282 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1912. 



SHOBT 

 MENTION. 



tons at an average speed of eight miles per hotir. The manager 

 of the company is C. S. Lyon, a civilian engineer, who acted for 

 many years as inspector of army mechanical transport at the 

 Aklershot Depot, where he had therank of captain in the army; 

 and the appointment seems a capital one. On the basis of 4d. 

 per ton-mile the earnings of 100 vehicles doing forty miles each 

 per day would, it has been calculated, produce a result which would 

 leave a net profit of £19,585 per annum. With regard to the im- 

 portant matter of tires, a contract has been made with Chas. 

 Macintosh & Co., Limited, whereby they agree to supply and 

 maintain the company's vehicles in tires at a fixed sum per mile 

 for a period of two years. I note that the estimated cost of the 

 tires is £7,801 per annum, though the details of the contract are 

 rot divulged. Depreciation is allowed for at the rate of 20 per 

 ■cent, per annum. 



Mr. E. L. Curbishley, who has been for ten or eleven years 

 prominently connected with the evolution of the Gorton Rubber 

 Co., Limited, has recently resigned his 

 position of director and general man- 

 ager and will, I understand, shortly 

 ■start manufacturing on his own account. Mr. Curbishley came 

 to Manchester with the late Mr. Harry Heaton, Jr., when the 

 latter took over the Gorton Co., which in those days was a much 

 less pretentious affair than it has since become under Mr. Cur- 

 bishley's wide knowledge of the trade and close devotion to 

 its affairs. 



Mr. Charles Blair, whose reclaiming and other patents re- 

 cently received notice in The Indi.\ Rubber World, has disposed 

 of his patent rights and inventions to the Reinforced Rubber Co., 

 Limited, and has entered the employ of tlie company. 



Mr. Wilfrid Lilley is now managing director of the Premier 

 Rubber Co. of Manchester, the successors of B. Cohen & Co. 

 Mr. Lilley is of the firm of Lilley & Skinner, the well-known 

 boot factors of London, this firm having acquired a large interest 

 in the Premier company which, originally connected only with 

 waterproofing, now makes mechanical goods, heel pads, etc., 

 as well. 



Mr. E. E. Buckleton, of the North Western Rubber Co., won in 

 in the Appeal Court when the defendants sought to have the 

 judgment, given in Mr. Buckleton's favor at the Liverpool 

 assizes upset. His case was one in which Mr. Buckleton claimed 

 damages from an important firm of rubber brokers for his invest- 

 ment in a plantation company promoted by them. 



Mr. Morland Dessau has resigned his management of the 

 Crude Rubber Washing Company, Limited, and the directors 

 have appointed Mr. Charles L. Marshall, of the Marshall Tire 

 Co., as technical adviser, eligible to a seat on the board. Owing 

 to the serious loss incurred by the company it is proposed to re- 

 duce the capital by one-half. 



LONDON RUBBER NOTES. 



A CHEERFUL PROMOTER. 



Mr. Harcourt, the English colonial secretary, is reported to 

 have told this anecdote at a recent dinner of rubber planters. He 

 said that a London friend of his was approached by a promoter 

 who wished to float a rubber company. His friend was quite 

 willing to listen to the proposition, and asked "How many trees 

 have you?" "We haven't any trees," was the reply. "Well, how 

 much land have you ?" "We haven't any land." he answered. 

 "Well, then, what have you got?" "Why," said the promoter, "I 

 have a bag of seeds." 



RUBBER RAZOR WIPERS. 



An English patent has been granted for saucers or stands for 

 shaving mugs, with which is incorporated a razor-wiper in the 

 form of a strip of rubber, which is fixed in grooves in the side 

 of the dish, in which are projections to prevent the lather from 

 spreading. 



By a Resident Correspondent. 

 RUBBER IN THE ATHLETIC WORLD. 



IT was a surprise visit, in the strictest sense of the word, which 

 1 paid to Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros.' atliletic goods fac- 

 tory, at Putney Wharf. I sent no preliminary letter acquaint- 

 ing the firm with my wish to look over their works; and en 

 route to the establishment, which is famous throughout the sport- 

 ing world, I discovered that I had not a card with me; and 

 as I knew no one at the works, or in the neighborhood who 

 could establish my identity, I told myself that I was on rather 

 a hopeless errand. However, walking into the office, I gave 

 my name, indicated my business, and asked to see the manager. 

 I was told that he was very busy. Nevertheless, a messenger 

 was sent to his room, and within a couple of minutes I had his 

 ear. The door of the room was ajar — a man passing by was 

 called in. He turned out to be the foreman of the golf club 

 department. Instructions were given him to show me over his 

 shops, and then to pass me on to the foreman of another de- 

 partment, with similar instructions whereby I could make 

 the round of the factory. Every assistance was to be given me 

 in prosecuting any enquiries I wished to make, and it was to 

 be particularly borne in mind that I was specially interested in 

 the use of rubber in connection with the goods made. 



Within five minutes of my entering Messrs. Spaldings' office, 

 I was in their adjoining factory. And not only had I the satis- 

 faction of knowing that I was quite a "surprise" visitor, but I 

 was pleased to remember that there could not have been a single 

 warning given to my guide. Never have I felt more strongly 

 convinced that I was seeing work done under everyday work- 

 ing conditions. 



GOLF CLUBS. 



At the outset of my expedition, I watched golf clubs in the 

 making. 



The heads of these clubs are all modeled out of American 

 persimmon or dogwood. The material is imported in the form 

 of roughly-cut-to-shape blocks, to save freightage on waste. 

 The shafts are specially selected from the finest sun-dried split 

 hickorj' obtainable. 



Machines do a share of the work that goes to the making 

 of each club : a band saw cuts the rough blocks nearer to the 

 required shape of the head; a head-turning machine, with tracing 

 wheel and model — an American masterpiece — carves the head into 

 perfect form ; a third machine cuts the lead and horn ; by a 

 fourth the heads are sandpapered on cones. 



But these machines have to perform such delicate operations 

 that success depends largely on the operators in charge of them. 

 In watching Spaldings' mechanics, I quickly gained the impres- 

 sion that the firm makes no idle boast when it advertises that it 

 employs only the most experienced hands. And this impression 

 deepened into a conviction, which went far towards explaining 

 htiw the firm has won its reputation, as in department after 

 department my attention was riveted by the careful and dexter- 

 ous way in which the handicraftsmen employes performed their 

 work. 



There is considerably more hand work than machine work 

 in the manufacture of these wooden clubs, and numbers of 

 highly skilled laborers are busily engaged all the year round 

 in planing shafts, fitting and gluing the shafts into the sockets 

 of the heads, filing down sockets to merge into the surface level 

 of the shafts, staining, polishing, whipping the joints, and put- 

 ting on grips. 



It is in connection with the grip that rubber is most largely 

 used in this department. In the opinion of a growing number 

 of golfing devotees, rubber insures a firmer grasp than does 

 leather; and Spaldings' rubberized canvas grip has won for itself 

 a particularly wide and enviable popularity. 



