February 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



233 



New York's Fourteenth Annual Automobile Show. 



Ll'.SS than twci (k'cadt-s ago the appearance of any form of 

 the then so-called "horseless carriage" was the signal for 

 every pedestrian within seeing, hearing and smellinij dis- 

 tance to stop and gaze with mingled wonder and amusement. 

 The story of the marvelous growth of the automohile is so well 

 known to the average person that it is useless to reiterate what 

 has been repeated countless times in the newspapers and trade 

 l)ublications, save to point out that no other factor of modern in- 

 dustry has passed through such marked changes in such a short 

 lapse of time. This relates to all liranches of the industry ; 

 pleasure cars, commercial vehicles, tires and accessories of all 

 kinds. The industry began with exiierinicnts, leaped to radical 

 designs, and in- 

 novations, but is 

 now gradually 

 settling down to 

 a conservative 

 progress. 



Thanks partly 

 to this conserv- 

 atism, the Four- 

 teenth .\ational 

 \ u t o m o b i 1 e 

 .Show, which was 

 held in X e w 

 ^'ork City under 

 the auspices of 

 the Automobile 

 Chamber o f 

 Commerce from 

 January 3 to 10. 

 was held under 

 one r o of in 

 Grand Centr.il 

 Palace instead • i 

 in two biiildinu- 

 over a mile apart 

 Another innova 

 tion at this year's 

 show was the ex- 

 clusion of motor 

 trucks and the 

 shortening of the 

 time of the ex- 

 hibit from two 



weeks to one. .'Mtho there were not quite so many exhibitors, 

 the four lower Hoors of the Palace were entirely given over to 

 the show, and the attendance for the week reached far above that 

 of last year. 



As announced in the January number of The lNt)r.\ Kubhkr 

 World, a number of the larger tire and rubber companies with- 

 drew from the show this year ; nevertheless, at the end of the 

 week those companies which took the time and trouble to arrange 

 their displays, reported in many instances that they had been well 

 repaid, by reason of the amount of business actually done and 

 prospects gained. A feature of the .show, which differed in some 

 respects from those of former years, was that there were fewer 

 curiosity seekers, the great majority of visitors being interested 

 in some particular line of accessories or havin.g the purchase of a 

 car in mind. This fact alone would seem to indicate that the 

 annual .shows, like the industry itself, are settling down to a more 

 husiness-like basis. 



The Grand Central Palace lends itself particularly well to ex- 

 hibits of this kind, and it does m.t need anv interior reconstruc- 



tion, involving the expense of thousands of dollars, as was for- 

 merly the case, when the show was held in the historic Madison 

 Square Garden. The simple decorations in tlie Palace made the 

 interior into a "Corinthian Court," which was extremely harnion- 

 ious and pleasing to the eye. A general view from the entrance 

 and also a view from the balcony looking down on the main lloor 

 are shown in the accompanying reproduced photographs. 



The following is a description of the exhibits made by those 

 companies wdiich are allied with the ruliber industry in the manu- 

 facture of tires, tubes and other automobile rubber goods: 



The Double Fabric Tire Co., of Auburn, Indiana, featured its 

 Inter-Lock inner tire, which is a protector of reinforced rubber 



and fabric to be 

 placed inside the 

 tire casing and 

 around the inner 

 tube. It is claimed 

 that this protec- 

 tor will effectual- 

 ly ward off punc- 

 t u r e s, prevent 

 b 1 o w-outs and 

 thus prolong the 

 life of any tire 

 on which it is 

 used. Other prod- 

 ucts of this com- 

 pany arc blow- 

 out patches, 

 boots, etc. 



The Miller 

 Rubber Co., of 

 Akron, Ohio, ex- 

 ploited its two- 

 cure process in 

 which the layers 

 of fabric forming 

 the foundation 

 of the tire are 

 built up on an 

 iron core and 

 then placed in a 

 heavy mold and 

 vulcanized in the 

 same way as in 

 the full-mold process. The tread is then cemented on and 

 vulcanized. This company also gave out circulars announcing 

 that it is prepared to supply non-skid tread bands to be vulcanized 

 on old tires. These tread bands are semi-cured and the vulcaniz- 

 ing process is completed when they are applied to the old tire. 

 .At this booth there was also shown a line of Miller inner tubes. 

 The Voorhees Rubber Mfg. Co.. of Jersey City, New Jersey, 

 laid special emphasis on the construction of its Brown Scientific 

 inner tubes. These tubes arc built up in tube form on round 

 mandrels with eight laminations, which process seals up any pin 

 holes which might occur in any single layer. These tubes are 

 93 per cent, pure rubber. In order to demonstrate the air-holding 

 qualities of this tube, the exhibitors had a short section of 

 3'/2-inch inner tube clamped together at the ends and inflated to 

 a circumference of 60 inches. 



The Columb Tyres Import Co., of Xew York City, had on 

 display a full line of Prowodnik tires in smooth and non-skid 

 treads. A new tire in this line is one with steel studs set into 

 tlu' ndiber. 



E.N'TR.\NCE OF Gr.XNO CeNTR.\L P.\L.\CE DURING AuTO.MOBILE ShoW 



