August i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



387 



EXPLOSION IN 

 A RUBBER WORKS. 



importance had resulted. Altogether, looking at the somewhat 

 complicated reactions involved, it is difficult to see how any 

 such biological process can beat the ordinary biological method 

 of production by trees. 



At the recovered rubber works of Messrs. Laughton & Co. 

 (Clayton, Manchester), an explosion of a steam chest occurred 

 on October 30 last, causing serious in- 

 juries to one of the hands, and a Board 

 of Trade inquiry into the circumstances 

 was held on June 28 and 29 at the Manchester Town Hall. The 

 chest which exploded was a spreading machine chest 74Yz x 22Y2 

 inches and 3% inches deep, made about two years ago by Messrs. 

 Francis Shaw & Co. It was tested to stand 20 pounds steam 

 pressure, steam coming from a Lancashire boiler working at 130 

 pounds pressure, through a regulating valve. The finding of the 

 court was that the explosion was caused by excessive steam 

 pressure in the chest, and a workman was found to blame for 

 the chest not having the requisite fittings to prevent such an 

 occurrence. Another workman was to blame for failing to regu- 

 late and control the valves on the day of the explosion. Further, 

 the firm was blamed for not ascertaining whether the chest had 

 been properly tested and for using it without a reducing valve 

 in order to prevent a safe working pressure being exceeded. 

 They had not appreciated as they should have done the risks it 

 was necessary to guard against. The firm were ordered to pay 

 £30 towards the cost of the inquiry and the workman who was 

 in charge at the time of the explosion, and whose evidence was 

 considered unsatisfactory, was ordered to contribute £3. It was 

 stated by the counsel for the firm that they had now got all their 

 pans and chests insured and were acting under the insurance 

 company's instructions. It has not been customary to have such 

 vessels insured, though I imagine that such action will now be 

 more common as the result of this inquiry. I have known sev- 

 eral previous inquiries with regard to explosions — so-called — of 

 vulcan pans, but I do not recall any case similar to that just 

 referred to. 



In the last Birthday honors' list appeared the name of Mr. John 

 Michael Fleetwood Fuller, m. p., as the recipient of a baronetcy. 

 Mr. Fuller, who has been for some 

 years vice-chamberlain of his Majesty's 

 household, under the Liberal govern- 

 ment, belongs to a Wiltshire family largely interested in the 

 Avon India-Rubber Co., Limited, of Melksham, in that county. 

 Viscount Grimston, who is managing director of a rubber tire 

 works at St. Albans, is the only son of the Earl of Vernland, 

 who is a director of a number of companies. The titles in this 

 family must not be confused with those under which the cele- 

 brated Francis Bacon was raised to the Peerage, viz. : Lord Vern- 

 land and Viscount St. Albans. 



Mr. Walter F. Reid, who this year succeeds Professor Ira Rein- 

 sert, Johns Hopkins University, of America, as president of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry, has for many years taken a 

 close interest in the rubber industry. The substitute for rub- 

 ber termed "Veluvil" was brought out by him, though for some 

 time he has not been directly connected with its somewhat 

 checkered career. Professor Remsen, who has arrived in Eng- 

 land to attend the annual meeting of the Society, at Glasgow, 

 was entertained at dinner by the London Chemical Industry Club. 

 Mr. Samuel Schryber, who recently read a paper on the chem- 

 istry of india-rubber before the London Chemical Society, is 

 on Professor Wvndham Dunstan's staff at the laboratories of the 

 Imperial Institute. 



Dr. Carl Walter Thiel, F. 1. c, who after leaving the laboratory 

 of the H a rburg- Vienna company, at Harburg, two years ago, com- 

 menced a consulting practice in Hamburg, has now gone to Berlin 

 as managing director of a rubber factory there. Dr. Thiel spent 

 some years previously with Messrs. F. Reddaway & Co., Lim- 

 ited, of Manchester. 



GOODYEAR IN BRONZE. 



PERSONAL 

 MENTION. 



A MEMORIAL to Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vul- 

 canization, has been erected at Naugatuck, Connecticut, 

 the scene of some of Goodyear's most important work, and now 

 an important center of the rubber industry, through the gen- 



Bust of Charles Goodyear. 



[Discoverer of the vulcanization of india-rubber.] 



erosity of Colonel Samuel P. Colt, president of the United States 

 Rubber Co. It is in the form of a bust, in bronze, made by 

 Tiffany & Co., of New York, and is mounted on a pedestal in 

 the new railway passenger station at Naugatuck. It was a gift 

 to the railway corporation. 



ARE GUTTA GOLF BALLS COMING BACK? 



f\\\TNG to the increased price of rubber, a further rise in 

 ^-* the price of golf balls is anticipated by the Scottish golt 

 players, concerning which United States Consul H. D. Van Sant, 

 of Dunfermline, says : 



"At present the price of the best standard is 60 cents, which 

 is an advance over a short itme ago. It is said the price will 

 soon be 3 shillings [=73 cents]. This expected advance raises 

 the question of a return to the old-fashioned 'guttie.' At the 

 time the new American rubber ball first made its appearance into 

 Scotland its introduction was strongly opposed by some of the 

 leading golfers' associations, both professional and amateur. But 

 the Haskell ball from the States was out and to-day its use is 

 practically universal, yet the talk now is that if prices for the 

 rubber article keep on advancing a return to the 'guttie' is among 

 the possibilities. It is said the objection that links are now laid 

 out for the longer flying rubber-core golf ball can be met with 

 the statement that contrivances for adding to the flight of a ball 

 may be introduced at any time, and the courses can be altered to 

 meet the requirements of any change. The 'guttie' was the 

 original ball used in Scotland, the first home of golf." 



A very fine exhibit of rubber goods used in connection with 

 railways is being made by George Spencer, Moulton & Co., 

 Limited, of Bradford, Wiltshire, at the Centenary Exhibition at 

 Buenos Aires, which opened on May 25. 



