March 



1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^A^ORLD 



181 



TIRES. 



NEW YORK TIRE CO. 



or else the question of price reigns supreme, I don't pretend to 

 know which. Thus the compound rubber used by one firm 

 contains 70 per cent, of mineral matter, while that of another 

 contains 40 per cent, and mineral of a different nature too. The 

 battle of rubber versus paper which has been waging for some 

 years, cannot be said to have ended, advocates of both dielec- 

 trics being strongly in evidence. With regard to rubber, the 

 question of the overheating of the mains by leakage of current 

 is an important one, and in a recent case where newly laid rub- 

 ber cables have come in for scathing abuse, it seems to be, from 

 the facts as made known to me, that the fault lay with the en- 

 gineer rather thin with the cable manufacturer. 



So far the expected motor tire which is to eclipse 4II others 

 has not made its appearance from the Birmingham works; in 

 the meanwhile the laurels gained by Michelin & Co. 

 seem to be somewhat threatened by the progress 

 which the tire turned out by the Continental company, of 

 Hanover, has recently made in popular favor. Up to recently 

 only the inner tubes made by this firm have been sold in Great 

 Britain ; now, however, an arrangement has been come to with 

 the Dunlop company that the complete tires may be sold, the 

 Dunlop company receiving a royalty on the sales. 



With respect to the formation of a company under this name 

 in London, in connection, I understand, with the New York 

 Belting and Packing Co., Limited, some con- 

 fusion seems likely to arise with regard to 

 correspondence, unless strict attention is paid to the exact title, 

 there being another London firm with a very similar appella- 

 tion. This is The New York Wheel and Rubber Tyre Co.. of 

 327, ICennington lane, which is owned by Count De Nevers and 

 has no connection with New York at the present time, though 

 I believe that at one time the wheels to which the firm attach 

 their tires were of transatlantic origin. 



This firm, so long well known in the card cloth and wire 



trade, has opened a new department for the manufacture of 



motor cars, Mr. J. Kennedy, one of the partners 



MESSRS. in the firm, and who is a mechanical engineer by 



HORSFALL , • • u • .u • • .u 



. BiCKHAM traming, being the prime mover in the new ven- 

 ture. From what I hear the " Harbeck " car, which 

 they are now making, has a future, combining ?s it does the 

 principal features essential to success in this class of work. The 

 manufacture will be carried on at the same address as the card 

 cloth business, at the Bridgewater works, Pendleton, Manches- 

 ter. 



Probably no item of news of a personal nature has lately 

 given rise to so much comment in the rubber trade, at least in 

 the Manchester district, as the announce- 

 ment that Dr. Weber had severed his con- 

 nection with the firm of Frankenburg, with which, if I am not 

 greatly mistaken, he has been associated for about ten years. 

 It would somewhat transcend the limits of news proper, to say 

 nothing of good taste, to enter here into the causes of Dr. 

 Weber's somewhat abrupt departure from the firm mentioned, 

 and of which it is understood he was a director ; it will suffice 

 to state the fact. With regard to the future, Dr. Weber has 

 circularized several rubber firms to the effect that he intends 

 to practice as a consulting expert in the rubber trade, which 

 was about the most natural thing to expect, seeing that he has 

 long acted in this capacity for certain firms. His connection 

 with the scientific as well as the practical side of the manufac- 

 ture should enable him to do better fro i a financial standpoint 

 than have others who, owing to stress of circumstances, have 

 essayed to win the suffrages of the trade under the easily as- 

 sumed though rather vague and uncertain title of " rubber ex- 

 pert." 



DR. C. O. WEBER. 



SHORT 



It is rather curious to study the vicissitudes which have at 

 tended the attempted introduction of this product into com- 

 merce. Every now and again one reads of some 

 °'!' °^ „ particular purpose for which it is preeminent, 



CAOUTCHOUC- "^ I- K f • 



though It does not appear in any case to have ful- 

 filled the expectations formed of it. Some ten years ago it was 

 kept in stock by certain ol our wholesale druggists, but now it 

 cannot be obtained from them. One of the purposes for which 

 it was recommended was that of preventing the rusting of fire- 

 arms, and it was said to have been used to this end in Ger- 

 many ; my own attempts, however, to gain it a footing in Eng- 

 land for this purpose brought me nothing but abuse, so I let it 

 severely alone. I read now that it is proposed as one of the 

 innumerable specifics for preventing the incrustation of steam 

 boilers, though it is difficult to see how in the mechanical ac- 

 tion it exerts it can compete successfully with cheaper mate- 

 rials. 



On January 2r a new departure was inaugurated at the works 

 of Messrs. Charles Macintosh & Co., Limited, a social club for 

 the benefit of the work girls being opened by 

 Messrs. R. K. and H. A. Birley. This club is an 

 advance on the ordinary dining room, as it is fitted 

 up for recreation, and on certain nights in the week it is to re- 

 main open until 10 o'clock, under the superintendence o( a lady 

 connected with the parish. Perhaps more has been done in 

 this way on the Continent than in Great Britain, and in this 

 connection the arrangements made at certain German works 

 recur to my mind. It would be ungenerous to attempt to pick 

 holes in an arrangement made purposely to benefit those to 

 whom the adage res angusta doini may fitly be applied ; all the 

 same it may be objected in some quarters that the atmosphere 

 of a rubber works is not of the most salubrious character in 

 which to spend the evening, albeit it has advantages in many 

 respects over that of the music hall.==The works of the 

 North Western Rubber Co., at Litherland, near Liverpool, are 

 rapidly approaching completion. The name is a somewhat mis- 

 leading one, as the rubber manufacture proper is not to be car- 

 ried, but only the recovery business. Although no naphtha is 

 to be used, and diflRculties are not to be apprehended with the 

 insurance people, yet the best means of protection against fire 

 are being adopted in the buildings. The secretary and man- 

 ager is Mr. Buckleton, and Mr. Riddle is the engineer in charge. 

 ==At the last half yearly sale by tender of the condemned 

 telegraph stores of the general postoflSce London the amount 

 of Gutta-percha offered was 25 tons. The figure at the previ- 

 ous sale was 39 tons. The average for some time has been 

 about 40 tons, but no doubt, as was predicted in these notes 

 some time ago, the onward march of the paper covered cable 

 has had its influence upon the amount of Gutta-percha used for 

 this purpose, and those who have been accustomed to buy 

 Gutta-percha at these sales will not find this such a good source 

 of supply in the future as it has been in the past.==Mr. Carroll 

 for some time works manager at Messrs. Gotliffe & Son's, at 

 Hyde, is now with Messrs. Ferguson, Shiers & Co., at Fails- 

 worth, Manchester. 



When Gutta-percha tissue first came into use, Mr. Nat. W. 

 Goddard, a well-known seller of tailor's trimmings in Boston, 

 having quite an amount of it in stock, and being very proud of 

 it, conceived the idea of draping his window with it, the strips 

 being hung in long and graceful festoons. Early in the day 

 the efifect was very fine, but when the sun shone on his handi- 

 work, it so softened the strips that they dropped in a sticky 

 mass, incidentally ruining many other goods — just what any 

 one familiar with the gum might have predicted. 



