December 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



151 



arrived and big embankments are being raised where he will 

 transform a negkcttd lane into a wide avenue which will pass 

 over the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford 

 Railroad. A bridge 700 feet long will be a part of the improve- 

 ment. This is another of a long hst of improvements which 

 Col. Colt has given to the town, where one of the largest plants 

 of the United States Rubber Co. is located. 



* « * 



The Bourn Rubber Co., of Providence, which recently began 

 the manufacture of automobile tires in addition to making over- 

 shoes, is widely advertising its new product as the Bourn- 

 Goodyear tire. They claim for it that it costs from 10 to 15 

 per cent, more than other high grade tires to manufacture, but 

 that the retail price is the same. The company is also em- 

 phasizing the fact that it has no connection, directly or in- 

 directly, with any other tire manufacturer. The concern was 

 established in 1840. 



* * * 



Rebuilding tires is now one of the industries of Providence. 

 The Invincible Puncture Proof Tire Co., of which Charles H. 

 Graves is president, is taking old tires at its plant, 53 Sabin 

 street, and making them over and guaranteeing 3,000 or more 

 miles. 



* * * 



Rhode Island manufacturers are congratulating themselves 

 that they are not having trouble with the "Industrial Workers 

 of the World," like that which some of the other rubber com- 

 panies have encountered. Organizers of this body have made 

 repeated attempts to gain a foothold here, but their demonstra- 

 tions have been dealt with vigorously by the police, and public 

 sentiment is so strong against the militant tactics of the 

 "workers," that they have practically no representative in the 

 state at present. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



By a Resident Correspondent. 

 17 C. TILSLEY, with offices in the Call building is now pro- 

 *— '• moting a company for the purpose of manufacturing and 

 selling a new substitute for rubber. A man by the name of J. H. 

 Schwartz, now of this city, is the inventor of the process, and he 

 claims that it has attained the desired degree of perfection to suc- 

 cessfully compete with the genuine product. He has been work- 

 ing on the basic mineral called Gilsonite, for seventeen years, mak- 

 ing it up in different combinations until he at last arrived at a 

 result which appealed to him as thoroughly satisfactory. Gilson- 

 ite is a black mineral found in large quantities in Colorado, Utah 

 and Nevada. It is a light substance and feels something like a 

 piece of hard tar, or hard metallic rubber. Mixed by Schwartz's 

 chemical process it becomes a crude mass with much resemblance 

 to crude rubber, although more gritty and brittle. After being 

 subjected to a vulcanizing process, however, all sorts of rubber 

 products are produced, which the invenior claims are in every 

 way equal to those made from genuine rubber. 

 * * * 



The Pennsylvania Rubber Co. has opened a fine large branch 

 at Seattle, Washington, and J. E. French, the Pacific Coast man- 

 ager for the company, who has his headquarters in San Francisco, 

 has returned from that city where he attended to the details of 

 installing the new store. G. J. Brooks, who was the chief clerk in 

 San Francisco has been placed in charge of the Seattle branch. 

 The store is located in the Armory building, and it is the finest 

 store which the company has on the Pacific Coast. It is fitted up 

 in most excellent style, and has every modern convenience, and 

 having 9,000 square feet of floor space, there is plenty of room to 

 carry a large stock. This gives the company a firm hold on the 

 business of the Northwest, as besides the new Seattle store they 

 have a distributing agency with the Yakima Hardware Co., of 

 North Yakima, Washington, and another with the Morrow Drew 



Co., of Walla Walla. In Oakland, California, the company has 

 made a find in the person of Robert Martland, a pioneer tire man 

 of that city who has a store on Broadway. Mr. Martland is one 

 of the live wires in the tire business, and he has taken hold of the 

 company's Vacuum Cup tires in such a whirlwind campaign that 

 the company is unable to supply him with enough goods. Mr. 

 Martland has imparted his enthusiasm to all kinds of prominent 

 people and even had a Superior Court judge doing some non-skid 

 stunts out on a slippery road for the sake of demonstrating his 



firm belief in the tires. 



* « « 



The Superior Vulcanizing Co. has been incorporated at Bakers- 

 field, California, with a capital stock of $20,000, practically all paid 

 up. A. W. Albrecht holds the control, and A. Albrecht and Geo. 

 A. Bacr are also owners in the business. 



* * * 



The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. has already started work on 

 the foundations of an elegant new building which the company 

 will occupy as soon as completed. It is located on Van Ness 

 avenue between Bush and Pine streets. The building will be com- 

 pleted early in tlie spring. When the Firestone company estab- 

 lished a branch in San Francisco two years ago it erected a three- 

 story building on Van Ness avenue and Fulton streets. Recently 

 the city has been purchasing property in order to establish a great 

 civic center, and this property is included in the civic center and 

 has been taken by the city. The new building will be a two-story 

 structure and will be large enough to accommodate an immense 

 stock. Mr. W. H. Bell, local manager of the company, has just 

 returned from a visit to the factory in the east. 



* * * 



C. E. Mathewson, Pacific Coast manager of the Diamond Rub- 

 ber Co., says that the popular belief that hot weather causes the 

 tire pressure to increase and injure the tire, is not only a fallacy, 

 but costs automobile owners millions of dollars every year. "In 

 hot weather," he said, "they are afraid to pump their tires full, 

 and the result is that the half filled tires wear out in half the time." 



* * * 



The W. D. Newerf Rubber Co. has opened a retail service shop 

 and store at Van Ness and Golden Gate avenues. The company's 



warerooms are on Mission street. 



* * * 



J. M. Gilbert, of New York, general manager of the United 

 States Tire Co., is expected in San Francisco in a few days. He 

 will be met by C. A. Gilbert, the Pacific Coast manager in Seattle, 

 and from there they will make a complete tour of inspection of all 



of the Pacific Coast branches. 



* * * 



Henry Byrne is no longer connected with the Quaker City 

 Rubber Co., having recently accepted a position with the Plant 



Rubber & Supply Co. 



* * * 



Mr. Gibson, who was formerly with the Sterling Rubber Co., 

 has quit the rubber business to take up the agency for a new 

 electric beating device attached to faucets for heating water. 



* » * 



Mr. Oliver, who was formerly superintendent of the factory of 

 the American Rubber Co., at Emeryville, California, has gone into 

 business for himself, having opened a shop on Broadway, in Oak- 

 land, where he makes automobile tubes, and patches only. 



* » * 



Elliott Mahan, a rubber planter of Colombo, Ceylon, has been a 

 recent visitor in this city. He is on his way to Edinburgh, 

 Scotland, for an extended visit. 



* * * 



The Acme Rubber Co. has been incorporated in San Francisco 

 with a capital stock of $100,000, the shares being of the value of 

 $1 each. The organizers are L. Seidenberg, G. M. Davis, W. S. 

 Baker, J. C. Montgomery and P. Kenrick. 



