294 



THE INDIA RUBBER "WORLD 



[.U> 



1905. 



MR. JOHN H. FLINT. 



MR. GEORGE E. HEYI. DIA. 



THE new president of the New England Rubber Club, Mr. 

 John H. Flint, in addition to being a wealthy and able 

 rubber manufacturer, is in everything a typical New Englander. 

 As treasurer of the Tyer Rubber Co., most of his time is spent 

 in the old college town of Andover, where the company's works 

 are situated. To be sure, like other Massachusetts business 



men, he is in love 

 with the " North 

 shore," where he 

 has a fine summer 

 cottage, and where 

 he is able to in- 

 dulge his passion 

 for fishing. But 

 for eight months 

 of the year one is 

 sure to find him in 

 the town of his 

 birth, where he 

 takes an active in- 

 terest in all that 

 appertains to its 

 welfare or to that 

 of the company of 

 which he is treas- 

 urer. He has been 

 in turn town treas- 

 urer, chairman of 

 the board of selectmen, chairman of the public works board, 

 and is to-day president of the Andover Savings Bank, one of 

 the strongest institutions in the state of Massachusetts, as 

 well as director in various banks and other financial institutions. 

 Personally Mr. Flint is one of the most unassuming men in the 

 world. Absolutely without pretense of any kind, sincere, 

 straightforward, a firm friend, very much of a philosopher, 

 with a goodly share of humor, he is very popular wherever he 

 is known. For a New England club no better head could be 

 chosen than this same sane, shrewd New England Yankee. 



COMPRESSED AIR FOR PILE DRIVING. 



AN application of power not involving the use of pneumatic 

 tools properly so called, but devices bearing a relation to 

 them, is the modern automatic steam pile driver, in which the 

 machinery is driven through strong rubber hose. In recent 

 years these have come into wide use with the result of render- 

 ing more effective work and in less time, and at less cost, than 

 by the old method of pile driving. Steam pile hammers of 

 this type used for foundations, docks, and piers, and other 

 classes of heavy work, have been made as heavy as 10.000 

 pounds, and 12 feet inlength.and a normal stroke of 42 inches. 

 The hammer most extensively used in railroad work weighs 

 6500 pounds, with a stroke of 3 feet. The smallest hammer of 

 this general type has lately been provided especially for the 

 purpose of driving fish stakes for pound nets alongshore. This 

 hammer weighs but 1350 pounds, with a normal stroke of 24 

 inches. While contractors were driving piles for the Louis- 

 ville and Nashville railroad at Pensacola, Florida. 50 minutes' 

 time was required to drive with a drop hammer a pile 75 feet 

 in length, there being utilized 120 blows from the top of 75 foot 

 leaders. The next pile, the same length, and located but 3 feet 

 from the one mentioned, was driven to the same depth by a 

 steam hammer which delivered 130 blows in 30 seconds. 



RECENTLY a well known India-rubber expert from Europe 

 has become a resident in the United States, his plan be- 

 ing to open a consulting laboratory and do the same sort of 

 work in India-rubber and Gutta-percha that he prosecuted so 

 successfully in Great Britain. This gentleman is Mr. George 

 E. Heyl- Dia, and as a beginning in his new field he has accept- 

 ed a position as 

 consult ing en- 

 gineer for one of 

 the most impor- 

 tant insulated wire 

 and cable com- 

 panies in Ameri- 

 ca ; he is also do- 

 ing some special 

 work for rubber 

 companies in 

 other lines. 



G. E. Heyl-Dia 

 is a graduate of 

 the University of 

 Berlin, where he 

 was a member of 

 the philosophical 

 faculty for three 

 years. He then 

 devoted much 

 time and attent- 

 ion to the manufacture of cable insulations, and was the inven- 

 tor of an insulation called " Heylite," largely used in Germany 

 by cable manufacturers. Following a call to England in 18S9 90 

 he introduced into that country the well known "Diatrine " insu- 

 lations, for electric cables, and later on accepted the position of 

 managing engineer and chief chemist at Messrs. W. T. Glover & 

 Co.'s works at Salford, Manchester, reconstructing their hy- 

 draulic lead covering department, and superintending the mak- 

 ing of rubber compounds generally. Messrs. Glover acquired 

 many of Mr. Heyl-Dia's patents, which they are working still. 



Mr. Heyl-Dia then founded the St. Helens Cable Co. firm of 

 Warrington and St. Helens, with a capital of $2,000,000 and 

 employing about 1000 men, and acted as chief engineer and as 

 managing director jointly with Mr. Glover, who was however 

 practically active at the company's steel rope and copper works 

 at St. Helens. Mr. Heyl-Dia constructed the whole of this 

 company's rubber and cable plant, introducing " Dialite," 

 which is used in the mechanical rubber department, forming 

 an important part of the company's business. After four years 

 of strenuous work and responsibility Mr. Heyl-Dia handed the 

 management over to a newly appointed board, devoting him- 

 self principally to the scientific-practical branch of consulting 

 engineering in connection with India-rubber, reclaimed rub- 

 bers, and cables. 



Mr. Heyl-Dia was also the originator of the " Dialine " Co., 

 of Leyland, England, one of the most successful rubber reclaim- 

 ing works in England, which is now presided over by Mr. J. E. 

 Baxter, of the Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co. It is from 

 the " Dia" inventions that Mr. Heyl has adopted the name of 

 Dia, which has become very familiar to the rubber trade. It 

 may be added that he has introduced with success valuable 

 processes in the manufacture of rubber, utilizing some hitherto 

 useless waste products, and has also demonstrated commer- 

 cially a process for the improvement of the quality of re- 

 claimed rubbers. 



