September 1, 1914] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



671 



IMPROVEMENTS IN RUBBER PAILS. 



THE RUBBER TIRE. 



T' 



lii nibher bucket has been on the market for some time 

 The Indi.x Rubber World ol September, 1901, contained 

 an illustrated description of the ^ 



Goodrich collapsible bucket, and 

 the issue of October, 1912. 

 showed that company's im- 

 proved pail with strainer spout, 

 while various other rubber pails 

 have been noted as they made 

 their appearance. But improve- 

 ments which render it of greater 

 practical value have lieen made 

 from time to time, and the cuts 

 herewith illustrate two 

 of the latest develop- 

 ments in the manufac- 

 ture of this useful accessory. 



The first cut shows a cloth-lined 

 rubber bucket with reinforced center, double 

 bottom and corners— to prevent leaks— and 

 stronsr handles that will not pull out. It is collapsible and has 



"' '•■opacity of a gallon and a half. 

 f~~ J It is known as the W. T. Co. rub- 



^is^ ^gr ' ^'^^S^ '"-"'■ pail- [Whitall Tatum Co., 



^^^ ^ ^ V^ m New York.) 



The second cut ilkistrates a 

 folding water pail with legs and 

 handles. This is made of water- 

 proof canvas, rubber coated, and 

 is supplied with four pieces of 

 hard wood, which are pushed into 

 spaces provided on the sides, thus 

 keeping the bucket rigid and 

 forming substantial legs for its support. When not in use. these 

 wooden legs may be slipped into a 

 loop on the bottom of the bucket, 

 whicli can be folded into a very 

 small space. The third illustration 

 shows a basin made on the same 

 lines as the l)ucket. [.\bercrombie 

 &. Fitch Co., Xew York.] 



ALGOT LANGE BACK IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Several thousand people in the United States are familiar 

 with the explorations of Algol Lange, a traveler and writer of 

 Danish origin but for several years past a resident of the 

 United States. His book, "In the Amazon Jungle," issued 

 about two years ago, was one of the most interesting narra- 

 tions of tropical exploration yet put into type. He also acted 

 as lecturer at the rubber show held in Xew York in the fall 

 of 1912, describing the Amazon country with stereopticon 

 views made from photographs taken by himself. His lectures 

 were largelj' attended. Mr. Lange recently returned to Xew 

 Y'ork after an absence of a year and a half spent in further 

 exploration along the Amazon. He devoted most of his at- 

 tention during this time to the Lower .-Xniazon, where he 

 undertook a number of exploring expeditions in behalf of the 

 Brazilian Government. He has brouglit back with him an 

 interesting collection of idols, ceramics and funeral urns 

 taken from a sacred mound in the Sinking Island, about 200 

 miles north of Para. These relics Mr. Lange thinks were left 

 in this mound many centuries ago by a nomadic tribe from 

 Asia, the tracery and other markings on the urns appearing 

 to indicate an Asiatic origin. Incidentally. Mr. Lange 

 vouches for Roosevelt's discovery of a river a thousand miles 

 long. He. moreover, states that there are still other rivers 

 just as large in the heart of Brazil awaiting discovery. 



pMERSOX says "The first man who made a pair of shoes 

 •*— ' carpeted the earth with leather." 



The invention of the rubber tire made the automobile possible. 



And if rubber tires had been invented before iron wheels were 

 utilized, the railroads would never have existed. 



When Stephenson discovered that it was impossible to make 

 speed on a roadway with an iron-wheeled vehicle, he laid wooden 

 rails and covered them with strips of iron, thus getting a com- 

 paratively smooth surface. 



When I used to jog horses with my neighbor Ed Geers, the 

 "Silent Man," I realized, in driving a single block over a 

 macadam pavement from the barn to the track, how impossible 

 speed was on any road except one specially prepared. 



The race track was made of loam and tanbark. 



Here was a soft footing for the iron-shod feet of the horses, 

 and a yielding pavement for the iron tires of our sulkies. 



One line day some one sent to Ed Geers a present of a little 

 low-wheeled sulky. The wheels were evidently those taken from 

 a bicycle. At that time I had never heard of ball bearings. But 

 I soon understood that the ball-bearings shift the friction from 

 one place to a great many. 



The little low-wheeled sulky was laughed at, then admired. 

 Finally Ed Geers hitched a horse to it. Two turns around the 

 half-mile track and his horse was used to the contrivance. 



It ran as silently as Ed Geers himself, and with so little friction 

 that it seemed to be chasing the horse and pushing him along. 



.•\nd I saw that the horse was drawing the sulky by the reins, 

 and not by the traces. 



And so we came down the homestretch, neck and neck. And 

 then Ed Geers drew out in front of me very easily and went 

 under the wire three lengths ahead. We tried it again, and the 

 "Silent Man" delivered himself thus: "It means about ten 

 seconds on the mile." Then he dived into silence and pulled the 

 silence in after him. 



A few days later Ed Geers drove a race with this little low- 

 wheeled, ball-bearing sulky at Buffalo. When he drove out to 

 warm up he got the laugh from the grandstand. But he walked 

 away with the race just the same. He had just ten seconds lee- 

 way over the bunch. 



The next year on the Grand Circuit not a single high-wheeled 

 sulky was seen. The bicycle tire and the ball-bearing axles had 

 come to stay. 



As Emerson's shoemaker carpeted the earth with leather, so 

 has the pneumatic tire paved the roadway with rubber. 



Fifteen years ago the principal use for rubber was in making 

 gum shoes for politicians. 



The gum shoe is not now so much in demand as it was then. 



Doctor B. F. Goodrich was a practising physician at Tarry- 

 town, Xew York, when the high bicycle came in. It had a solid 

 rubber tire. One day Doctor Goodrich just took a piece of garden 

 hose and fastened it on his high wheel with the aid of wires. 



He found that this lessened the bumps, but the hose soon 

 flattened. Then he put a smaller hose inside of the garden hose. 

 And the third move was to blow the little hose that was inside 

 of the big one up with air. Then the pneumatic tire was born. 



Curiously enough, a man by the name of Dunlop, in England, 

 did the same thing at about the same time. 



It was very much like the invention of the telephone. Graj', of 

 Oberlin ; Dolbear, of Tufts ; Alexander Graham Bell, of Boston, 

 and Thomas Alva Edison, of the round world, turned the trick 

 at the same time. 



Everybody now agrees that it is the rubber tire and the 

 pneumatic inner tube that make the automobile possible. With 

 the iron tire we would still be hitting the pavement at five miles 

 an hour and no more. — Elbert Hubbard, in the New York 

 American. 



