- 

 ber Co., celebrated his birthday anniversary at his home (Bris- 

 tol, Rhode Island) on February 27, with a dinner at which the 

 guests were Judge Le Baron B. Colt, of the United States court, 

 and his family ; Colonel Samuel Pomeroy Colt, his uncle; Mrs. 

 Converse, wife of Rear Admiral George A. Converse, U. s. N., 

 mother of Mrs. Le B. C. Colt; and Erskine M. Phelps, of 

 Chicago. 



= Mr. Lewis C. Warner, superintendent of the Beacon Falls 

 Rubber Shoe Co., sailed from New York on March 17, for Nas- 

 sau, where he expects to remain for several weeks. 



= Mr. Isaac Crocker, president of the Hope Rubber Co. 

 (Providence, Rhode Island) and the allied rubber goods jobbing 

 houses in Massachusetts, has returned from a five week's tiip 

 to Jamaica, on which he was accompanied by Mrs. Crocker. 



= The members of the Rubber Shoe Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion of Canada, at the conclusion of their meeting in Toronto a 

 month ago to revise lists for this year, were entertained at din- 

 ner by Mr. Charles N. Candee, secretary of the Gutta Percha 

 and Rubber Manufacturing Co. of Toronto, Limited. 



= Mr. H. A. Howe, of the Quaker City Rubber Co. (Phila- 

 delphia), was the guest on the evening of February 14 of the 

 Newburyport (Mass.) Association, Stationary Engineers, be- 

 fo're whom he lectured on " Friction of Machinery." After the 

 lecture a supper was served. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT SHEET. 



CUT sheet, or "patent gum," which is very largely used 

 throughout Europe, is comparatively unknown in the 

 United States, only two concerns making it, and that in a very 

 small way. In its manufacture only the best dry Pard rubber 

 is used, the first process being that of mastication. It comes 

 out of the masticator in a " pig " or roll, and three of these are 

 put on end in a hydraulic press 22 inches in diameter. Run- 

 ning through the middle of the press, between the pigs, is a 

 round iron mandrel which fits on the ram of the press. This 

 is for the purpose of centering the roll. 



After 40 hours' pressure cold, a block of rubber 40 inches by 

 22 inches is formed. This is forced out by hydraulic pressure, 

 the mandrel also being forced out by a small hydraulic ram. A 

 square mandrel is then forced through the middle of the cylin- 

 der, and the mass is placed in a vulcanizer and boiled in water 

 24 hours to shrink it. In order to keep the cylinder in form it 

 is, before going into the vulcanizer, placed in a cylindrical shell 

 made oi wrought iron and in two parts. It is very strong, and 

 is fastened together with bolts. 



During the early stages of the shrinking process the rubber 

 expanding under heat sometimes breaks the shell all to pieces. 

 After the shrinking, the square mandrel is forced out again and 

 the block is put in a refrigerator, where it is kept from six weeks 

 to two months at a temperature which gradually freezes it 

 throughout. Where much of this work is done the refrigerator is 

 a large one, the blocks are all carefully numbered, and one man- 

 ufacturer keeps as much as 20,000 pounds always in stock. The 

 refrigerator is opened once a day to take out stock and to re- 

 plenish it. When the block is thoroughly frozen it comes out 

 as hard as granite, has another square mandrel forced into it, 

 and is put in a cutting lathe. This lathe is an exceedingly com- 

 plicated mechanism, with almost as many parts as a watch, and 

 capable of the finest adjustment. It is fitted with two cones, 

 giving it an ideal variable speed device, the cutting knife being 

 a long, straight blade that vibrates at the rate of 2000 vibrations 

 a minute. 



A chemical solution is used to keep the knife cool and help 

 it to cut. The cutting machine is arranged to cut some 20 dif- 

 ferent thickness or counts, running from one to twenty, although 

 from five to fourteen are the marketable sizes. The sheet is 

 sold in rolls, 55 pounds each, and finds a very large market for 

 the manufacture of acid cured goods, such as toy balloons and 

 the like. 



A SPECIAL committee has been appointed by the city gov- 

 ernments of Maiden and Melrose, Massachusetts, to consider 

 the question of accepting the park which has been offered to 

 the two cities by the family of the late Hon. Elisha S. Converse. 

 The special purpose of the committee is to negotiate for a 

 modification of the terms governing the gift. 



Rubber Scrap Prices, 



New York, quotations — prices paid by consumers for carload 

 lots, in cents per pound — show a slight decline since our 

 last report, as follows: 



Old Rubber Boots and Shoes— Domestic s^ @ sJi 



Do —Foreign 5}i@5'A 



Pneumatic Bicycle Tires 4X@ 4J^ 



Solid Rubber Wagon and Carriage Tires 6 



White Trimmed Rubber. SJ^ @ 83^ 



Heavy Black Rubber ... 4 



Air Brake Hose 2]^ @ 2% 



Fire and Large Hose 2 @2^ 



Garden Hose 1% @ Iji 



Matting % & 1 



