292 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1902. 



Gutta-percha core, an India-rubber envelope, and a Gutta- 

 percha shell. Another is a sphere of vulcanized rubber ex- 

 panded by liquid gutta with a leather or fabric cover. Still 

 another contains rubber threads wound under tension, covered 

 with strips of elastic webbing wound under tension, and a 

 Gutta-percha or celluloid cover. In certain of the patents, 

 linen thread, rope fiber, strips of Guttapercha, solid India-rub- 

 ber bands, and strips of celluloid are all used, and many have 

 celluloid. Gutta-percha, India-rubber, or leather covers. 



In reading the patent specifications it is interesting to note 

 that the term "highly vulcanized" rubber is often used, and 

 the manner in which it is spoken of would lead one to believe 

 that it is compounded in the usual manner to get the right 

 weight and rigidity. It is easy to understand how a hollow 

 ball of rubber can be filled with some substance like liquid 

 gutta and expanded. But how a solid ball of rubber, particu- 

 larly if it is highly vulcanized, can be compressed, is a little 

 more difficult to understand. Speaking off hand 

 one would fancy it would be about as easy to 

 compress a cubic inch of water. 



The special virtue claimed for the celluloid cov- 

 er is that it is smooth, does not chip or fracture 

 holds it color, and that it is dead under a light 

 blow, and lively under a heavy one. It is said the 

 Kempshall Manufacturing Co. are now having 

 these balls made in a rubber factory in New Eng- 

 land, the kind being the rubber sphere expanded 

 by liquid gutta and covered with celluloid. 



EARLIER COMPOSITE GOLF BALL PATENTS. 



luST at this time, when so many golf ball 

 patents are being taken out, it is interesting to 

 pick up bits of history concerning the attempts 

 to secure patents on balls partly of Gutta-percha 



and partly of other material. Two illustrations herewith show 

 samples of balls made by James Bennett Forsyth, of Boston, 

 in 1896, the cover being of Gutta-percha and the center being 

 made of vulcanized rubber, cork, wood, and a variety of other 

 materials. This application for patent was not allowed, two 

 patents being cited, one granted to Hillman, October 22, 1895, 

 for a method lor molding golf balls, and a British patent to 

 Brend, granted November 14, 1891. The United States patent 

 commissioner said, incidentally, that there is no invention in 

 using heat and pressure to unite the parts of a golf ball. The 

 English patent above cited describes in one claim a golf ball 

 made of celluloid, having an air chamber inside, while in the 

 third claim the interior is made of some material such as cork, 

 asbestos, or other material, covered with celluloid and colored 

 without paint. The celluloid cover is made in halves, one half 

 having a ridge or pins around the face, fitting into a channel 

 or hollows around the face of the other half. 



SAMPLE GOLF BALLS MADE BY MR. FORSYTH, 

 [India-rubber, Wood, Cork, Rubber and Coarse Fiber, and Wood Pulp and Rubber used for Centers.] 



A DECISION AGAINST THE GRANT TIRE PATENT. 



THE Grant patent for solid rubber wheel tires has been 

 the subject of another judicial decision, which would 

 appear to be more conclusive than any other which has 

 yet been rendered in regard to it. This is United 

 States patent No. 554.675, issued February 18, 1896, to Arthur 

 W. Grant, and by him assigned to The Rubber Tire Wheel Co., 

 of Springfield, Ohio. This company and others were merged 

 later into the Consolidated Rubber Tire Co., and the article 

 manufactured under this patent has been known as the Kelly- 

 Springfield rubber tire. In the case of The Rubber Tire 

 Wheel Co. v. The Columbia Pneumatic Wagon Wheel Co., in 

 the United States circuit court for the southern district of New 

 York, a decision was rendered December 27, 1898, by Judge 

 Thomas, in which the validity of the Grant patent was sus- 

 tained. 



Later, in the United States circuit court for the northern 

 district of Ohio, suit was brought by The Rubber Tire Wheel 

 Co. against The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., alleging in- 

 fringement of the Grant patent in respect of the " Wing " solid 

 tire manufactured by the defendants. The decision in this 

 case, rendered November 23, 1901, by Judge Wing, sustained 

 the claim as to infringement. 



The Goodyear company thereupon signed a supersedeas bond 

 for $100,000, under which they were permitted to manufacture 

 tires as before, pending an appeal. On May 6, last, a decision 

 was rendered in the United States circuit court of appeals in 



the sixth circuit, at Cincinnati, Judge Lurton delivering the 

 opinion of the court, the essence of which is the declaration of 

 the patent to be " void for want of patentable novelty," thus 

 rendering unnecessary the consideration of any question of 

 infringement. 



" The subject of the controversy," says the court, " is a simple 

 one of solid rubber tires for vehicles. When Grant entered the 

 field as an inventor of rubber tires, he found it occupied by an 

 army of patentees who had preceded him, and no less than 

 eighty prior patents have been put in evidence as anticipations 

 or as illustrations of the history of the art. Grant, in part, 

 seems to recognize the crowded character of the field open to 

 him, for he concludes an account of his construction by claim- 

 ing that by his mode of construction he has produced ' a rubber 

 tired wheel rim which is capable of more use and which will 

 remain in position better than any other tire which has ever 

 been put upon the market.'" 



The first claim of the Grant patent is for a combination of 

 three elements : 



First. — A metallic channel rim, having angularly projecting flanges, 

 shown as k' in Fig. 2, forming a channel with inclining sides, into which 

 the rubber fits. 



Second, — A solid rubber tire having an inner portion adapted to fit in 

 the channel rim and an outer portion forming an angle or corner with 

 the inner portion, the corner being somewhat below the top of the chan- 

 nel seat or metallic rim. 



