May 1, 1913.J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



433 



RUBBER IN THE RECENT FLOOD. 



A FLOOD always means a loud call for rubber goods — ob- 

 viously; rubber footwear and rubber clothing are in great 

 demand. Some day when people are more provident than they 

 are now, those who live in a territory where floods occur with 

 any frequency, will have stored away in an odd corner, a fold- 

 ing raft with collapsible rubber floaters which they can get out 

 on short notice and, by inflating the rubber floaters, put to good 

 use, in saving life and valuables. But perhaps people have not 

 yet quite reached that desirable degree of foresight. 



One of The Ixdi.\ Rubber World's occasional correspondents 

 lives in Ohio, close to the region where the recent flood did its 

 worst, and he has sent in a few paragraphs, together with snap- 

 shots, showing the use that rubber boots, rubber coats and rub- 

 ber tires were put to, during the ten days' inundation. 

 THE FLOOD AND THE TIRE TR.\DE. 



"It's an ill-wind that blovi-s nobody good," and the recent huge 

 flood disaster in the mid-west has been the direct cause for the 

 purchase of a vast number of tires. 



To begin with, curiosity impelled almost every automobile 

 owner in the vicinity of the flood belt within "motoring dis- 

 tance," that is — to speed away to see the flood. The roads were 

 so bad, the streams so swollen, the concealed rocks so numerous, 

 that many a tire was burst. Then, if one approached too near 

 the flooded area, his automobile would be seized by the soldiers 

 and impressed into relief work. Relief work is death to tires. 

 It means speeding through streets where the asphalt has buckled 

 beneath the waters, or it means going through water so high 

 that your carburetor is all but flooded. It means riding over 

 stock and stone and keeping on, on the flat tire when the inner 

 tube has burst; for when lives are to be saved tires don't count. 



An Auto in the Hamilton Flood. 



In addition, many an auto was caught in its garage by the 

 tide, and knocked helter-skelter, out into the street; thence to 

 be pummelled and driven about by the swift current till finally 

 resurrected, much in the shape of the one in this snapshot 

 taken at Hamilton. 



RL'BBER BOOTS IN THE FLOOD. 

 Many a man has been saved from catching a deadly cold 

 thiough the use of rubber shoes or boots; but it is seldom that 

 rubber footwear has assisted in the actual saving of so many 

 lives as during the recent flood in Ohio. When the first horrors 

 (if that flood-night were over, the few who managed to escape 

 from the torrent went out to the rescue of others. The work 

 was done largely in boats, but often submerged out-houses, 

 fallen walls, picket-fences and the like, kept these boats from 



making further progress. Then it became a matter of wading, 

 and in ordinary foot-wear, with the waters freezing the feet, 

 this would have been next to impossible, after two or three ex- 

 cursions into their depths. \Vhen relief work was finally or- 

 ganized, rubber boots were provided, and fitted in these the res- 

 cuers went about, carrying the sick and the exhausted to safety. 



This photograph shows a rescue near the county court house 

 at Dayton. 



If there was any one item of dress more valued than any 

 other by the soldiers of the Ohio National Guard detailed for 



A Flood Worker in His Rubber Boots. 



RUBBER COATS IN THE FLOOD ZONE, 

 patrol duty in the flood districts along the Great Miami, it was 

 the rubber coat. 



Almost without ceasing, the rain poured, day after day, suc- 



A N.\TioNAL Guardsman in His Rubber Coat. 

 ceeding the actual torrents that caused the flood, and refugees, 

 some of whom were on the house tops, beyond reach of rescueis, 

 for full forty-eight hours, looked with no little envy on the more 



