December 1, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



93 



in Britain. He reported the manufacture of 157,000 cars in the 

 United States during the past business season. In one factory, 

 at Toledo, Ohio, he found orders in hand for 21,000 cars for the 

 coming season, on each of which a deposit had been paid. In 

 their stock room he saw tires vahied at £32,000 [=$155,728], and 

 was told that some time before there had been a much greater 

 supply. He saw no reason for expecting any "slump" in the 

 American automobile trade. 



CONTINENTAL SOLID TIRES. 



The Continental lyre and Rubber Co. (Great Britain), Lim- 

 ited^the Enghsh brancli of the Continental Caoutchouc-and 

 Gutta-Percha-Cie., of Hanover, Germany — although active in the 

 sale of pneumatic tires in Great Britain for some years past, have 

 only recently introduced tliere tlic solid rubber tires which they 



Grooved Endless Grip Tire. 



[Made by the Continental Tyre and Rubber Co.] 



have been selling so extensively on the continent. The Continen- 

 tal company have made Mr. A. C. Kahler manager of their solid 

 tire branch in London, where he will with his staff occupy hand- 

 some new premises in the Brompton road. 



GROWTH OF THE FORD BUSINESS. 



The Ford Motor Co. (Detroit, Michigan) have selected Fargo, 

 North Dakota, as the location for their twenty-fifth branch 

 house. While occupying now temporary premises, the company 

 will build in Fargo a large warehouse, fitted for taking care of 

 the growing automobile trade in North Dakota and South Da- 

 kota, which fact is an indication of the importance of this great 

 agricultural region to the tire manufacturing trade. The Fargo 

 branch will be in charge of Mr. C. F. Reynolds, formerly con- 

 nected with the I-'orrl interests in Chicago. 



AUTOMOBILE STATISTICS FOR FRANCE. 



Official figures show that there were in use in France in 

 1909 no fewer than 44,769 motor cars, compared with only 1672 

 cars in 1899. Of this total 25.269 were touring cars and 19,500 

 "trade" cars. It was estimated that the purchase price of the 

 44,769 cars was £19,000,000 [— about $95,000,000], and that the 

 owners had spent another £16,000,000 on maintenance and re- 

 pairs. French exports of cars have been 144,352,000 francs 

 [=$27,426,880] in 1907; 127,299,000 francs [=$24,186,810] in 

 1908; and 146,615,000 francs [=$27,856,850] in 1909. The indica- 

 tions are that the figures for 1910 will be still larger. 



MOTOR VEHICLE TRAFFIC IN LONDON. 



The Motor Traction has had made annually for five years 

 past a census of the traffic on certain much-traveled streets in 

 London — choosing each year a business day in September — with 

 a view to ascertaining the relative number of horse-drawn vehi- 

 cles and motor vehicles passing during the nine busiest hours of 



the day. Without going into details, it may be of interest to 

 present this summary of our contemporary's annual censuses : 



Year. Motors. Horse. Total. 



1906 632 5,310 5,942 



1907 1,268 4,809 6,077 



1908 1,496 5,118 6,614 



1909 2,098 4,388 6,486 



1910 2,662 3,716 6,378 



FISK RUBBER CO. ENLARGEMENT. 



The Fisk Rubber Co. (Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts) have 

 again found it necessary to add to their plant. The latest build- 

 ing is of steel and brick, 187 x 36 feet, and four stories high. An 

 important addition is being made to their power plant, and it is 

 estimated that they will be prepared to increase their production 

 of tires about 40 per cent. It is expected that the new building 

 will be completed and the machinery installed by January 15 

 next. 



TIRE COMPANY BRANCHES. 



The Fisk Rubber Co. (Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts) are 

 opening a branch in Hartford, in the Foster block, on Asylum 

 street, in charge of G. H. Rockwell, who has been connected 

 with the Fisk company for the past six years. 



The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio) are rep- 

 resented in Wichita, Kansas, by the Auto Tire and Supply Co., 

 who are removing to a new building, constructed for their use, 

 at Nos. 219-221 South Lawrence street. 



The Diamond Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio) have opened a 

 branch at Portland, Oregon, making four branches now main- 

 tained by them on the Pacific coast. The others are at Los An- 

 geles, California — the headquarters of C. E. Mathewson, the com- 

 pany's Pacific coast manager — San Francisco, and Seattle. The 

 Portland branch will be in charge of W. H. Gray, formerly 

 branch manager at Seattle. 



The Hartford Rubber Works Co.'s branch in Atlanta, Georgia, 

 under the management of A. W. Kirk, has been removed to more 

 commodious premises, at No. 19 Houston street 



The Continental "Q. D." Demountable Rim. 



[Adapted to Clincher, Q. D., and Dunlop tires; lighter than other rims; 

 less number of parts; applied with the tool illustrated below. Made by 

 Continental Caoutchouc Co., New York.] 



