378, 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



fJlI.Y 1, 1911. 



The Diamond Rubber Co. and Its Sponsors 



IN 1898, the office force of the Diamond Rubber Co. was five 

 in number, with a factory force of 250. At present it has an 

 office force of 250, and an average factory force of 5,000. 



Ohio C. Barber, the pioneer of modern match manufacturing, 

 for years the president of the Diamond Match Co., organized the 

 Diamond Rubber Co. in 1895. It was reorganized in 1898 with 

 A. H. Marks as head of the manufacturing department, VV. B. 

 Hardy as president, and W. B. Miller as head of the sales de- 

 partment, experienced rubber men, with Ohio C. Barber a large 

 stockholder and .A. II. Xoah treasurer. The company is now 

 capitalized at $10,000,000, all common stock, and it is said to be 

 quoted at somewhere near $300 a share. 



From year to year, outgrowing their old buildings, departments 

 have been divided and given new quarters, and other depart- 

 ments added, so that within a few years almost all the old build- 

 ings have been replaced with the five-story and basement type 

 of building of the most modern brick, concrete and steel con- 

 struction. Some of these buildings are at least 600 feet long 

 and 100 feet wide, and the plant's present floor space is more 

 than 36 acres. 



In 1898 the chief .irticles produced were bicycle tires, belting 

 and mechanical goods. At that time the automobile tire was 

 being developed, and the next year tires became a separate de- 

 partment under 



M. A. Flynn, which "'"'"" '.V ~^', •. 



in its busy sea- 

 son produces 

 more than 2,400 

 tires per day. The 

 mechanical goods 

 output is lariic 

 and covers all 

 lines. The in- 

 sulated wire unit 

 supplies everything 

 from small elec- 

 tric wire to ca- 

 bles. Other units 

 are for the manu- 

 facture of all 

 types of steam 

 packing, rubber 

 boots and shoes, hard rubber, accessories for automobiles and 



aeronlancs, etc. 



It was in 1898, that Messrs. Marks and Miller took the active 

 management of the company's aiTairs ofif the hands of O. C. 

 Barber and the others of the old regime, and it was only a 

 few months afterward that things began to pick up. One took 

 charge of the company's sales, the other looked after the manu- 

 facturing. With him to Akron, Mr. Marks brought his re- 

 claiming process, and it was this, together with the indefatig- 

 able efforts of the young men who had come out of the east, 

 that made the Akron company one of the largest and most 

 successful in the trade. 



A. H. Marks is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, and of Harvard. He entered the employ of 

 the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co., shortly after gradu- 

 ating as a chemist. Later he became connected with the Revere 

 Rubber Co., Boston. 



Aside from the brilliant salesmanship of W. B. Miller, it 

 is the organizing faculty and the inventive ability and knowl- 

 edge of the chemistry of rubber of Mr. Marks that has given 

 to the Diamond its phenomenal growth. 



The Marks alkali process for rubber reclaiming has proved 



to be cne of the most successful in the history of the reclaiming 

 business. In addition to the .-Mkali Rub1)er Co. in Akron, in 

 which he has a substantial interest, he and his associates put 

 up the great factory in England, known as the Northwestern 

 Rubber Co., Limited. The reclaiming factory of the Continental 

 Caoutchouc und Rubber Co., some eight miles from Hanover, 

 Germany, is also operated under a license from Mr. Marks. In 

 Canada, Italy, France, and other countries where rubber manu- 

 facture is at all important, the process is used and the in- 

 ventor receives a royalty. 



He was a pioneer in the extraction of rubber from bastard 

 and resinous rubbers, in guayule extraction, and in a variety of 

 other notable manufacturing advances. 



Although only forty years of age and a millionaire, he is not 

 a bit puffed up; on the contrary he has an exceedingly modest 

 bearing. 



He is pleasant and affable, but his employees call him 

 "the man who never smiles." He is too busy. His office is 

 littered with samples of rubber products, trade magazines, and 

 dozens of other things. It isn't a well ordered office. He is 

 always so engrossed that little things do not make any 

 difference. 



It is not to be imagined that he never relaxes from the strain 



of business, how- 

 ever. He is an en- 

 thusiastic motorist 

 and an exceedingly 

 skillful driver. He 

 also goes in for 

 motor boats and 

 in the summer 

 keeps a boat in 

 Marblehead Bay 

 that is said to be 

 the speediest craft 

 on the New Eng- 

 land coast. He 

 also plays golf, a 

 good game, but it 

 is doubtful if he 

 could b e a t — b u t 

 that perhaps would 

 sound a little too much like boasting on the part of the writer. 

 Long before he left the East, in fact when he first developed 

 his alkali process, although only a youngster, Mr. Marks is 

 said to have prophesied that it would one day be of far more 

 commercial importance than the acid process — a prediction 

 likely to be speedily realized. 



MAIN PI..-\N'T OF llIK |il.\MiiXIi Kl T.I'.ER CO., .\KRON, OHIO, 



RUBBER BANDS FOR WOMEN'S HATS. 



Commenting on a recent proclamation, made by the police of 

 Vienna and other European cities, against the wearing by women, 

 of hat pins the unprotected points of which project beyond the 

 brims of the hats they are used to secure, and which are de- 

 nounced as a menace to public safety when worn in public con- 

 veyances or crowded resorts, Guminiceiluiig suggests a return to 

 the elastic bands, with which the wearers of "artistic confections 

 in millinery" were wont to secure them in bygone years. Our 

 contemporary intimates that the best of the "protectors" proposed 

 for the dangerous points, offer but an unsatisfactory solution of 

 the problem, whereas the elastic band, of a color to match the 

 hair, would be inconspicuous and sufficiently secure. And then, 

 as our esteemed contemporary points out. what a business boom 

 in "hat elastic" the rubber industry would enjoy. 



