April 1. 1914. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



349 



Jose Aniando Mcndes, Beiiedicto Diiartc Soeiro and Mario 

 Jorge de Pinho e Castro. 



The papers of Brazil all speak in the highest eulogy of Dr. 

 Huber and his great services to the City of Para and its mu- 

 seum, and beyond that to the whole Amazon country. They 

 mention in detail his contributions to technical — particularly 

 botanical— literature, which, counting his books and articles in 

 various publications, number over a hundred; and they all 

 declare that his death is an irreparable loss to the science of 

 rubber botany, and particularly to the famous C.ocldi Museum, 



Gr.we of Dr. J.scqves Hl'ber. 



of which for so many years he was the dominating spirit. In 

 regard to the feeling entertained for him as a man, the follow- 

 ing paragraph from one of the Para papers is informing: 



"His co-workers at the museum, down to the lowest day- 

 laborer, have expressed their grief at the loss of the soul of 

 the institution — a self-sacrificing head, a loyal colleague and a 

 faithful friend. They all feel that a really great and good man 

 has passed away in the person of Jacques Huber." 



He W'as married in 1901 to Dona Sophia Muller. who, with 

 a daughter aged 10 and two sons, S and 3 years of age, sur- 

 vives him. 



PERNAMBUCO RUBBER EXPORTS. 



The total rubber exports from Pernambuco were: 1910, 

 176 tons; 1911, 70;/. tons; 1912, 96'A tons. For the last named 

 year the separate destinations were: Germany, 37K' tons; 

 Great Britain, 19 tons; France, etc, 40 tons. The falling off 

 as compared with 1910 was largely in the exports from 

 Pernambuco to Xorth .\merica. 



CASUALTIES TO BRAZILIAN RUBBER STEAMERS. 

 Several casualties are reported to Brazilian river steamers car- 

 rying rubber. On January 13 the ".\juricaba" sank in eight 

 fathoms with a cargo of rubber estimated at the equivalent of 

 $150,000. Later the "Itucaman" went down at Manaos with 80 

 tons of rubber worth about $125,000. 



RESOLUTIONS ON THE DEAIH OF MR. VAN VLIET. 



.\t the meeting of the Board of Directors of Goodyear's India 

 Kubber Glove Manufacturing Co., held on March 26, the fol- 

 lowing minute, drafted by a committee appointed to present 

 suitable resolutions referring to the death of Mr. \'an Vlict, 

 was adopted : 



"Here in its appropriate place in the Minute Book of the 

 Board of Directors of the Goodyear's India Rubber Glove 

 Manufacturing Co., let us record those facts and qualities 

 which relate most closely to the life of our deceased director 

 and treasurer, Clinton Van Vliet, who passed from our 

 midst on February 6, 1914. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, 

 of sturdy Holland ancestry, he was educated there in the 

 imhlic schools, from which he graduated with high honors, 

 and he soon thereafter entered business life in New York 

 City. In 1870 be became office manager of the Goodyear s 

 India Rubber Glove Manufacturing Co., and afterwards 

 treasurer, which position he retained to the time of his death. 

 lie was also a director of the company from October 30, 

 1891, to February 6, 1914. 



"F.ver courteous, beloved by his associates m the rubber 

 industry, painstaking, keen and alert in his business dealings. 

 zealous for the welfare of employes under his charge.^ this 

 Board has lost in him a faithful co-worker and friend." 



Mr. F. F. Schaffer was elected treasurer, and Mr. John D. 

 I'arbcrry was elected a director of the company, to hll the 

 \acancies caused bv Mr. Van Vliet's death. 



ANOTHER VICTIM OF SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



It will be recalled tliat about six months ago— or, to be more 

 exact, on the morning of September 15, 1913— Mrs. Gottschalk, 

 the wife of Dr. Louis Gottschalk, manager and vice-president 

 of the .Membic Process Co., was killed in the company's labo- 

 ratory, at Sewaren, New Jersey, by the explosion of a steel 

 container in which there was a mixture of chemicals used in 

 syntliclic rubber experiments. 



.\nntluT investigator doing the same sort of research work 

 lias met liis fate in the same way in the same laboratory. 



Dr. Gottschalk, undeterred by the tragic fate of his wife, 

 determined to continue his search for the chemical cimstruc- 

 tinn of rubber, and he associated with him his son-in-law, 

 George Titus, and a chemical engineer, Clifford D. Meeker. 

 I'"or several months past they have been engaged in the com- 

 ILiny's laboratory in their scientific experiments. On March 26, 

 while the three were in the laboratory a retort containing a 

 mixture of chemicals exploded, instantly killing Mr. Meeker 

 and seriously injuring Mr. Titus, who. however, escaped death 

 because at the time he happened to be screened by some steel 

 plates. 



.Votwithstanding these two tragedies, the two survivors of the 

 last explosion declare that they will continue with lluir ex- 

 jieriments. 



CATALOGS OF STANDARD SIZE. 



.\ committee appointed by the Technical Publicity Association, 

 of New York City, has been investigating for the past year and 

 a half the subject of standardizing the size of catalogs, the 

 object being to make this particular form of publicity of the 

 greatest possible value. -A file of catalogs carefully arranged is 

 often decidedly valuable to the merchant or his purchasing agent, 

 and uniformity of size would not only assist materially in suc"- 

 an arrangement but would probably lead to the preservation • ■' 

 many catalogs which are now, because of their inconvenienr 

 size or form, either misplaced or lost. As a result of its investi- 

 gations the committee recommends as standards for all catalog 

 purposes sizes 6x9 and 8,''2 x 11 inches, with 8 x W'A inches for 

 bulletins, and this recommendation has been accepted by the 

 association, a large number of companies now using letter- 

 beads of this size and bulletins being filed with correspondence. 

 The .\merican Society of Mechanical Engineers and the .Ameri- 

 can Institute of .-Vrchitects have also had committees engaged in 

 similar investigations, each of which recommends the 914 x 11 

 inch size for both catalogs and bulletins. 



