190 



THE INDIA RUBBER AA/^ORLD 



[March i, 1902. 



ings. He then went into a mercantile business in the South, 

 which lasted until the eve of the civil war. Believing that this 

 would be disastrous to his busiuess, he sold his southern hold- 

 ings to his partners, taking a small amount in gold and the 

 rest in notes, and returned to the North. Before the maturity 

 of these notes the Confederate government confiscated them, 

 so that they became to him an entire loss. He then built the 

 Wanskuck woolen mills, m Rhode Island, and having thor- 

 oughly equipped them, accepted the agency of the Great Wash- 

 ington Mills Corporation at Lawrence, Massachusetts, the date 

 of acceptance being July i, 1865. The mills had not been op- 

 erated successfully, but from the first he ran them so that they 

 paid dividends. It was here that he introduced the mauufac- 

 ture of worsted goods being the pioneer in that respect in the 

 United States. 



Mr. Salisbury remained as agent for the Washington mills 

 for nine years, when, on not agreeing with some of the direc- 

 tors as to the policy which should be followed, he resigned and 

 went to Chicago, entering the house of Hallock, Holmes & Co. 

 which became Salisbury & Cline, and later William H. Salis- 

 bury & Co. The old house was agent for the Boston Rubber 

 Shoe Co. and the Boston Belting Co. On its dissolution, Hal- 

 lock and Holmes kept the Boston Rubber Shoe Co.'s account, 

 while William H. Salisbury & Co. took that of the Boston Belt- 

 ing Co. Mr. Salisbury continued as active head of the business 

 almost up to the day of his last illness. He was physically and 

 mentally a remarkable man of the best New England type, and 

 was known perhaps as widely as any business man connected 

 with the rubber trade. Mr. Salisbury left a widow and four 

 sons and three daughters. His son, Mr. Warren H. Salis- 

 bury, succeeds as active head of the concern. Funeral services 

 were held in Chicago on February 20, and in Providence on 

 February 22. 



The interment was at Swan Point cemetery, about 3^2 miles 

 from Providence. There were present from the Salisbury fam. 

 ily, Mrs. W. H. Salisbury, Mr. William Dexter Salisbury, Moses 

 Brown Salisbury, Warren M. Salisbury, and George J. Ouincey_ 

 Representing the Boston Belting Co. there were: James Ben- 

 nett Forsyth, general manager ; Thomas F. Forsyth, super- 

 intendent ; John H. D.Smith, treasurer ; George P. Whitmore, 

 secretary. Malcolm McColm represented the Eureka Fire 

 Hose^Co., and William B. Laighton the Apsley Rubber Co. The 

 Hon. L. D. Apsley, who was absent in New Vork, planned to be 

 present, but missed connections through a railroad accident. 

 The floral display was very large and beautiful, and the family 

 are in receipt of expressions of sympathy and condolence from 

 well known people in the trade all over the country. 



THE LATE MR. FUJIKURA, OF JAPAN. 



THE death of this important representative of the rubber 

 industry in Japan has been recorded already in The 

 India Rubber World, as having occurred on October 8 last. 

 Mr. Zenpachi Fujikura was born October 18, 1843, in the village 

 of Tochigi-ken, which is about 40 miles from the city of Tokio 

 and 36 miles from Nikko, the finest temple in Japan. He was 

 the son of a farmer, but as he disliked that calling he started, 

 at the age of twenty, a small flour mill, using a water power 

 which was close to his home. That locality being notable for 

 wheat growing, he had plenty of work, and not only did the 

 milling himself but sold the product, going to Tokio twice a 

 month. At the age of thirty-two he decided to remove per- 

 manently to Tokio, and closed the mill, becoming a manufac- 

 turer of ribbons and fancy goods. Later, when electricity was 

 introduced into Japan, he began to experiment in the manufac- 



ture of insulated wire. For this purpose he started a small 

 factory in 1884, and that without knowing anything about the 

 rubber business. It may be easily understood that he experi- 

 enced many setbacks, but these were all overcome and he be- 

 came the pioneer manufacturer of insulated wire in Japan. 



It is interesting to note that the first idea he had of how 

 rubber was compounded, he gleaned from an encyclopedia, and 

 that it was only through constant experimenting and failure 

 after failure that he succeeded. His first vulcanizer, used in 

 1893, was a kettle employed formerly in boiling rice. Later, 

 when he had succeeded in compounding and vulcanizing rub- 

 ber, he made his own washers, grinders, and rubber covering 

 machine and in 1894 was able to fill a large contract for the 

 Japanese government for insulated wires. After that his prog- 

 ress was rapid. In 1896 he was manufacturing all kinds of in- 

 sulated wire needed for Japsnese concerns, and_he then bought 

 a large tract of land and built a factory known as the Fujikura 

 Insulated Wire Works. To-day his wires are used in every 

 part of Japan and have also been quite largely exported. 



In accordance with Mr. Fujikura's desire the funeral services 

 were exceedingly simple, but in spile of this fact thousands of 

 people assembled, and the testimonial letters from firms like 

 the Oriental Rubber Co., the Tokio Electric Light Co., and 

 large manufacturing concerns which were read at the ceremony 

 testified to their appreciation of the man and his work. By 

 the terms of his will quite an amount of his property was given 

 to the poor, and he also generously remembered the public 

 school in the village of his birth. His compafly, the Fujikura 

 Insulated Wire Works, is now succeeded by the Fujikura In- 

 sulated Wire and Rubber Co., the business to be carried on by 

 Mr. Tomekicki Matsumoto, his youngest brother. Mr. Fuji- 

 kura held many offices of trust, among which he was a director 

 in the Oriental Rubber Co. and in several prominent Japanese 

 electrical firms. 



SOME WANTS OF THE RUBBER TRADE. 



[226] "pROM a manufacturer of rubber packings : "We have 

 -1- to dispose of a quantity of C. B. S. sheet rubber 

 scrap, in pieces of various sizes, which will cut circles ranging 

 from yi inch to 5 inches in diameter. Could you give us the 

 names of any parties cutting small packings and specialties 

 from such material ?" 



[227] From a coal and iron company, Birmingham, Ala- 

 bama: "Is there a market in this country for worn pump 

 valves? We are constantly discarding a number of these, and 

 should like to dispose of the same, if possible." 



[228] From a rubber factory : " We should like to know the 

 names of some manufacturers of annealed glass tubes, such as 

 used in the manufacture of certain kinds of rubber tubing and 

 catheters." 



[230] From Paris : " Will you be good'enough to let us know 

 who are the manufacturers of the ' Monarch ' billiard cushions, 

 and if there is an agency for them in Europe ? " 



[231] From a rubber factory : " We are in the market for 

 some churns for mixing rubber cement, and would be much 

 obliged if you would advise us where they can be purchased." 



[232] Two English letters contain inquiries for the color 

 " Yale Blue," which they mention having seen referred to in 

 Mr. Pearson's book, " Crude Rubber and Compounding In- 

 gredients," and ask whether the same can be purchased in 

 Europe. 



[233] " Kindly advise us where we may be able to purchase 

 Holland, such as is used in the calendering of rubber, to give 

 the same a smooth surface." 



