January i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



125 



John Boyd Dunlop. 

 DR. DUNLOP AND THE "TIRE MAJORITY" DINNER. 



AV7HILE the dinner in commemoration of the "majority" — or 

 ** coming of age — of the pneumatic tire, reported in The 

 India Rubber World last month (page 69) had for the guest 

 of honor Mr. Harvey du Cros, managing director of the Dunlop 

 Pneumatic Tyre Co., Limited, who was presented then with a 

 beautiful gold souvenir and a congratulatory address with 850 

 signatures, there was much interest in the attendance at the 

 dinner of Mr. John Boyd Dunlop, the inventor of the tire which 

 was the basis of the Dunlop company. 



Mr. du Cros. in acknowledging the honor paid to him, was 

 very happy in his references to Mr. Dunlop. He said that he 

 would not accept without qualification the credit given to him 

 as the founder of the tire industry. No particular man founded 

 that industry. It was founded by a group of men who were all 

 present — Mr. John B. Dunlop, Mr. R. J. Mecredy, Mr. Richard 

 Booth, and Mr. Fred Woods. They had two foreign godfathers, 

 Monsieur Clermont, of France, than whom there was no more 

 loyal colleague, and Herr -Kleyer, who had founded the industry 

 in Germany. 



It was, however. Mr. Dunlop's brains that produced the in- 

 vention, and no one appreciated this fact more than he (Mr. 

 ■du Cros) did. Mr. Dunlop performed what had been declared 



impossible. He produced a tire in which was solved the problem 

 of putting air into harness. The principle on which he con- 

 structed the tire had not been improved on since. It was but 

 bare justice to state that the industry was founded on the tire 

 produced by Mr. Dunlop. There was no manner of doubt as to 

 his ignorance of the existing Thomson patent. The speaker 

 remembered the fatal day in 1890 when that ancient patent was 

 laid before the Dunlop board. But if it had been known of prior 

 to the formation of the company, the companj would never 

 have been founded. 



Thomson apparently had the patent and no business; Dunlop 

 had the business but no patent. Air. Dunlop had helped them 

 most materially in their efforts to find out something which 

 would get them over their difficulty, and no one gave sounder 

 advice than he did. 



At the pneumatic tire dinner the leading toast was proposed 

 by Mr. A. J. Walter, k.c, who spoke at length on the develop- 

 ment of the bicycle, in connection with which the pneumatic tire 

 first came into practical use. He said that in 1889 the number 

 of bicycles in the United Kingdom was approximately 300,000, 

 which, by the way, is a much larger figure than can be claimed 

 for the United States in the same year, and rather notable in 

 view of the fact that only cushion and solid tires had been applied 

 to bicycles before that year. Mr. Walter said that the number 

 of bicycles in that country now was about 3,000,000, and the 

 yearly output something like 800,000. The export of bicycles 

 in six months had amounted to £84,0,822 [= $4,091,860.26]. It is 

 evident, therefore, that the British bicycle industry contributes in 

 no small degree to the demand for pneumatic tires. Mr. Walter 

 said further that over 2,000,000 people paid a cycle tax in France. 

 The number of motor vehicles in Great Britain at present is 

 100,000, and the yearly output 20,000. 



It is announced that the French government has decided to 

 confer on Mr. du Cros the order of the Legion d'Honneur. The 

 King of Spain will confer upon him the order of Isabella la 

 Catholica. 



THEN AND NOW IN CEMENT MAKING. 



T N the beginnings of the rubber cement manufacture, as carried 

 on in Massachusetts, it was customary to cut up the crude 

 rubber with butcher knives, after which the slices were cut into 

 smaller pieces with tinsmith's shears. The shredded rubber was 

 then put into a barrel, and naphtha was applied. The mixture 

 was occasionally stirred with a piece of old board or an old 

 oar for a paddle. It took a month to make rubber cement by 

 this method. 



Nowadays the crude rubber is speedily cut up by steam-driven 

 rotary knives, and in the churn with which it is thrown with 

 naphtha the stirring is done by paddles operated by steam power. 

 By the modern method, with improved appliances, rubber cement 

 can be made in a day. 



RUBBER IN A LOOM PICKER CHECK. 



The Presentation Trophi-. 



{Testimonial to Mr. du Cros. at the "Tire Majority" Dinner.] 



A LOOM picker check invented in Lancashire involves a 

 **■ new use for india-rubber. A "picker" in weaving is the 

 part of the picker staff which strikes the shuttle; it is covered 

 with a material not so hard as to injure the shuttle, and yet 

 durable, such as rawhide. Leather is expensive and requires 

 frequent renewal, besides which a more elastic material is 

 desirable. In the Lancashire invention cotton sheeting is 

 treated with rubber solution and passed between heavy 

 rollers, the operation being repeated several times with added 

 rubber solution until the fabric has the desired quality. The 

 fabric is then wrapped around a mandrel into a tube, vul- 

 canized, and cut into suitable lengths. 



