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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1903. 



A JAPANESE RUBBER FACTORY DAMAGED. 



THE factory of the Fujikura Insulated Wire and Rubber 

 Co., at Tokio, Japan, was demolished by a severe hurri- 

 cane on the forenoon of September 23. The wind arose sud- 

 denly and unexpectedly during a thunderstorm, wrecking all 

 the buildings and carrying some of the roofing and doors for a 

 distance of more than a half mile. Three workshops were blown 

 down, besides the rubber department, the office, shipping de- 

 partment, engine and boiler room, and workmen's boarding 

 house. Though 60 men were employed at the time, in different 

 departments, only a few were injured, and these only slightly. 

 The effect of the storm was confined to a narrow area, includ- 

 ing only about twenty of the neighboring buildings. The loss 

 to the company was about 20,000 yen [=$10,000]. Temporary 

 workshops were speedily erected, making use of available water 



RUIN OF A PORTION OF THE FACTORY. 



power, and by the end of the year the company hope to have 

 completed the rebuilding of their works. The illustration 

 which appears on this page is made from one of a series of pho- 

 tographs of the ruins, sent to The Idia Rubber World by 

 Mr. Kenzo Okada, a member of the company, and a nephew of 

 its founder, the late Mr. Zenpachi Fujikura. Mr. Okada will 

 be remembered by not a few rubber men in the United States, 

 where he worked for several years in acquiring a knowledge of 

 the rubber industry. The works referred to above date from 

 the first attempts made by Mr. Fujikura, in 1884, to insulate 

 electrical wires with rubber. The business has grown gradual- 

 ly and now includes, in addition to insulated wire work, a wa- 

 terproofing plant and the manufacture of various small articles 

 of rubber. 



A CABLE EXPERT ON WIRELESS SYSTEMS. 



IN an address to the shareholders of the Commercial Cable 

 Co., at their recent annual meeting in New York, the 

 general manager, Mr. George G. Ward said, in relation to wire- 

 less telegraphy : 



" At the last annual meeting some remarks were made by 

 me in regard to wireless telegraphy and its effect upon sub- 

 marine cables— we see no reason to change the opinion ex- 

 pressed at that time. Admitting the recent transmission of a 

 message across the Atlantic without wires, radical improve- 

 ments would have to be made in its developments before wire- 

 less could possibly hope to meet the demands of trade and 

 commerce and engage in successful competition with subma- 



rine cables. A good deal has been said and advertised about 

 the many wireless systems for the past two or three years. As 

 yet there is nothing to show that messages can be transmitted 

 without wires, even between short distances, with anything of 

 the regularity, reliability, correctness, and secrecy at any and 

 all times of the day and night, demanded of the existing tele- 

 graph systems and necessary for the protection of the custom- 

 ers' interests and the development of the telegraph business. 

 Furthermore, the transmission of messages between the Euro- 

 pean and American coasts of the Atlantic is far from con- 

 stituting a transatlantic telegraph service as it exists to-day. 

 The essential adjunct of an extensive inland system for the 

 distribution and collection of messages on the North American 

 continent must not be lost sight of. 



" A large part of the traffic passing by the Atlantic cables is 

 destined for places remote from the seaboard. Messages to 

 and from Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Montreal, To- 

 ronto, etc., require and receive transmissions which are meas- 

 ured by minutes. This important traffic would be practically 

 extinguished if senders could not rely on extremely rapid and 

 accurate service. 



" Nothing has occurred since I last addressed you to cause 

 us to modify the conservative estimate then expressed and 

 which I confidently repeat, that telegraphy by means of wires 

 has little to fear from the competition of telegraphy without 

 wires. For the benefit of those who do not share my confidence 

 1 may say that the etheric waves will be as obedient to us as to 

 anybody if it should ever be found practicable to dispense with 

 cables and wires. I wish to say we have every admiration for 

 the eminent scientists connected with the discovery of wireless 

 telegraphy, at the same time we are satisfied it has its limits." 



GROWTH OF A GERMAN RUBBER FACTORY. 



THE twenty-fifth anniversary of Philipp Penin Gummi- 

 waaren-Fabrik, Actiengeselschaft (Leipzig, Germany), has 

 been commemorated in a handsome souvenir brochure, giving 

 the details of the growth of the business. Herr Penin began the 

 manufacture of rubber tubing and other like articles, in a very 

 small way, in the village of Plagwitz, before its inclusion in 

 the city of Leipzig. A shanty with two windows served as his 

 first factory. Being successful, he was not long in moving to a 

 larger building, where he employed a 2 HP. gas engine. In 

 1884 he occupied a factory of much larger proportions, substi- 

 tuting steam power for the 

 gas motor. In 1887 he took 

 on the manufacture of hard 

 rubber and red rubber 

 goods, and opened a branch 

 factory at Markranstadt 

 (near Leipzig) and a store 

 in Berlin. In 188S he began 

 original penin factory. making cut sheet, which 



before had been imported from England, and again enlarged his 

 factory. In 1893 he bought more land and established an ice 

 plant and cooling facilities required in the manufacture of sheet 

 rubber. By that time 250 hands were employed. On June 29, 

 1894, a joint stock company was formed, Herr Penin retaining 

 the management until his death, October 4, 1896. The factory 

 was again enlarged in 1893, more boilers and engines being in- 

 stalled, and also an electric lighting plant. The branch factory 

 at Markranstiidt has also been enlarged several times. There 

 are now employed 700 work people, seven steam engines with 

 400 HP., and three dynamos for supplying light and also power 

 for the smaller machinery. 



