256 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IFekruarv 1. 1914. 



LOWER PRICES FOR SFALDINC GOLF BALLS. 



Tilt new catalog of A. G. Spalding & Bros., issued January 1, 

 shows a reduction in the price of all the $9 per dozen golf balls 

 made Iiy that company to $7.50 per dozen. This reduction is 

 not made owing to the tarit't, as of course crude rubber has 

 come in free for many years, but is made because of the de- 

 creased cost of crude rubber. The company states that its action 

 in reducing golf l)all prices is simply in harmony with its action 

 in other lines where it has reduced prices following a reduction 

 in the cost of raw material. 



LEE TIRE & RUBBER CO. IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS. 

 The Lee 1 ire & Rubber Co., of ConshohocUen. IVnnsylvania, 

 has appreciably increased its equipment and capacity during the 

 past few months, having installed several 60-inch mills, a new 

 calender, three new tire-making machines and several hundred 

 cores and side rings for the manufacture of pneumatic automo- 

 bile tires, as well as completing a 600 h. p. addition to the boiler 

 house. The cost of these im|)rovements and additions is estimated 

 at between $50,000 and $75.(XX), and the company anticipates an 

 increase of output for 1914 at least eipial to that effected last 

 year, during the last nine months of which tire sales are said to 

 have quadrupled and the production of either departments to have 

 increased more than SO per cent. 



THE BRITISH-AMERICAN MANUFACTURING CO. 



The Uritish-.American Manufacturing Co., incorporated under 

 the laws of the State of Delaware. November, 191.^. was organ- 

 ized for the purpose of treating various fabrics with the .Mack- 

 intosh process, said to render cloth substances .so treated water- 

 proof, rot and mildew-proof, and is guaranteed an absolute water 

 repellent. The company is showing an exceedingly attractive line 

 of samples and has already secured large contracts from the 

 United States and Canadian Cidvernnients fur pnnchcis and mili- 

 tary overcoats. 



The British-.Xnierican .Manufacturing Co. (under the man- 

 agement of which is the .\merican Raimee Co.) is capitalized 

 for $300,000 and its officers are : E. .-X. BrinckerhofF, president : 

 W. M. .Mackintosh, vice-president, and Dr. L. C. Himebaugh, 

 secretary and treasurer. The principal factory of the company is 

 located at Laurel, Maryland. The \V. L. Barrell Co., S Thomas 

 street. New York, is selling agent. 



Morgan & .Marshall. Last Liverpnol. Obin. are making the 

 Stein-Laplock tire, made for several years Ijy the Stein Double 

 Cushion Tire Co.. of Akron, Oliio. The superintendent of the 

 East Liverpool plant is Harvey Miller, well known among the 

 practical rubber men of the country. 



INNER TUBES AS LIFE SAVERS. 



.\n incident that recently occurred in Hartford. Connecticut, 

 is well worth a wide publication, because the successful rescue of 

 life made at that place by the use of inner tubes might possibly be 

 repeated in some other place later. On the afternoon of January 

 8 a number of boys were skating on Park river, near the factory 

 of the Hartford Rubber Works. They were playing "Follow 

 the Leader" and the leader, after the manner of boys, was tak- 

 ing his followers over thin ice. Several of them broke through. 

 The workmen just leaving the factory heard their cries and 

 could sec them in the twilight trying to hold on the thin edge 

 of tlie ice. Somebody bethought him of the i)ossibilities of the 

 inner tubes and the workmen ran into the factory, lirought out 

 some inflated tubes, tied ropes to them and threw them to the 

 boys and in this way rescued three of them. A fourth boy, who 

 had gone under the ice, was taken out too late to resuscitate. 



."Xs there are at least a couple of million inner tubes around 

 the country, distributed among auto owners, garages and in 

 dealers' stocks, the life-saving possibility of this article is an 

 excellent thing to keep in mind. 



Replete witli information for rubber manufacturers- 

 Pearson's "Crude Rubber and Compounding Ingredients." 



-Mr. 



THE INVENTION AND MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER STAMPS. 



Various opinions are expressed as to when and by whom the 

 rubber stamp was invented, altho it seems to be agreed that, 

 while experiments were being made at the same tune in other 

 parts of the country, the first rubber stamps were actually pro- 

 duced in Auburn, New York. One authority makes it appear 

 (|uite clear that James Orton Woodruff of that city was the 

 first to conceive the idea of printing by the use of vulcanized 

 rubber letters, this idea being suggested to him upon seeing a 

 stamp made of cut-out rubber letters glued to a curved block of 

 wood in use for printing on wash tubs: and that, witli the aid 

 of his uncle, Urial Woodruff, a dentist, he succeeded in making 

 a vulcanized rubber stamp, using for this purpose a regular 

 dental vulcanizer. and in establishing a business for their manu- 

 facture and sale. Later he disposed of this business and em- 

 barked in the exploitation of an impervious oil barrel, a patent 

 for w'hich had been granted him in 1865; so that it seems fairly 

 safe to place the date of his stamp invention a little earlier 

 than this, or not later than 1864. The first mounts for stamps 

 of his pnKlucti<in were made at Seneca Falls, New York, of 

 black walnut, turned in one piece. One of the earliest stamps 

 made was an American Express Co. C. O. D. stamp, and the 

 first rubber .stamp advertisement appeared in the "Nortliern 

 Christian .\dvocate," a Methodist weekly. 



There seems to be no doubt, however, that the first patent 

 on a process for the manufacture of rubber stamps was that 

 granted .^pril 22, 1873, to Geo. K. Cooke, whose instructions to 

 beginners or apprentices in stamp making, prepared about 35 

 years ago, were recently published in the London "Commercial 

 Stamp Trade Journal." These instructions are of historic, if 

 not of present practical interest, showing, as they do, the progress 

 that has been made in this particular branch of the rubber 

 manufacturing industry in the i>ast thirt}-rive years. During this 

 time many new compounding formulae and processes have been 

 employed in the production of this useful article, resulting in 

 great saving of time and expense over the early patented process. 



RUBBER STAMPS IN DRAFTING FOR BLUEPRINTS. 



It has been foimd that the rubber stamp, in addition to its 

 manifold other uses. ma.\ be used to advantage in certain por- 

 tions of drawings for blueprints — as, for instance, titles, general 

 instructions, etc. — and that portions tints stamped will show up 

 in the print as well as if drawn in tlie regular way. The tracing 

 to lie stamped is first sprinkled with powdered pumice stone, 

 thoroughly rubbed in and the surplus blown away The stamp, 

 freshly inked, is then ai)plied. firmly and evenly, after which 

 lampblack is sprinkled over the stamped portion, pressed with 

 a rag over the finger to soak up the ink. and the surplus blown 

 off. When the tracing is dry the entire surface should be care- 

 fully cleaned with gasolene. 



EXTENT AND GROWTH OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY. 



On October 1 last tliere were registered in the United States 

 1,254.971 automobiles, of wliicb number 146,365 represented new- 

 registrations, 7,153 non-resident and 18,288 re-registrations. 

 New York State is far in the lead in the.se figures, having a 

 total registration of 129.441, of which 14,420 are new — California 

 being second, with a total registration of 118,135, of which 6,479 

 are new. In 1908, the first year of really liig production of auto- 

 mobiles in this country, there were 55,000 cars made, and since 

 that time the demand and consequent output have steadily in- 

 creased until with the past year's manufacture of 375,000 cars 

 the result was an over-production of only a few thousand, while 

 it is estimated that the annual absorption power in this country 

 for motor cars in normal times is about 425,000. 



DfRINC THE FISCAL VE.VR 1913 ENDING NOVEMBER 30 LAST 7,127 



motorcycles were registered in the State of Massachusetts. 



