April 1, 1912.; 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



313 



for vears been pinning its faith to the dirigible balloon, 

 generally of the Zeppelin type, and so far has only a 

 moderate fleet of some 100 aeroplanes : !)ut this is 

 steadily being increased. She is also increasing her 

 staff of flying men by schooling them in batches of 

 fifty at a time, which is an indication of a heavy in- 

 crease in this branch of aviation. Ital}-, Austria and 

 Spain are following, and the Italian conquest of 

 Tri]iijli has gi\-en the Italians the first opportunity to 

 use the aeroplane in actual warfare. 



In addition to these military planes there is a vast 

 numl)er of aeroplanes being continually manufactured 

 for private persons. Almost every daily paper carries 

 cables from countries all over the world detailing flight 

 and the breaking of new records for distance, speed 

 or passenger carrying. The manufacturing of parts 

 and fabrics and appliances has grown, in a few brief 

 vears, to most respectable proportions. At the begin- 

 ning of this year, in the United States alone, there were 

 324 companies devoted to the aeroplane and aviation 

 industrv. ()f these many are manufacturers of parts 

 or aeroplane motors, fabrics and balloons, but of those 

 who devote themselves solely to the manufacture of 

 aeroplanes there are 129 manufacturers. 



The United States has six magazines devoted to 

 aviation, while over fourteen are published in Europe. 

 At the beginning of this year there w^ere in the United 

 States alone over 100 licensed aviators plying their 

 rather hazardous calling. In the international aviation 

 organization, known as the Federation Aeronautique 

 Internationale, there are sixteen clubs representing, the 

 United States, France, Germany. Holland, Belgium, 

 Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, Spain, 

 Italy, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary and the 

 Argentine Republic. In each of these countries are 

 numerous local aviation organizations and societies. 

 There are probably, all told, including small with large, 

 about 7i aviation clubs in the United States. Twenty- 

 fi\-e of these are important clubs, incorporated and 

 affiliated with the Aero Club of America, located in 

 New York, which is the oldest and largest of them all, 

 with a membership of 555. 



The aeronautical exhibition of Paris is a regular in- 

 stitution. In their exhibits a little over a year ago be- 

 tween 60 and 70 firms exhibited complete flying ma- 

 chines while the total number of exhibitors of acces- 

 sories and parts totaled over 300. And one remark- 

 able fact stood forth, all the stronger when it is re- 

 called how few the years since Wright made his fifty- 

 nine-second flight, while all the rest of the world was 

 still in the stage of early tentative and unsuccessful ex- 

 perimentation — there were no experimental- machines 

 or aeroplanes in the exhibition. There were none that 

 had not gone through the experimental and actual tests 

 and none that had not actually flown before being ex- 

 hibited. It was, in fact, a thoroughly commercial, 

 trade exposition. As indicating the general interest in 



this country in aviation, mention shovdd be made of 

 the International Aviation Exhibition that will be 

 held from Alay 9 to 18 next in the Grand Central Palace, 

 New York, 



There are today in this country 20 manufacturers 

 who have devoted their energies to balloons; these 

 range from the old-fashioned hot air and gas balloons 

 of the spherical type on up to the modern types of the 

 dirigible. Fourteen firms confine themselves, accord- 

 ing to the Aero Directory, to dirigible balloons. 

 Eighteen firms are engaged in the manufacture of bal- 

 loon and aeroplane fabrics. Eight firms manufacture 

 |)arachutes, and six firms are listed as engaged in the 

 manufacture of wheel rims for the imderbody alighting 

 gears of aeroplanes. Five companies design and make 

 these alighting gears complete. Two firms are market- 

 ing aeroplanes without engines, and twenty-two are 

 manufacturing and selling aeroplane parts. Four 

 houses are listed as manufacturing special bumpers 

 (rubber) and six more offer special shock absorbers, 

 and as we have said above, 129 manufacturers in the 

 United States are manufacturing aeroplanes, complete. 

 Thirty-one firms manufacture gliders ; four construct 

 hangars, that is the aeroplane or dirigible garage ; one 

 manufactures a special aeroplane gyroscope ; four con- 

 struct hydrogen gas generators for dirigibles and bal- 

 loons, and thirty-nine make models of flying machines, 

 while fourteen supi)ly model builders' supplies for the 

 model machines for inventors and amateurs. Seventy- 

 six manufacturers of motors are offering special aero- 

 plane and dirigible motors. 



Fifty-four design and manufacture aeroplane pro- 

 pellers; six, aeroplane skids for their landing gearing; 

 four, steering gears; eight, steering wheels; sixteen, 

 tires for the starting and alighting wheels; seven, spe- 

 cially drawn or braided wires and slender cables for 

 the aeroplane braces and gearing, and twenty-five man- 

 ufacturers have special varnishes solely for the treat- 

 ment of balloon, dirigible and aeroplane fabrics. These 

 figures cover only that portion of the trade list that 

 deals directly with aviation and do not consider the in- 

 direct accessories such as castings, forgings, mag- 

 netos, lubricants, alloy^s, etc. And yet these latter also 

 benefit from the natural radiating influence of these 

 new commercial developments. This, moreover, is 

 only for the United States; in Europe the trade is 

 developing w^ith quite as much, if not even a greater, 

 energy and rapidity. 



Certain of the standard aeroplanes, or, in fact, all 

 of the designs, today have a direct trade interest for 

 the rubber manufacturers. The alighting devices and 

 under gearing all now depend upon wheels — a pair of 

 suspended bicycle wdieels with their pneumatic rubber 

 tires, but designed according to the special require- 

 ments of this service. Here we note that fourteen Amer- 

 ican tire manufacturers are listed as supplying aero- 

 plane tires. All of these and several others also manu- 



