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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 1, 1912. 



The First Annual Aero Show. 



THE Aero Club of America, under whose auspices the First 

 Annual Aero Show was held in the Grand Central Palace 

 in Xew York City, from May 11 to 18, has every rea- 

 son to be satisfied with the result of that exhibition. To be sure, 

 the average citizen did not flock there as he would, for instance, 

 to a moving picture show of Jack Johnson in action. To the 

 average man, one aeroplane in the air is worth twenty on the 

 floor : but still, the general attendance was very fair, and the spe- 

 cial attendance — that is, the attendance of people specifically in- 

 terested in aeronautics — was not only excellent, but highly ap- 

 preciative. It IS safe to say, that everybody directly or indirectly 

 interested in this new branch of science visited the show, and 

 derived a great deal of profit from his visit. 



It was an exceedingly instructive e.xhibition and well worth 

 a detailed description; but it does not lie within the province of 

 this publication to treat it in its entirety, but rather in its relation 

 to the rubber industry. There were four rubber exhibits — three 

 of them coming from Akron; namely, those of the B. F. Good- 

 rich Co., the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Diamond Rub- 

 ber Co., and one from outside — that of the Pennsylvania Rub- 

 ber Co., of Jeannette, Pa. 



Of these four exhibits, the most complete was that of the 

 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in charge of E. R. Preston. The 



one, while the balloon fabric is made of various plies of alter- 

 nating rubber and fabric. 



The tires in use on aeroplanes must, of necessity, be exceed- 

 ingly strong for their weight, as they have to withstand — par- 

 ticularly in the case of amateurs — very hard treatment. In an 



The Exhibit of Goodve.\r Tire and Rl-eber Co. 



pre-eminence of this exhibit was natural in view of the fact that 

 the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has been the pioneer in this 

 line of endeavor. The Goodyear Company has been working on 

 aeronautic supplies for the last two years, in conjunction with 

 the leading aviators. As a result, it has made very creditable 

 progress in four different lines— the manufacture of aeroplane 

 fabrics, the manufacture of balloon fabrics, the making of spe- 

 cial aeroplane tires and in the manufacture of shock-absorbers. 

 It makes nearly a dozen diiTerent aeroplane fabrics, running in 

 weight from four to seven ounces per square yard. Three prime 

 considerations enter into the making of these fabrics ; first — 

 tightness, as obviously it would never do for the planes of a fly- 

 ing machine to be tight one day and loose the next ; second — 

 strength, which is a vital necessity, and third — lightness, which 

 is eminently desirable. The balloon fabrics range in weight from 

 4J4 to 15 ounces per square yard. There is one essential differ- 

 ence between these two kinds of fabrics ; in the aeroplane fabrics 

 the rubber becomes virtually a part of the fabric, the two are 



Toy Monopl.^xe. 



amateur's hands an aeroplane not infrequently strikes the ground 

 like a load of brick ; a professional, on the other hand, gener- 

 ally — not always — alights on the earth without a jar. 



The shock-absorbers, which are molded pieces of rubber from 

 14 to IS inches long and about IJ/2 inches in diameter, have to 

 be made extremely strong to serve their purpose; they have an 

 ultimate stretch of 228 per cent. Another interesting device for 

 aeronauts, which is as yet in somewhat of an experimental stage, 

 is a rubber life preserver which fits around the body like a jacket, 

 coming down over the head and shoulders and buckling around 

 the waist. Deflated it occupies very little room ; in a moment's 

 time, with a little exercise of the lungs it can be inflated and 

 will keep a man afloat indefinitely. 



The B. F. Goodrich Co. has but recently embarked on the 

 manufacture of aeronautic supplies, but it had a creditable ex- 

 hibit at the show, consisting of aeroplane fabrics and tires. In 

 fabrics its specialty is "Lumina" aeroplane cloth, being so called 

 because it is a light rubberized fabric covered with aluminum 

 dust, which not only protects the rubber from the effect of the 

 sun, but, inasmuch as it can be re-dusted at any time, keeps the 

 cloth clean and presentable. In tires, its specialty is its double- 

 tube 24 X 4-inch tire for biplanes. The Diamond Rubber Co. 

 had a like exhibit of tires and fabrics, while the exhibit of the 

 Pennsylvania Rubber Co. consisted exclusively of tires. 



No description of the rubber exhibits at the show would be 

 complete that did not include the display of toy aeroplanes run 

 by the motive power of rubber bands, shown by F. A. O. 

 Schwarz. He displayed these interesting toys in a great variety, 

 ranging in price from 35c. to $35. Their flight capacity runs any- 

 where from 200 to 1,000 feet. The method of operation is ex- 

 tremely simple. Each of these miniature aeroplanes is provided 

 with a number of rubber bands running the entire length of the 

 machine. By revolving the propeller, these bands are twisted, 

 After they are twisted to the limit, the toy is given a toss in the 

 air, and the untwisting of the bands revolves the propeller and 

 carries the machine very rapidly through the air. It is a toy of 

 French invention, but during the last two years it has become 

 exceedingly popular in this country, thousands of them having 

 been sold, and scores of them being in operation in the larger 

 city parks and in the suburbs any pleasant Saturday afternoon. 



Mr. T. Maldon Fitch, rubber and coffee planter on the Pama- 

 noekan & Tjiassem Estates (Anglo-Dutch Plantations), Soe- 

 bang, Java, has just been elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society 

 of England. 



