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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1912. 



special effort to supply their help with the best of drinking 

 water, and careful chemical and bacteriological tests are made 

 from time to time to assure the companies that the drinking 

 water is safe and healthful. 



* * * 



Mr. J. A. Ford, of the Cleveland Mechanical Rubber Co., has 

 resigned his position to join the force of the Goodyear Co., of 

 Akron, where he has accepted a position in the experimental 

 department in connection with mechanical goods. Mr. Ford 

 also had several years' experience with the Morgan & Wright Co. 



* * * 



The Swinehart Tire and Rubber Co., of Akron, are sending 

 out an official denial of the report that they are going to build 

 a factory at St. Louis. "I have heard that a new rubber com- 

 pany was going to build in St. Louis," says C. A. Swinehart, the 

 sales manager, "but it has no connection whatever with this 

 concern." 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN BOSTON. 



By a Resident Correspondent 

 DUSINESS in the various lines continues much the same as 

 ■'-' was reported last month. The clothing manufacturers are 

 rushed with orders, and although the salesmen are on the road, 

 they are refusing to guarantee deliveries except subject to delay. 

 The call for plain coated rubber coats is not so marked as for 

 the finer mackintosh and cravenetted goods ; and these are in 

 many cases delayed because of the unusually heavy demand 

 upon the textile mills for the cloth, the run on some patterns 

 and colors being remarkable. Belting and packing lines are 

 none too brisk at present, the tendency today being to allow the 

 manufacturers to carry stock, rather than to purchase heavily 

 and carry large quantities in the stock-rooms of the mills and 

 factories. Hose is called for only to a limited extent, the muni- 

 cipal contracts being mainly let in the spring, while the garden 

 hose demand, of course, is over, as far as consumers' trade is 

 concerned, though dealers are already placing fairly large con- 

 tracts for early 1913 delivery. Druggists' goods in soft and 

 hard rubber are in normal call. Tire manufacturers are busy. 

 The steady increase in the use of automobiles, and the -length- 

 ening of the season — if, indeed, there can be called a season to- 

 day — makes the demand for tires strong, both for immediate 

 delivery and on early spring contracts. 



Footwear trade, as is to be expected, is not very brisk, though 

 there is more doing than the manufacturers anticipated, after 

 the heavy advance orders taken previous to July 1, in order to 

 secure the extra discount. It appears that many retail shoe 

 merchants preferred to hold back more or less of their regular 

 orders in order to be certain of the trend of style of leather 

 footwear, and this now being established, they are ordering 

 suitable rubbers to fit these lines. The tennis shoe business is 

 excellent, and already advance orders for next season's delivery 

 are far ahead of a year ago. Taken altogether, the rubber in- 

 dustry is in fine condition in New England. 

 * * * 



Last month the city of Maiden was the scene of a trade car- 

 nival, when the local industries vied with each other in educat- 

 ing citizens and visitors as to the importance and extent of the 

 manufactures of the city. Among those which made interesting 

 exhibits were at least three, well known in the rubber trade. 



The John H. Parker Co. exhibited the celebrated leather- 

 soled rubber boots which have made the late Mr. Parker's name 

 famous, and also Parker's Arctic Socks, which are sold by 

 many dealers in rubber footwear. Mr. Charles Parker's little 

 eight-year-old daughter, Elinor, had the proudest moment of 

 her young life, when she presented to President Taft a pair of 

 Arctic Socks, and was rewarded by one of that gentleman's 



most expansive smiles as he thanked her, and complimented 

 her on her beautiful blue eyes. 



The Converse Rubber Shoe Co. had a working exhibit, a rub- 

 ber shoe maker being at work; and there was also shown the 

 process of making the Converse Automobile Tires, a branch of 

 manufacture recently added by this company. 



By far the most interesting exhibit was that of the Boston 

 Rubber Shoe Co., whose booth was a continuous centre of at- 

 traction throughout the entire week. A most ornamental struc- 

 ture was erected, in which were large, deep show cases, in which 

 were displayed a full line of the many kinds of rubber footwear 

 made by the company. Interspersed among the standard sam- 

 ples were shown pairs of shoes made of fancy colored rubber, 

 many novel effects being produced. Perhaps the freakiest of 

 these were rubbers made of mottled colors, so mixed as to re- 

 semble the "marbling" of bookbinders' lining papers. The rub- 

 ber of various colors was so blended and mixed that though 

 each was of a different composition from every other, the mix- 

 ing in no way interfered with a perfect composition, or with the 

 subsequent vulcanization, and the result was as interesting from 

 the standpoint of the rubber chemist or manufacturer, as the 

 shoes were to the general observer as a footwear novelty. 



But that was by no means all that was interesting. At one 

 corner a man made Boston boots, and at another a girl made 

 "Hub-Mark" rubbers. In one case were three or four pairs of 



President's Boots in the Center Case. 



hip boots. One of these pairs was a special one, made to 

 measure for a gift to President Taft. This case, while shown 

 in the illustration, was not sufficiently illuminated for The 

 India Rubber World photographer to secure more than a faint 

 outline of this pair of boots in the picture here presented. 



Besides these, a table in the centre of the booth held a large 

 number of curios collected by the company in its many years 

 of purchasing crude rubber. There were specimens of gum, 

 samples of Indian rubber working tools, including those for 

 tapping and smoking. There were also a number of the crude 

 rubber shoes made by the Amazonian natives, many covered 

 with quamt barbaric ornamentation. Perhaps the greatest of 

 all these curiosities was a human head, preserved after the 

 fashion of the ancient Peruvian aborigines, who thus recorded 

 their triumph over an enemy by showing his head as proof. 

 The skull is removed, the eyes, nasal cavity and ears stopped 

 up, the lips sewed together with coarse thread which is left with 

 many long hanging ends. Then the head is immersed in and 

 also filled with a strong tanning solution which not only turns 

 it into a tough black leather, but. while retaining its shape, 

 causes the head to contract until it is reduced to the size of a 

 man's fist. In this condition it is as black as tar and as tough 



