252 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD! 



[April 



1904. 



= The Dayton Rubber Co. (Dayton, Ohio) have been busy 

 for some time past installing machinery, and when the work is 

 complete they expect to have one of the best arranged mechani- 

 ical rubber goods plants in the country. It is understood that 

 already they have some encouraging orders in hand. 



= The rubber firms included in the membership of The 

 Motor and Accessory Manufacturers, organized at Cleveland, 

 Ohio, on March 2, are The B. F. Goodrich Co., the Diamond 

 Rubber Co., Hartford Rubber Works Co., Fisk Rubber Co., 

 Morgan & Wright, G & J Tire Co., and the National Cement 

 and Rubber Manufacturing Co. 



= Harrison C. Frost, who for some time past has been con- 

 nected with the Quaker City Rubber Co. (Philadelphia), has 

 severed his connection with that firm. 



= The Brown Shoe Co. (St. Louis) have called a meeting of 

 stockholders to increase their capital stock from $i,coo,coo to 

 $2,500,000. This will make it the largest capitalized shoe com- 

 pany in the world. The great popularity of their " Star 5-Star " 

 shoes and rapid increase of $1,500,000 per year in business re- 

 quires this large capital. In December last the company cele- 

 brated their twenty-fifth anniversary. 



=The Bowers Rubber Co. (San Francisco), are running their 

 factory overtime to catch up with the press of orders that have 

 been booked in the past few months. 



=W. F. Ridge, some time in the factory of Morgan & 

 Wright (Chicago) and more recently general foreman of the 

 tire department of the International Automobile and Vehicle 

 Tire Co. ( Milltown, New Jersey), has accepted a like position 

 with the Goshen Rubber Works (Goshen, Indiana), who are 

 now planning to extend their work in tire lines. 



= The National India Rubber Co. (Bristol, Rhode Isbnd)are 

 mentioned as having a good trade for their insulated wire, for 

 electric lighting purposes, with Japan. The wire is shipped 

 direct from Bristol to Yokohama. The palace of the mikado 

 is said to be wired with the product of the National company's 

 factory. 



= New hydraulic elevators have been placed in the north 

 and south towers of the factory of the Beacon Falls Rubber 

 Shoe Co. (Beacon Falls, Connecticut). 



PERSONAL MENTION. 



The echoes of the very successful dinner of the New Eng- 

 land Rubber Club, reported in The India Rubber World 

 last month, are still to be heard, and mark it as one of the most 

 notable trade dinners ever held in Boston, Aside from the 

 excellent work of the dinner committee, the interest shown by 

 the president, the Hon. L. D. Apsley, who journeyed to Wash- 

 ington expressly to secure such distinguished speakers as Sec- 

 retary Moody, is fully appreciated by all. 



= Colonel Theodore Ayrault Dodge, whose connection with 

 the India-rubber industry is yet well remembered, has devoted 

 himself of late to his literary work. He is the author of a se- 

 ries of volumes entitled "Great Captains," the first of which 

 was devoted to Julius C:tsar. His publishers, Messrs. Hough- 

 ton, Mifflin & Co. (Boston), now announce a new work in this 

 series, on " Napoleon," in four volumes, of which the first two 

 are in press. 



= Mr. Richard A. Leigh, who has patented a process for vul- 

 canizing the product of the so called Colorado rubber plant, 

 was formerly a well known superintendent of rubber factories 

 in the East. He was ordered to Colorado because of a slight 

 lung trouble, from which he has fully recovered. 



= Herr Hans I. W. Clouth, of Franz Clouth, Rheinisch 

 Gummiwaaren Fabrik m. b. H (Cologne-Nippes, Germany), 

 after several weeks spent in visiting rubber manufacturers in 

 the United States, has returned home. 



= Mr. Herbert Laws Webb, after a residence of some fifteen 

 years in New York, has returned to London, where he has 

 opened an office, at 35. Old Queen street, Westminster, S. W., 

 for practice as consulting electrical engineer. Mr. Webb was a 

 valued contributor to the columns of The India Rubber 

 World, in its earlier years, and while it still bore the sub title 

 " and Electrical Trades Review." 



= Mr. E. I. Aldrich, selling agent of the Hood Rubber Co. 

 (Boston), is on his way to Europe for a brief vacation. 



= Ohio newspapers of March 11 contained complimentary 

 mention of the bravery of Captain Claude C. Hooven, of the 

 State militia, in connection with a disturbance at Springfield 

 which made it necessary for Governor Herrick to call out 

 troops. Captain Hooven is one of the incorporators of the new 

 Dayton Rubber Co. 



= Mr. Charles H. Dale, president of the Rubber Goods Manu- 

 facturing Co. (New York), has just returned from a winter trip 

 to Florida. 



= Mr. Arthur F. Townsend, president of the Manhattan Rub- 

 ber Manufacturing Co. (New York), has returned from a busi- 

 ness trip to Cuba. 



= Mr. George A. Lewis, president of the Beacon Falls Rub- 

 ber Shoe Co. (Beacon Falls, Connecticut), has been spending 

 the Winter in Jamaica, West Indies. 



= Edward A. Murphy, of Jersey City, who is mentioned as a 

 candidate for the New Jersey legislature, is said to intend, in 

 the event of his election, to introduce a bill to require all rail- 

 way companies operating overhead lines in cities in that state 

 to deaden the noise of their trains to have the tracks laid on 

 cushions of rubber. 



= Mr. William J. Cable, of Boston, is rumored to have gone 

 to Argentina for permanent residence, his family having joined 

 him there. 



ADVANCE IN RAW MATERIALS. 



A CONSIDERATION of the following advances in the cost 

 of the raw materials of the rubber manufacture has in- 

 fluenced the makers of mechanical rubber goods in dealing with 

 the present and prospective prices of their products — the fig- 

 ures having been compiled by a member of the trade: 



FINE TARA. 

 Average price per pound for 18 years (1885 1902 inclusive) .76 



Average price for 18 months past $1.02 to 1. 12 



Present price $1.12 



Increase, present price over 18 years' average 47^ 



COARSE PARA. 



Average price for 7 years ( 1896-1902 inclusive) .53 



Average price for 18 months past 58 to 69 



Present price .69 



Increase, present price over 7 years' average 30% 



COTTON DUCK. 



Range of prices for 9 years (1895- 1903 inclusive), in cents 



per pound .. I2V 4 to 17 



Price 1903 15 



Range of prices for the past 6 months 22 to 26 



Present price 26 



Increase, present price over 9 years' average 73 % 



COTTON HOSE YARNS. 



Normal prices for many years past 16 to 1 8 



Present prices, according to number of yarn, etc 28 to 32 



Increase, about 76 % 



It is pointed out that owing to the short time in which crude 

 rubber now reaches the market, it is very green. Consequently 

 the present shrinkages are very much greater than was the 

 case in connection with better seasoned rubber of former days- 

 This is a fact that adds very materially to the cost of the rub- 

 ber before it can be manufactured into goods. 



