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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



Mav 1, 1921 



(34.728) A mercantile firm in India Uesircs to receive catalogs 

 and prices on automobiles, motorcycles and accessories. 



(34,731 ) A mercantile tirm in Bulgaria desires to purchase and 

 secure an agency for the sale of whirlin.a-spray syringes. 



(34,748) A firm of merchants in Canada desires to purchase 

 stair treads. 



(34.752') An agency is desired by a mercantile company in 

 India for the sale of motor and bicycle accessories. 



Before the close of the year 1919, less than 500 auto- 

 mobiles had been imiwrted into Pernambuco. Brazil, while in 

 December, 1920, there were only 860 licensed automobiles in that 

 city. Since then, however, aboijt 1,000 cars have been imported, 

 and tires for approximately 1,500 cars are required. Most tires 

 imported are of American manufacture. A list of Pernambuco 

 importers of rubber tires may be obtained from the Department 

 of Commerce, Washington, D. C, by referring to file L. A. 12013. 



FRENCH DISAPPROVE STRAIGHT-SIDE TIRES 



The following article discussing stiaighl-side tires appeared in 

 La Vic Automobile, written by one of our French contemporaries. 

 All of .the pneumatic tires employed in France for a long time 

 have been of the soft bead or clincher type, mounted on a rim 

 having on each side a clincher in which the roimd portion of the 

 bead engages. Placing a clincher tire on a rim is tnade a very 

 easy matter by the use of suitable levers. Straight-side tires 

 entail the use of a relatively complicated rim, which increases the 

 weight of the wheel at the rim and. consequently, its inertia. 



The farther away from the axis the weight of the wheel is 

 located the longer will be the lever arm which moves the weight 

 in its rotation, and the greater the effort required to get it up to 

 speed. Inversely, the greater the amount of energy stored up in 

 the wheel once it has been brought up to speed, the more violent 

 must be the braking action, and the disadvantages of a road wheel 

 acting as a flywheel are well known : it is these disadvantages 

 which have led to the almost complete abandonment of the nu- 

 merous designs of demountable rim, which apparently are more 

 attractive than the demountable wheel. 



It is easy to measure the power required to start a wheel when 

 fitted with a clincher and straight-side tire respectively. Experi- 

 ments were conducted with two wheels identical up to the tires, 

 in which the difference in weight at the circumference amounted 

 to 23.43 pounds. 



The tire loaded with a weight of 1,100 pounds is carried at the 

 end of a lever arm, resting on the surface of a drum which turns 

 at a peripheral speed of 30 m.p.h., and driven by an electric motor. 

 The power absorbed by the motor is measured by a voltmeter 

 and an ammeter. The tire is first raised so that it does not touch 

 the drum on which it bears. On the voltmeter and ammeter are 

 read of? the power consumptions corresponding to starting and 

 normal running. Chronometer readings are taken of the time 

 elapsing before the starting point and the normal speed are 

 attained. The results of the experiment show : 



1. On starting the straight-side wheel takes 426 watts more 

 than the clincher wheel. This is more than 5^-h.p. and is enor- 

 mous (1 h.p. = 746 watts'). 



2. The normal speed is attained by the clincher tiro at the end 

 of 3 minutes 9 seconds, and by the straight-side tire at the end of 

 6 minutes. 



3. At normal speed the straight-side tire takes 100 walls (1/7- 

 h.p.') more than the clincher. 



The phenomena observed at the moment of starting are repro- 

 duced, in an inverse sense, when the brakes are applied. The 

 figures cited above refer to one wheel : the car has four of them ; 

 therefore, these figures must be multiplied by four in tirder to 

 get an idea of what is going on on a vehicle. The phenomena 

 above described take place not only on starting and braking but 

 at every acceleration and deceleration, with reduced force. 



THE MAN WHO NAMED INDIA RUBBER 



To (MVE anything a name that sticks tlirough the centuries is 

 somewhat of a feat. One has only to try it to discover 

 just how difficult it is. India rubber had a variety of names 

 until Dr. Priestley, using a bit of the Indian gum for erasing, 



called it india rub- 



ber. And just 

 here some, many, 

 will say, — "Who 

 was Priestley?" 



Joseph Priestle". 

 LL.D., F.R.S., a 

 chemist, was born 

 in Fieldhead near 

 Leeds, 'i'orkshire, 

 England, in 1733, 

 his father being a 

 fairly prosperous 

 woolen cloth 

 dresser. Although 

 frail in health. In- 

 became a profound 

 scientific and theo- 

 logical student and 

 learned nearly a 

 dozen languages. 

 While conducting 

 a private school 

 and later, while a 

 Unitarian minister. 



JoMlph Pkiestlev, LL.D.. I'.R.S. 



he delved deeply into chemistry, optics, electricity, etc., con- 

 structing his own apparatus. His opposition to the estab- 

 lished church in sermons and tracts, and his sympathy with the 

 French revolutionists, aroused much ill feeling; and in 1791 his 

 home in Birmingham, with his manuscripts and apparatus, was 

 destroyed by a mob. Birmingham now honors him with a marble 

 statue in front of its town hall. He fled to London but there 

 he was shunned even by his fellow members of the Royal Society, 

 and he resigned. -Appointment as literary companion of Lord 

 Shelburne relieved his poverty and enabled him to resume his 

 scientific researches. 



In 1794 he went to live with his sons in Northumberland, 

 Pennsylvania, and died there in 1804. On arriving in America, 

 Priestley was greeted by the Governor of New York, was dined 

 by President Washington, and had frequent conferences with 

 Benjamin Franklin, whom he had known well abroad. 



Priestley, perhaps best known as the discoverer of oxygen, 

 which he termed "vital air," also produced carbonic acid gas, 

 which he termed "fixed air,'' commercially, thus laying the founda- 

 tion for soda water manufacture. The discovery by him, too, 

 of nitrous oxide gas was the basis of modern anaesthesia. His 

 experiments and scientific observations, as well as his principles 

 of grammar, law, theology, etc., are set forth in twenty-five 

 volumes. His frank, engaging memoirs are, however, more 

 generally known and best appreciated. 



HALOWAX OIL 



Halowax oil is used in the treatment of fabric to improve the 

 "frictioning" or bonding of rubber to it. There is no added 

 solvent liquid in this oil. which must be removed before vul- 

 canization. The boiling point of the oil is so high that it is not 

 volatilized under the vulcanization temperature and therefore 

 remains in combination in the finished work. The action of the 

 oil is to soften the rubber, so that it penetrates the fiber structure 

 with great ease, and provides a bonding medium between the 

 cloth and rubber. Halowax oil can also be used for facilitating 

 the mixing of fillers, especially those of filirous nature, into rub- 

 ber compounds. 



