96 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1903. 



Templars of Ohio in Cleveland, Akron Commandery, No. 25, 

 took 2500 of these souvenirs to Cleveland, and during a recep- 

 tion gave each visiting lady a bottle as a souvenir of the" Rub- 

 ber City." They made the hit of the convention, and every 

 delegate wanted one of them. Many other rubber novelties 

 are used. Fountain pens, made in Akron, are always favorites, 

 and anything else in the rubber line is always eagerly sought. 

 Thus everything tends toward a change from the "Tip Top 

 City of the Western Reserve" to the " Rubber City," and no 

 Akron citizen will object to the change, for through her rubber 

 factories 5000 men and women, boys and girls are given em- 

 ployment, and one-third of Akron's population is clothed and 



fed. 



* » * 



A LOCAL rubber man, in discussing the large amounts of 

 money which are tied up in Akron rubber concerns, said : " It 

 is a fact of which most people are unaware, that rubber com- 

 panies spend large amounts every year in experiments. Am- 

 bitious inventors who believe they have at last acquired a pat- 

 ent which will fill a long felt want secure an audience with the 

 proper official of a rubber company, and if they are successful 

 in satisfying him that their inventions are practicable, he will 

 spend money liberally in getting them in shape to be put on 

 the market. Nine times out of ten, when the article is a good 

 one and the expert rubber men get to work upon it, they pro- 

 duce an article better than the inventor ever dreamed of, and 

 the company foots the bill. Many times the article docs not 

 ' pan out ' as expected, and the rubber company finds that it 

 has a large amount to be charged up to profit and loss, which 

 was expended in time, material, and labor in an endeavor to 

 perfect an invention. In a big company thousands of dollars 

 go to waste in this manner every year. Besides, the compa- 

 nies are constantly experimenting with new compounds, secret 

 processes, etc., which eat up large sums in th'e course of a year 

 that would materially increase the dividends if they could be 

 used for that purpose. The rubber business is a great busi- 

 ness, but because of the fact that it is practically in its infancy, 

 and new uses for rubber are being found every day, it takes 

 lots of money to conduct it successfully." 



» * * 



Mr. Will Christy, president of the Firestone Tire and 

 Rubber Co., has created a sensation among street railway men 

 by offering to build in Cleveland a street railway upon which 

 he agrees to charge a two cent fare, or sell 13 tickets for a 

 quarter. Mr. Christy has always been known as a conserva- 

 tive traction man, and one who maintained that a five cent fare 

 was essential to the life of a street railway corporation. Mr. 

 Christy is first a street railway man, and secondly a rubber 

 man. Perhaps the fact that he has only recently become iden- 

 tified with the latter business accounts for his paying more at- 

 tention to the traction business, with which he has been identi- 

 fied for many years, and in which business he has accumulated 

 a considerable fortune. Mr. Christy is evidently in earnest in 

 his offer to build a two cent fare road, but he refuses to tell of 

 his plans at present. Mr. Christy is first vice president of the 

 Northern Ohio Traction and Light Co., and until recently was 

 president of the Southern Ohio Traction Co. He was one of 

 the original stockholders of the People's Hard Rubber Co., 

 but disposed of his stock before the failure of that company. 



* * • 



The election of Mr. Ohio C. Barber to the presidency of the 

 United Boxboard and Paper Co., was not unexpected in Akron, 

 where a large part of his business interests are located. Mr. 

 Barber is one of the directors of the Diamond Rubber Co., and 



the factory of that company was formerly the plant of the Dia- 

 mond Match Co., later removed to Barberton. Mr. Barber is 

 said to be one of the largest stockholders of the Diamond 

 Rubber Co., and he is also largely interested in many other 

 large enterprises. The fact that the success of the strawboard 

 trust was deemed dependent upon his accepting the presidency 

 is particularly gratifying to his friends and business associates. 



* * * 



Bowling is the latest game to be taken up by employes of 

 some of the Akron rubber companies. A new team, called 

 " The Rubbernecks," promises to be one of the best in the 

 city, if the first game of a series bowled recently may be taken 

 as a criterion. It won two out of three games rolled with the 

 " Grands," the strongest team in the county. Joseph Dangel, 

 superintendent of the plant of the American Hard Rubber Co., 

 is a prominent member of the team. He is the inventor of a 

 hard rubber ball, mention of which was made in a recent issue 

 of The India Rubber World, and all the members of the 

 team use this ball. Other members of the team are Edward 

 Bullock, John Tillett, L. C. Ball, M. A. Germann, and Charles 

 Blank, all employes of rubber companies. 



* » * 



THE Swinehart Clincher Tire Co. is the name of a new com- 

 pany recently organized in this city for the manufacture of 

 solid vehicle and automobile tires, under patents owned by 

 Mr. J. A. Swinehart, who was formerly vice president of the 

 Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. Mr. Swinehart's patents are 

 radical departures from those of other manufacturers, and 

 especially is this noticeable in the vehicle tires, which he will 

 place upon the market in a short time. The vehicle tire is fas- 

 tened to the rims without the use of wires, and is called a clin- 

 cher tire. The new tire fits into a specially prepared channel, 

 doing away entirely with the Juse of wires. The automobile 

 tire is also a clincher, and great things are claimed for it. At 

 the present time the company are doing a great deal of experi- 

 menting with the tires, and are having them made at different 

 factories in Akron. It is the intention ultimately to build a 

 factory for the manufacture of these tires. 



* * * 



Mr. Alexander Adamson, owner of the Adamson machine 

 works, in which many machines used in the rubber trade are 

 made, is completing a handsome residence in the outskirts of 

 Akron, which attests his love for country life. The house 

 is hidden among the hills in a spot where street railways and 

 other modern conveniences of everyday life are as yet unknown. 

 It will be one of the most handsome homes in this section of 

 the state. 



Mr. James A. Braden, advertising manager of the Diamond 

 Rubber Co. and a former well known newspaper man of Akron, 

 has just published his second book, "Connecticut Boys in the 

 Western Reserve." It is a companion story to his first book, 

 " Far Past the Frontier," and was written before he accepted 

 his present position. Mr. Braden has made a specialty of writ- 

 ing for juvenile readers. 



The Diamond Rubber Co. are very proud of the record made 

 by their tires in the recent endurance contest for automobiles 

 from New York to Pittsburgh. It is stated that i2"j sets of 

 Diamond tires used in that contest reached Pittsburgh after a 

 contest such as had never been had before, at an average cost 

 per car of 5^ mills per mile. Fifteen and one-half sets of Dia- 

 mond tires were on the 34 cars that started from New York, 

 and five sets of these tires finished the run without so much as 

 a puncture, and one of these ran a number of miles on a raiU 

 road. 



