Jli.v I, 1911.1 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



357 



In spite of the fact that Mr. Magowan was employed by the 

 Confederate government he had never been asked to take an 

 oatli of allegiance to it, nor had he been questioned as to his 

 sympathies. As he was at heart a strong Union man and 

 working because he was obliged to, he could not forbear to 

 strike one blow for the Union, and he therefore punctured 

 with a sharp nail every piece of torpedo fuse that passed through 

 his hands. The msulation was thus ruined and the torpedoes 

 would never have exploded had the electric current been turned 

 through the wire. After tlic battle of .-Xntietani Mr. JNIagowan 

 with his invalid wife was able to get a letter to the secretary 

 of war, who gave him a permit to go north under a flag of 

 truce during an exchange of prisoners. After reaching Phila- 

 delphia his wife died and he took her to Trenton for burial. 

 He then went into a factory there and was employed at mak- 

 ing swords. 



facture of rubber matting and small mold work. This factory 

 was burned September 24, 1902, and later rebuilt. Here he 

 worked until the time of his death. 



Personally, Mr. Magowan was an extremely modest, old- 

 fashioned gentleman, of quiet tastes and unimpeachable integrity. 



WILLIAM RICHARD BRIXEY. 



\\ . R. Brixcy, a leading manufacturer of insulated wire and 

 cal)les, died at his home in Seymour, Conn., June 9. 



He was born at Southampton, England, May 11, 1851, edu- 

 cated at a well-known grammar school and then entered the 

 British Mercantile Marine Service, later commanding his own 

 ship and visiting all the leading ports of the world. He came 

 to this country in 187K, became an American citizen, and went 

 into business with liis brutlicr-in-law, Mr. Austin G. Day a 



Allan Magowan. 



Samuel N. Williams. 



William Richaru Brixey. 



In 1865 Bramble & Sinclair had a small factory in Paterson, 

 New Jersey, where they made mechanical rubber goods. Here 

 Mr. Magowan worked for a short time, when J. J. Fields hav- 

 ing moved his machinery from Richmond to Jersey City, he 

 accpted a position with him. In 1867 he accepted a position as 

 superintendent of the Boston Car Spring Co., owned by George 

 and Hiram P. Dunbar, the factory being at Roxbury, Massachu- 

 setts. The lines of goods manufactured were carsprings and 

 specialties in mechanical rubber goods. Two years later he ac- 

 cepted the position of superintendent of the Whitehead Brothers 

 Rubber Co. in Trenton, remaining with them until 1880, when 

 the Trenton Rubber Co. was incorporated, Frank A. Magowan, 

 Spencer M. Alpaugh, Gardner Forman and Allan Magowan be- 

 ing equal owners. A few years later the same company started 

 the Empire Rubber Co. for the manufacture of rubber carriage 

 cloth. They afterwards bought the factory of the Star Rubber 

 Co. and moved the machinery of the Empire works there. Later 

 the same four purchased the plant of the Hamilton Rubber Co. 

 and started there the Eastern Rubber Co. 



This was the high tide of .Allan Magowan's prosperity. Had 

 he sold his interests at this time he would probably have realized 

 half a million dollars. The financial troubles of his son, Frank 

 A. Magowan. however, and the wish to assist him as much as 

 possible, induced Mr. Magowan to sacrifice all of his holdings to- 

 gether with $50,000 worth of life insurance. Again a poor man, 

 Mr. Magowan with two of his sons, Joseph H. Magowan and 



John T. Magowan, built a small plant and incorporated the 

 Modern Rubber Manufacturing Co., the business being the manu- 



pioneer in the .\nierican rulibcr industry, and the inventor of 

 "Kerite." In 1879 he married Miss Frances N. DeWolfe, daugh- 

 ter of Alva G. DeWolfe, a co-worker of Mr. Day's, and also 

 an inventor of note. The Day plant was at Seymour, Conn., 

 and there Mr. Brixey developed the business with remarkable 

 energy and intelligence, mastering it in every detail and becom- 

 ing general manager on the death of Mr. Day, and sole pro- 

 prietor upon the death of his sister, Mrs. Day. 



Mr. Bri.xey was not satisfied with the use of his cables in 

 the telegraph and telephone field, or with the early endorse- 

 ment of such men as Morse, but pushed out into larger develop- 

 ments in other fields ; some of the most noteworthy of tliese in- 

 cluded the supplying and laying of the Alaska cable, the furnish- 

 ing of the Panama zone cable, and the furnishing of the wires 

 and cables for the Pennsylvania tunnel and terminal, connecting 

 the two shores of the Hudson and East Rivers. 



In 1908 Mr. Brixey incorporated the business as a company, 

 and soon after retired, leaving it to the management of his 

 eldest son, Richard D. Brixey, president of the Kerite Insulated 

 Wire and Cable Co. Mr. Brixey left two other sons, Reginald 

 W. Brixey, vice-president, and Austin D. Brixey, secretary of 

 the company. 



Mr. Brixey was quite active in public life, being a member of 

 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and a member 

 for many years of the Old Guard of New York City, with the 

 rank of captain. He was a member of the Brooklyn Club, and 

 a high degree Mason. At the time of the terrible subway ex- 

 plosion at Murray Hill, New York, in 1902, he was very seri- 



