58 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1902. 



PLANNING FOR LARGE PROFITS IN TIRES. 



ON September 6 the International Wheel, Tire, and Rubber 

 Co. leased the property of the New Brunswick (N. J.) 

 Tire Co., which, from 1850 to 1896, was employed in the manu- 

 facture of shoes by the New Brunswick Rubber Co. The In- 

 ternational company were incorporated January 15 last, under 

 New Jersey laws, with an authorized capital of $3,000,000, to 

 acquire and work certain tire and wheel patents. Recently 

 efforts have been made to secure capital for the new enterprise, 

 and The India Rubber World is advised by an official of 

 the company : " We hope to be able to start up the factory in 

 a very short time, 

 and have orders 

 enough to keep quite 

 a force of employes 

 at work for some 

 time, and there will 

 be no trouble to get 

 all the orders that we 

 can take care of." 



The principal pat- 

 ent owned by this 

 company is that on 

 the Davis " Common 

 Sense " tire, the in- 

 vention of E. C. 

 Davis and William section of solid tire. 



F. Ellis, of Springfield, Massachusetts. Patents on this lire 

 have been issued in sixteen different countries, including the 

 United States; applications have been made in five other 

 countries, and it is understood that at least four of them 

 have been allowed. The new tire is not a pneumatic tire, as 

 may be seen from the accompanying cuts; it is not required 

 to be inflated ; and is offered as unpuncturable. It is de- 

 scribed as being lighter than any cushion tire, less than half 

 the weight of a solid tire, and about 20 per cent, heavier than 

 a good pneumatic tire, without its rigidity. 



The company plan to make and sell complete wheels, in 

 which are embraced the patent for the Ellis and Davis nipple, 

 by means of which spokes may be replaced without removing 

 the tire ; also the Davis adjustable hub, which " is constructed 

 to fit any axle from J^ inch to i 'I inches in diameter, and can 

 be adjusted to any size within that range inside of three min- 



turer can be undersold and we will still have a profit of loo per cent. 

 It is safe to say that, as soon as the consumers have an opportunity to 

 learn the splendid quality of these wheels, we will have a monopoly of 

 the wheel and tire manufacturing of the world. Our patents are per- 

 fect. No one else can make anything just as good. . . . Our plant 

 will have a total capacity of 4000 wheels a day when the alterations are 

 completed. Running at half our capacity, we can turn out 2000 wheels 

 a day. The market exists for forty times that number of wheels. 



The estimated yearly profit of the new company is $4,080,000, 

 on the basis of 2000 wheels per day, and $150,000 on general 

 rubber goods, making $4,230,000 all told, or 140 per cent, on 

 the total capitalization of the company. " This capacity will 

 be doubled when the improvement and alterations are com- 

 pleted. It will mean 280 per cent, on the par value of the 

 stock each year." 



In order to provide means for making these improvements, 

 H. N. Field & Co., brokers, of New York, were asked to market 

 200,000 shares of the company's stock, of the par value of $1, 

 which they offered at 40 cents per share with a guarantee that 

 the same would be repurchased by the company at an advance 

 of 2 per cent, weekly, from the purchase price, until the market 

 price of the stock should exceed said 2 per cent, weekly. Twelve 

 days later it was announced that the 200,000 shares had been 

 marketed and additional shares were being offered at 50 cents. 

 The company state : " We should not be surprised in the least 

 if this stock sold within the next few years at $5 per share. 

 .... You can borrow upon the certificates of this company as 

 much as you can on real estate." 



The president of the International company is Walter R. 

 Comfort, president of the Reid Ice Cream Co., New York; the 

 vice president and treasurer is Henry L. Prentice, broker, of 

 New York; the secretary is F. D. Palmer, of Poughkeepsie, 

 New York; the general manager is William Sanford, formerly 

 in a similar capacity with the New Brunswick Rubber Co. and 

 the New Brunswick Tire Co. 



A handsome pamphlet issued by the company contains a 

 number of views outside and inside of the New Brunswick fac- 

 tory based upon what must have been very good photographs. 



\ 



CONSTRUCTIONAL VIEVi^ OF NEV^' CARRIAGE TIRE. 



utes." The idea is to sell a customer one set of wheels with 

 which he may equip any number of different vehicles, provided 

 that he does not want to ride in more than one at a time. In 

 regard to these wheels, the International company report : 

 They can be manufactured so cheaply that every other tire manufac- 



MOZAMBIQUE RUBBER REGULATIONS. 



THE British acting consul in the Portuguese province of 

 Mozambique, in reporting on the falling off of certain 

 exports during the year 1901, says that formerly India-rubber 

 was shipped in important quantities from that region to Ham- 

 burg and elsewhere, but that the export was stopped entirely 

 in the early part of the year, the authorities stating that owing, 

 to the admixture with the rubber of other substances for the 

 purpose of increasing its weight, it was acquiring a bad repu- 

 tation in the European markets, and that until such time as 

 the collectors could find means to produce a rubber calculated 

 to create a demand for the produce of the country, no more 

 should be exported. Naturally this somewhat arbitrary order 

 had a disastrous result, for many traders who had accumulated 

 large stocks found themselves unable to put their rubber on 

 the market. Later this prohibition was withdrawn by the gov- 

 ernor-general, and an order was published in the BoUtim Offi- 

 cial de Mocambique of May 10, 1902, permitting the exporta- 

 tion of rubber, subject to the payment of the following ad 

 valorem duties: Rubber extracted by cooking 20 per cent.; 

 impure rubber extracted by incision 8 per cent.; rubber ex- 

 tracted by incision, but pure, 3 per cent. 



In 1881 the exports of rubber from the port of Mozambique 

 alone reached 1:07,278 pounds. In 1884 the exports from the 

 whole province were 343,385 pounds, including 143,497 pounds 

 from Mozambique. 



