276 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1912. 



arrival. This company makes a special aeroplane tire, which is 

 similar to, but flatter than its cousin, the motorcycle tire. It is 

 made like a small automobile tire, instead as a development of 

 the bicycle tire. The aeroplane tires must take terrific strains 

 at times and must be made so that wrenches will not loosen them 

 from the rims. The lives of the aviators are quite likely to de- 

 pend on the sturdiness of the tires on their wheels. These details 

 are being carefully studied out by the various tire manufacturers, 

 upon whom the aviators depend for their safety in this line. 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN BOSTON. 



By a Resident CorresfondeiU. 

 A MOST attractive and educational window display graces 

 ■*^ the central show window of the B. F. Goodrich Co. ware- 

 rooms on Boylston street in this city. It is a representation, in 

 miniature, of a South American jungle, and shows the gathering 

 of the late.x and the smoking process, as dune by the native In- 

 dians. At the front is shown the trunk of a real tree, with her- 

 ring-bone tapping, the sap running down to a cup at the foot. 

 Several tree trunks are shown, and the whole surface is cov- 

 ered with artificial grass, shrubs and plants. E.xcellent human 

 figures, about two feet high, are seen collecting sap from the 

 cups on the trees. Further along is to be seen an Indian smoking 

 a newly-formed biscuit, the fire under the smoker being simu- 

 lated by an electric light under red glass. The whole forms a 

 picture which has attracted the attention of every passer-by (and 

 these are numbered by thousands), and the school teachers have 

 contracted the habit of bringing groups of children to show them 

 the way caoutchouc is obtained and manipulated in preparing it 

 for market. Besides this central scenic display there are samples, 

 each one labeled, of different kinds of rubber — crude, washed 

 and Ceylon crepe, specimens of fraudulent and adulterated rub- 

 ber — also tapping tools, pans, a smoking cone, seeds and various 

 South American Indian curiosities. Manager Limric is receiving 

 many commendations on the attractiveness of the display. 

 * * * 



And speaking of show wizidows, The Riker-Jaynes drug store 

 on Summer street recently had an effective window display 

 which was built up entirely of rubber goods. All sorts of drug- 

 gists' specialties of soft and hard rubber were included, many of 

 them being labeled and price marked. Prominent among these 

 specialties were various kinds of hot-water bags and fountain 

 syringes, and backing up the whole collection was a hot-water 

 bag of white rubber, perfect in proportion and large enough tp 

 hold a 2S0-pound man. Prominent at various points in the win- 

 dow were framed photographs showing scenes in the rubber for- 

 ests of South America, as well as the processes of tapping, col- 

 lecting the latex, smoking, shipping, etc. The window was at- 

 tractive and instructive, and was constantly surrounded by a 

 curious crowd. 



Some of the manufacturers of rubber heels undoubtedly have 

 an understanding regarding the prices at which their goods shall 

 be sold. The schedule quotes certain prices per dozen, gross, and 

 larger quantities, and they have been using their best endeavors 

 to induce their principal customers — the shoe findings dealers — 

 to stick to that schedule. They have not always succeeded in 

 preventing competitive price cutting, though it looks as if they 

 had considerable difficulty in locating the offending dealers. The 

 representatives of these manufacturers recently met in this city 

 and conferred on this subject, endeavoring to formulate some 

 plan to protect their customers from cut-throat competition. It 

 is not understood that a solution of the problem has been reached, 

 but yet further eft'orts in this direction may be expected. If 

 you find that the next rubber heels you buy have a number on 

 them, you may make up your mind that these manufacturers 

 have decided to adopt the scheme now used by the kodak people 

 or the watch people to keep track of their goods, and to secure 



such evidence as they can of the way some of their product, sold 

 under a positive understanding regarding fi.xed prices, got into 

 the hands of certain findings dealers who cut prices. 



* « * 



If you want to know anything about the Cuban metropolis, or 

 the Panama Canal, ask Francis H. Appleton. At the time of 

 present writing, accompanied by Mrs. Appleton, he is on a trip 

 to the West Indies and Panama, and will probably be back again 

 lo business about the time this letter is being read. Mr. Apple- 

 ton is an experienced traveler and a keen observer, and he will 

 probably return with a big collection of facts and experiences. 



* * * 



The lure of the tropics is being felt while the thermometer 

 hovers around zero, and hits it above and below with alarming 

 regularity and frequency. A. N. Mayo, of the Fisk Rubber Co., 

 Chicopee Falls, sailed from New York on the 24th for a similar 

 trip to that mentioned above. Mrs. Mayo accompanies him. 



* * * 



Either last summer was a very dry one, or ne.xt summer is ex- 

 pected to be, if sales of garden hose are any criterion. Dealers 

 and retailers seem to be sending unusually large orders, which 

 can only be explained by one or the other of these suppositions. 

 This is the busy season for manufacturers of garden hose, and 

 shipmcnls average very large at this time, but the general report 

 is that the month just closed figures away above the average in 

 this particular. 



* * * 



The automobile tire business is lively in all the factories pro- 

 ducing this class of goods. One factory devoted to this industry 

 shipped out over $600,000 worth of tires during the month of 

 January, and may equal this record in February, though the 



month IS a shorter one. 



* * * 



E. L. Phipps, who is known to a large number of readers of 

 The India Rubber World as a champion ball twirler who par- 

 ticipates in every baseball game held at the outings of the Rub- 

 ber Club of America, and whose more serious vocation is selling 

 rubber boots and shoes for the United States Rubber Co., had a 

 narrow escape the middle of last month. He was on his regular 

 selling irip, and was riding in a Pullman car on the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad, when that car, with several others, left the track and 

 rolled down a high embankment. When he came to his senses 

 he found the car lying on its side. He counted his arms and legs 

 and felt other portions of his anatomy, and climbed out through 

 a window. After taking an inventory of his aches, pains and con- 

 tusions, he concluded he could be of some use to his fellow pas- 

 sengers, so he proceeded to help rescue them. But while not 

 severely injured, he found himself so well shaken up and consid- 

 erably bruised, and the shock on his nerves sufficient to require 

 him to take a rest. So he returned home for a few days before 



continuing his trip. 



\ * * 



The recent meeting of the Rubber Club of America has awak- 

 ened much interest in the trade, and as a consequence there have 

 been large accessions of members. Secretary Balderston is re- 

 ceiving a dozen or more applications a week, and within a month 

 more than fifty men connected with the rubber industry have be- 

 came members. President F. C. Hood is following up his sug- 

 gestions for broadening the influence of the club by personal 

 work and taking measures for increasing the membership, making 

 it a national, ratlier than a sectional body, and investigating the 

 possibilities of bringing about a standardization of crude rubber; 

 while planning other ways and purposes which will make it more 

 and more influential and beneficial to the trade. 



* * * 



Some of the older members of the trade will remember the 

 annual rubber auctions which were held for many years during 

 the last quarter of last century. Thousands of cases of rubber 



