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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IDeckmber i, 1909. 



The Rubber Trade at Akron, Ohio. 



By a Resident Correspondent. 



EXPANSION OF THE GOODYEAR TIRE COMPANY. 



THE most important development of the month among Akron 

 rubber companies is the announcement of the plans for 

 the expansion of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. 



At the next annual meeting of the company, on December 5, 

 a large number of new shareholders will be represented, by rea- 

 son of the sale of several thousand shares of treasury stock 

 during the last few weeks. The stock was offered for sale on 

 the open market and was bought in comparatively small blocks, 

 it is understood, by a number of different interests. The price 

 ranged as high as 165. 



One of the new men who will enter the company is Mr. Frank 

 II. Adams, who is to take the office of treasurer, which has 

 heretofore been combined with that of vice president and held 

 i is Mr. C. W. Seiberling. Mr. Adams is a life long resident 

 of Akron, being the son of Frank Adams, a pioneer sewer 

 pipe manufacturer here. For a number of years he has been 

 connected with the First National Bank of Akron, and will 

 leave the position of cashier to enter the rubber business. 



Rumors have been abroad that the Goodyear company has 

 been merged with the General Motors Co., but such reports are 

 emphatically denied by the officers of the company. What un- 

 doubtedly gave rise to them was the contract entered into be- 

 tween the Akron company and the Buick Motor Co., which is 

 the chief factor of the General Motors Co. This is said to be 

 the largest single contract for automobile tires ever made. It 

 will provide equipment for a large part of the 1910 Buick output 

 as well as for a number of cars from the Cadillac, Welsh, Olds- 

 mobile, Oakland, Rapid, and Reliance factories, which are also 

 components of the General Motors company. Mr. C. W. Sei- 

 berling informs The India Rubber World that the number of 

 sets involved will considerably exceed 20,000. 



Mr. F. A. Seiberling confirmed the rumor that overtures had 

 been made to the Goodyear company to remove its factory to 

 Detroit, but, judging by the preparations for additions to the 

 factory here, it is not the intention of the company to make a 

 1 hange. Plans are being made for two factory buildings, five 

 stories high, aggregating 500 feet in length and affording 150,000 

 square feet of additional floor space. The site of these structures 

 will be the east half of the company's 12-acre property. To make 

 room for them Prune street will have to be vacated by the city 

 council, but when the petition of the company was presented 

 to that body its members expressed themselves as favorable to 

 the concession. 



The company now have 1,000 people on their pay rolls, accord- 

 ing to the statement of President Seiberling, and after the new 

 additions are in operation from 1,600 to 1,800 will be employed. 

 The new factories will be used for the manufacture of automobile 

 tires. It is expected that 12 or more of the new tire machines 

 already mentioned in The India Rubber World will be put 

 into regular use at that time. 



The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. recently purchased the 

 abandoned plant of the defunct Akron China Co., which adjoins 

 the Goodyear property on the east. Mr. F. A. Seiberling states 

 that the old plant is being remodeled for use as a reclaiming 

 plant. "We are now working out an entirely new process for 

 reclaiming scrap rubber," said Mr. Seiberling. The plant will 

 have a capacity of ten tons a day. 



SWINEHART COMPANY'S NEW FACTORY. 



The new pneumatic tire factory of the Swinehart Clincher 

 Tire and Rubber Co. will be ready for equipment with machinery 

 during the first week of December. The building is two stories 



high, 62 x 150 feet. In it will be installed a new engine, three 

 rubber mills, one calender, and three hydraulic vulcanizers for 

 penumatic tires. The capacity will be 100 pneumatic tires per 

 day. The standard types of automobile clincher and quick 

 detachable tires will be made. Experiments are also being made 

 on a new type of patent automobile pneumatic tire, but officers 

 of the company say that it will not be ready for manufacture 

 before the middle of the next season. 



Mr. Claude W. Moody, formerly with the Pennsylvania Rubber 

 Co. (Jeannette, Pennsylvania), has been employed as sales man- 

 ager by the Swinehart company. To facilitate the distribution 

 of their product the company established during the latter part 

 of November agencies in Washington, Boston, and Buffalo, and 

 others are to be placed in Philadelphia and Indianapolis. "We 

 already have sufficient orders," said Mr. \\". W. Wuchter, man- 

 ager of the company, "to take care of our 1910 output." 



BUCKEYE RUBBER CO. REBUILDING. 



Work was started during the last week in November on a 

 new factory building at the plant of the Buckeye Rubber Co. It 

 will be one story high, 208 x 62 feet. Its location will be along- 

 side the structure partly destroyed by fire last summer, which 

 is now being rebuilt. The object of the new building is to enable 

 the company to increase its output of pneumatic automobile tires. 

 These are marketed by the Consolidated Tire and Rubber Co. 

 under the name "Kelly-Springfield." The addition will not affect 

 the output of solid tires. When completed the new building will 

 be equipped with four or five tire hydraulic presses to equip a 

 vulcanizing department. The rest of the space will be used as 

 a machine shop and considerable new equipment is to be pur- 

 chased for this department. 



NEW TIRE PATENT LITIGATION. 



Patent infringement suits involving two Akron companies 

 were started during the past month. Action was instituted 

 against the Rapid Safety Co., of New York, for the alleged 

 infringement of a patent on an automobile tire granted to Ed- 

 ward B. Cadwell and licensed exclusively, according to the 

 claims of the suit, to the Swinehart Clincher Tire and Rubber 

 Co. The tire involved is of the cushion type. 



Suit was also started by the Motz Clincher Tire and Rubber 

 Co., of this city, in the United States circuit court in Cleveland 

 with the Swinehart Clincher Tire and Rubber Co. as defendant. 

 The Motz company claim to be the sole owners of patent No. 

 926,012, covering a tire having webbed sides and a thin tread. 

 A restraining order and damages were asked. The Motz com- 

 pany announce that they expect to start other infringement suits. 



SOME DIAMOND COMPANY HISTORY. 



Mr. Ohio C. Barber, in an address delivered here November 

 8, related some interesting inside history of The Diamond Rubber 

 Co., of which he has been a director and leading shareholder 

 since its organization. "The Diamond Rubber Co. commenced 

 business in 1893," he said, "and after passing through a period 

 of changes the present management took charge. The gentle- 

 men who came here at that time were all young men. They 

 were four in number and I don't believe they could have 

 mustered $5,000 among them. They came from Boston and 

 made a proposition to take over the company. It was a prob- 

 lem whether it was a good investment or not, but after mature 

 deliberation and consideration of their recommendations, the 

 owners of the company felt convinced that they were all right 

 and sold half the stock to them, taking their notes for the debt. 

 At that time the amount invested in the company was $500,000 

 and the working force was 240 people. To-day the money in- 



