Apkil i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



251 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



JAMES HUGGINS. who died of apoplexy at his home, No. 

 II Clifton place, Brooklyn, New York, on February 19, had 

 long been active in the rubber footwear trade. He was born in 

 Ireland November 21, 1848, and removed to Brooklyn at an 

 early age with his parents. For years he was at the head of 

 the New York shoe jobbing house of James Huggins & Co., and 

 after the retirement of that firm from the trade he was at the 

 head of the rubber department of jobbing houses. At the end 

 he was connected with J. E. Bates & Co., No. 202 Church street 



The Late James Huggins. 

 \ From Masonic Standard, New York.)] 



New York. Mr. Huggins long had been prominent in Masonic 

 circles. Funeral services were held in the Brooklyn Masonic 

 Temple and were largely attended. The Cathedral quartette 

 sang. The interment was at Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn. 

 Mr. Huggins is survived by a widow. 



* * * 



John J. Fields, the founder of the New Jersey Car Spring 

 and Rubber Co. (Jersey City, New Jersey), died on March 27 

 at his country home, Schooleys Mountain. New Jersey, after 

 several months of illness, in his eighty-ninth year. Mr. Fields 

 retired from active business several years ago, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son, John J. Fields, Jr., in the presidency of the 

 company named. The India Rubber World regrets that there 

 was not time before going to press this month for a more ade- 

 quate announcement of this sad event. 



* * * 



Thomas J. Skinner, who for a number of years was treasurer 

 of the Stoughton Rubber Co. (Stoughton, Massachusetts), from 

 which office he resigned about two years ago on account of ill 

 health, died early in the month from an attack of apoplexy. He 

 was one of the organizers of the Wakefield Saving Bank and 

 served as its president. Later he was elected first president of 

 Wakefield Cooperative Bank. Mr. Skinner was born in 1844, 

 and was a civil war veteran. He is survived by two daughters 

 (both married) and a son. 



* * * 



Charles Cushman, superintendent of several departments at 

 the factory of the National India Rubber Co. (Bristol, Rhode Is- 

 land), died at his home on March 14, after an illness of several 

 months, in his fifty-sixth year. Mr. Cushman, after going 



through the public schools at Havana, Ohio — where he was born 

 September 12. 1845— became employed in the factory of the 

 Cleveland Rubber Co.. after which he was for several years with 

 the Chicago works of the Mechanical Rubber Co., and later for 

 eight years general superintendent of the New York Belting and 

 Packing Co., Limited. He went next to Manchester, England, 

 where he remained for four years with David Moseley & Sons, 

 Limited, rubber manufacturers. From Moseley's he came to the 

 National factory. Mr. Cushman is survived by a widow, a 

 daughter, and two sons, one of the latter being connected with 

 the Moseley factory, and the other assistant superintendent of 

 the National India Rubber Co. 



* * * 



George H. Ali.ing, president of the Royal Rubber Co. (Akron, 

 Ohio), was killed accidentally in the factory on March 24. No 

 one else was present at the time. When last seen alive Mr. 

 Ailing was on a step ladder near a rapidly moving shaft. It is 

 supposed that his clothing was caught on the shaft and that he 

 was whirled to death before he could call for help. 



PNEUMATIC TIRES ECONOMICAL. 



""THE effect of the equipment of track sulkies with pneumatic 

 tires in increasing trotting speeds has been noted more than 

 once in these pages. Recently a very practical suggestion re- 

 garding the effect of pneumatics upon the sulkies themselves has 

 been made by Mr. Fred W. Wright, agent in New York for a 

 leading make of sulkies. 



He said that before the advent of the pneumatic tires it was 

 generally understood and believed among builders of track 

 vehicles that McMurray & Fisher turned out more than a thou- 

 sand sulkies a year. With five or six other prominent builders 

 all doing a flourishing business, the number built and sold was 

 then very large. In those days drivers rarely used a sulky more 

 than one year, and very often they used up several in a single 

 season, a few broken spokes, a slightly sprung axle or any other 

 mishap usually serving to condemn the vehicle for racing. 



Asked for an estimate of the number of track sulkies now sold 

 in a year, Mr. Wright said: 



"I doubt whether all the builders in the United States today 

 find a market for more than 700 sulkies annually. The reason 

 is that the modern pneumatic sulky is almost indestructible. 

 Put a new pair of wheels on an old frame and you have, to all 

 intents and purposes, a new sulky. I saw trainers last year using 

 pneumatics that were built in 1893, and they may keep on using 

 them for years to come." 



The effect of the pneumatic tires on sulkies and sulky building 

 has its counterpart in the effect of rubber tires on pleasure 

 vehicles of all kinds, says the New York Herald. Operating as 

 shock absorbers they have prolonged the life of the fashionable 

 carriage beyond all calculation and have practically killed the 

 repair business which before their introduction was one of the 

 most profitable branches of carriage building. 



AN INDIA-RUBBER BANK. 



A REPORT from Paris states that a prominent group of French 

 English, Belgian, and Dutch capitalists has taken the initi- 

 ative for the organization of a special bank, whose business is to 

 be exclusively confined to the establishing of new rubber planta- 

 tions, participation in those already in existence, and the ad- 

 vancing of funds to plantation companies. The new company, 

 which is to be known as the Syndicat des Plantations d'extreme 

 Orient (Syndicate of Plantations in the Far East), will have its 

 main office in The Hague, with branch offices in Batavia, Singa- 

 pore, Delhi, and Meray. The provisional capital stock is to be 

 2,000,000 francs [= $386,000], divided into 40 shares of 50,000 

 francs each. 



