376 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1910. 



novelty, for the world was not ready yet for pneumatic 

 tires, and Thomson and his patent were soon forgotten. 

 Dunlop's pneumatic tire, brought out at a time when the 

 public mind was more receptive, lead to more practical 

 results, but his invention disclosed no principle not antic- 

 ipated by Thomson, and hence patent protection could 

 not be claimed for it. The patents under which the really 

 successful pneumatic tires have been made did not relate 

 primarily to the principle of an air cushioned wheel, but 

 to details of attaching these cushions to the wheel rim, 

 and holding them in place. 



Credit is due both to Thomson and to Dunlop for their 

 study and application to the subject of rendering vehic- 

 ular traffic more comfortable, but there is not being made 

 on earth to-day any tire, the shape or means of attachment 

 of which can be traced to any suggestion made by either 

 of the gentlemen named. The Dunlop company early in 

 its career dropped the Dunlop invention in favor of tires 

 distinctly different, and to-day the tires made by that im- 

 portant concern are not even the same as were covered 

 by various patents which the company acquired as devel- 

 opment was made in the tire art. 



The standard automobile tire to-day was protected in 

 England by the patent granted to Bartlett. The tires 

 made under this patent were developed year by year 

 until they became the modern "clincher" tire, and it is 

 informing to consider that the tire section of the present 

 time has been a gradual outgrowth from the forms illus- 

 trated on this page as copied from Bartlett's specification. 



Bartlett's Clincher Tire — Early Forms. 



[From these the modern automobile tire has been developed.] 



The purpose of this article is not to claim preeminence 

 for any particular inventor in respect of the pneumatic 

 tire, but to point out that the standard type of tire to-day 

 is not the work of any one man, but of countless work- 

 ers and students in the tire field. 



THE AMERICAN AND HIS DOLLAR. 



IF what we are about to quote were not in an esteemed 

 contemporary (English), we should pay no attention 

 to it. But as original matter, in a rubber paper, it con- 

 strains us: 



Those who know America as I do cannot deny that he [the American] 

 has but one thought, how to make money. The average man in America 

 talks about money, thinks about money, to the exclusion of every topic. 



It is with bowed head and shame mantled cheeks that 

 we acknowledge that this is the exact truth. The only 

 papers published in the United States are financial jour- 

 nals; none else would be read, and we have the pitiful 

 sight of a country that could afford to spend millions on 



sketches of travel, of adventure, of modern fiction, with 

 absolutely no literature.- A country with no great maga- 

 zines, no notable reviews, no scholarly publications. Com- 

 mercial colleges are the only schools; no universities, no 

 seminaries, no schools of the liberal arts. 



If the Americans did not center all of their thought on 

 making money, they might learn how to spend it, and be- 

 come possessed of palatial homes, beautiful grounds, art 

 museums, natural history rooms, botanical gardens, and 

 free public parks for their poor. - 



If they did not so love the Almighty Dollar they 

 might be possessed of yachts, of half a million automo- 

 biles, of aeroplanes, of golf and other sports. 



If they didn't love the filthy lucre as they do — and 

 those who really love it do not part with it easilv — they 

 might travel every summer in Europe and see how lib- 

 eral the foreigner is in his spending. They might live 

 at the best hotels there and perhaps bring back a for- 

 eign heiress or two to increase their own carefully 

 hoarded millions. 



Were it not for this worship the American woman, 

 to-day dressed in calico, unfashionable and dowdy, might 

 be chic, graceful and lovely, might have the silks and 

 satins, the pearls and diamonds, in fact, might some- 

 times be as well dressed as woman in her station else- 

 where. 



How sad it is ! America, free America, rich America, 

 dollar-loving America, with no hospitals, no missions, no 

 philanthropic institutions. 



The stingy prince of American financiers ought long 

 ago to have put some of his millions into the acquisition 

 of rare pictures, costly first editions, and other objects 

 of art. He could well afford to build a marble palace 

 somewhere about Thirty-fourth street, New York, and 

 form a collection of treasures such as exist nowhere else 

 in the world, unless it be the Vatican. But does he do 

 it? How can he when he thinks, talks and lives only in 

 money. 



It's time that America awoke and took lessons from 

 her kinsfolk across the water who care little for money. 

 As an object lesson they ought to have been present in 

 Mincing lane during the rubber craze, where a mob of 

 average English people, men and women, fought for 

 chances to invest in rubber plantation stocks. They 

 didn't love money. Their excitement was not due to 

 greed. It was pure philanthropy, combined with some- 

 thing like football exercise, with never a thought of 

 dividends. 



NONSENSE ABOUT RUBBER. 



Does not the big rubber combine wish to discuss the charges of 

 Senator Bristow of the big profits accruing since the rubber tariff was 

 advanced! Does it figure that the plums are all due to the boom in 

 rubber abroad and the immense consumption in tires] — Boston Record, 

 July 13. 



T~\0 not the combined barbers of Allahabad desire to discuss 

 *-* the length of Methuselah's whiskers? 



Do not the heirs and assigns of the Queen of Sheba desire 

 to discuss the signet ring of Solomon? 



