October.!, iqio.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



21 



Some Rubber Interests in Europe. 



NINETIETH BISTHDAY OF A KUBBEB PIONEER. 



A HISTORIC figure in the European rubber industry is Hcrr 

 Luclwig Elder von Reithoffcr, who celebrated his nine- 

 tieth birthday on August 19. It was this gentleman 

 through whose agency was brought under one control the rub- 

 ber firms of Menier, in Harburg, and J. N. Reithoffer, in Vienna, 

 under the style Vereinigte Gummiwaren-Fabriken Ilarburg- 

 W'icn, vormals Menier — J. N. Reithoflfer. This consolidation 

 was accomplished June I, 1872, after which the subject of this 

 sketch maintained a connection with the new company for many 

 years as a member of the advisory committee. The Harburg 

 factory was established in 1846, and the Wimpassing factory 

 (near Vienna) in 1854. The founder of the latter, however, 

 Johann Nepomuk Reithoflfer, was working in rubber in Austria 

 many years before, and in 1825 started a rubber thread factory 

 in Vienna. The Harburg-Wien company, therefore, is a direct 

 successor to the business of Johann Nepomuk Reithoffer. [See 

 The India Rubber World, Jan. i, 1897 — page 126.] Herr Lud- 

 wig Reithoffer has for many years stood as the senior pioneer 

 in rubber in Austria, and been able to watch with much satis- 

 faction the influence of his work spread far beyond the Aus- 

 trian boundries. 



LEYLAND AND BIRMINGHAM AFFAIRS. 



The trading profit of the Leyland and Birmingham Rubber 

 Co., Limited, for the year ended June 30, 1910, was £33,039. 

 The dividends amounted to 7}/> per cent., this being the third 

 year in succession for which this rate has been paid. For the 

 preceding year the trading profit amounted to £27.978. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Leyland and Birming- 

 ham Rubber Company, it was mentioned that the directors were 

 desirous that as many of the employes as could do so should 

 invest their money and become shareholders in the company 

 by which they were employed. They would then be in a posi- 

 tion of not only earning from a wages point of view, but also 

 from an investment point of view, as a direct result of their 

 labors. 



HALF A CENTURY IN RUBBER WORK. 



Bernhaud WiCKELMANN, employed in the machine shop of 

 Dr. Heinrich Traun & Sohnc, (Harburg,) celebrated the 

 fiftieth anniversary of his connection there on July 19. In 

 the morning his neighbors decorated his house, after which 

 he was taken in a carriage to the rubber works, where his 

 fellow workmen had covered a table with gifts for him. Mr. 

 Heinrich Otto Traun, proprietor of the works, presented 

 him with a donation in cash. Wickelmann will in future re- 

 ceive a pension from the company, being now the thirteenth 

 of a group of surviving employes of the Traun works who 

 have exceeded a service of 50 years. [See The India Rubber 

 World, July i, 1910 — page 355.] 



A NEW RUSSIAN RUBBER COMPANY. 



The Gummiwarcn-Fabrik "Russia" Gcbriider Freysinger, at 

 Riga, has issued a circular inviting cooperation for organizing 

 a Russian stock company for the rubber goods trade, under the 

 name of Aktiengesellschaft "Kautschuk." The capital stock of 

 the new company has been fixed at 1,000,000 rubles ($515,000) 

 divided into shares of lOO rubles. The company intends to enter 

 into an agreement with the firm "Russia" under the terms of 

 which the latter would obligate itself to sell its products ex- 

 clusively to the "Kautschuk" companj', without having the right 

 to sell to any other parties, and the new company is to be in a 

 position to obtain the products of the "Russia" almost at the 

 manufacturer's cost price. The organizers of the new company 

 are S. S. Gens, merchant, chief business manager of the 



"Russia" company ; Komraerzicnrat B. A. Magner, manager of 

 the Odessa branch of the International Bank of St. Petersburg; 

 and J. A. Brodsky. "hereditary honorary citizen," manager of the 

 Odessa branch of the Northern Bank. 



DUBLIN'S CAR TRAFFIC THREATENED. 



The introduction of taxicabs into Dublin is being actively en- 

 couraged, particularly by Mr. Harvey du Cros, J.P., chairman of 

 the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co., Limited, who in the past has 

 had such large business connections in that city. He has made ar- 

 rangements whereby Dublin car drivers can become proficient in 

 the operation of the new cabs without expense to themselves, and 

 a number of the carmen have arranged to take advantage of the 

 new condition. On the other hand, a large element of the car- 

 men oppose the taxicabs, and have formed an organization against 

 the introduction into Dublin of taxicabs, to ruin their business 

 "in order to support an English monopoly." The value of the 

 cab property in Dublin is estimated at £100,000, and the cab 

 owners claim to spend yearly in that city £250,000 for horses, 

 supplies, repairs, and the like. 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



The directors of the Gandy Belt Manufacturing Co., Limited,. 

 have declared an interim dividend of 6 per cent. 



The British Murac Syndicate, Limited, declared a dividend of 

 25 per cent, on the preference and ordinary shares for the first 

 half of their current business year. 



India-rubber tiling made by the India Rubber, Gutta Percha, 

 and Telegraph Works Co., Limited, has been laid down in 180' 

 vessels, including 10 ships of the British navy and several for- 

 eign battleships. 



Tlie Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. (South America), Limited, 

 was registered in London on August 11 with £5,000 capital, to 

 take over the business of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co., Limi- 

 ted, carried on in South America by B. J. Ebsworth as sole 

 representative of that company. 



The newest automobile ordered for King George is a "Silent 

 Knight" Daimler car, of which it is mentioned that "probably the 

 most notable feature will be the very large Palmer tires and 

 Rudgc-Whitworth detachable wheels." 



Among the advantages to the members of the Royal Automo- 

 bile Club of Great Britian, it is pointed out that all the asso- 

 ciates, whether individual or members of associated clubs, and 

 their private drivers shall have the benefit of free legal repre- 

 sentation in any police court in England or Wales on the hearing 

 of any summons arising out of the ownership or driving of 

 private automobiles. The traveling expenses of the solicitors 

 instructed will not be charged to associates. 



RUSSIA. 



The Russian-American India Rubber Co., "Treugolnik," of 

 St. Petersburg, has opened a new branch office at No. 125' 

 Petriknnerstrasse, Lodz, Mr. Felix Zielinski having been ap- 

 pointed manager. 



GERMANY. 



LENDER the style of Gummiwerke Frankfurt Aktiengesellschaft,' 

 the old concern Franfurter Gummiwaren-Fabrik A. G., has been 

 registered with a capital of 1,000,000 marks [= $238,210]. The 

 works belonged formerly to the present proprietor of Offen- 

 bacher Gummiwerke Carl Stoeckicht, G. m. b. H., at Offenbach. 



SWEDEN. 



Kar.mer Per Oloe Samuelson has become a member of the' 

 .Akticbolaget Continental Caoutchouc Compagnie, at Stockholm, 

 in the place of Axel Hermansonn, a merchant. Manager Carl 

 Friedrich Wilh. Ph. Junge will sign the company's name, with 

 another member of the board of managers. 



