THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



159 



olnaiiK'd ai a lower cost than is possible over the northern 

 roiiios. It is also within the realms of probability that the 

 "machine grown rubber" from California, Arizona and Texas will 

 one day furnish another reason in favor of Los Angeles. The 

 natural center for cotton shipments coming from the Imperial 

 and San Joaquin valleys and the rapidly growing fields of 

 Arizona, is Los Angeles. In addition to this it has preferential 

 rates from all Te.xas points for export cotton. The Goodyear 

 company takes advantage of this nearness to the cotton fields by 

 the establishment of its cotton factory for the manufacture of 

 fabric to 1)e used in its tire industry. Furthermore, sulphur, 

 laic, asbestos and many other ingredients used in rubber com- 

 pounding arc to be found within our own borders and will be 

 available upon demand. 



.\s for outlets for manufactured goods in addition to the 

 local market there is the overseas market, Japan, China. 

 Oceanica, Australia and India. So also the east and west coast 

 of South America, South Africa and even Europe are more 

 accessible than they are in Akron. 



The harbor facilities of Los Angeles are particularly advan- 

 tageous for industrial enterprises. It is declared that freight 

 can be handled there at 10 per cent less than in any other port 

 on the coast. The United States has spent approximately 

 $6,000,000 on the breakwater, jetties and dredging in the harbor, 

 and wharves, freight sheds, warehouses, railroad terminals, 

 paved streets and other facilities have been constructed for the 

 economical handling of freight. 



It is claimed that the largest and perhaps the finest pier in 

 .■\merica has been built in the outer harbor. It is more than 

 half a mile long and 650 feet wide. It was constructed by 

 building a rock bulkhead around the area and filling in the 

 center with solid earth dredged out of the harbor in digging 

 channels. These channels were made 35 feet deep on each side 

 of the pier. 



.\ reinforced concrete wharf 2,500 feet long and 40 feet wide 

 was built along the west side of this pier, and a freight shed of 

 steel and asbestos-protected metal was built on and back of this 

 wharf. More than two miles of railroad tracks and a paved 

 street were built to serve this wharf and shed. 



Last, but not least, among the city's biggest assets are its 

 open-shop policy and traditions. When the longshoremen's 

 strike tied up the San Francisco water front and sent vessels 

 to Los Angeles to be unloaded dock work went ahead here un- 

 interruptedly, in spite of the strike. Free labor has always 

 been insisted upon, and attempts at strikes, whether by agitator 

 elements, within or without the city, have invariably proved 

 failures, as witness the recent attempt to cut the city oflf by a 

 railroad strike in sympathy with the carmen's strike in that city, 

 both of which were called off, after it was seen there was no 

 hope of success. A shipbuilding „'rike at the yard in the harbor. 

 which lasted for several months, was also called off, the agi- 

 tators who had stirred up the trouble abandoning their efforts 

 in disgust. 



Los .\npcles County alone has 107,000 automobiles and 15,000 

 trucks, fully one-third of all those in the State. There are 75 

 automobile agencies in the city, representing all the standard 

 makes of machines made in the United States, 250 garages and 

 over 200 t'rc agencies, to say nothing of oil stations, electric 

 ■service stations and the like. The county highway system has 

 470 miles of good roads and the city 1,500 miles of paved streets. 

 Southern California itself has 2,368 miles of paved highways 

 and 10,000 miles of highly improved roads extending from Los 

 .^ngeIe^ to the Mexican border and to the northern extremities 

 of the Slate. The State itself purposes to improve this system 

 greatly in the coming year through the $40,000,000 bond issue 

 voted at the last election. 



There are reports that other rulihcr companies, following the 

 example of the Goodyear company, are already negotiating for 



sites, but no definite announcement has yet been made. Three 

 other rubber companies have plants located in southern Cali- 

 fornia, all in the vicinity of Los Angeles ; the Hendrie Tire Co. 

 at Torrance, the industrial city in close proximity to the harbor; 

 the Samson Tire & Rubber Co. at Compton, a suburban town 

 on the line of Long Beach, and the Savage Tire Co., with its 

 main plant at San Diego, and a branch in Los Angeles. 



PRACTICAL HINTS ON RETREADING. 



By A. B. Zu-ebell. 

 A RECENT TRIP through the East afforded the writer an 

 *^ opportunity to observe the manner in which the business 

 of tire retreading is carried on. It was noticeable that some 

 repair men are careless in their work and reckless in guarantee- 

 ing poor w-orkmanship, while others waste time and work on 

 worthless tires, all of which brings retreading into disrepute. 

 Therefore, some practical suggestions which should be helpful 

 to all who engage in the industry of retreading tires may be 

 of interest. 



The first step toward a successful business is to pick out first- 

 class tires to retread or to substitute such tires as are worth re- 

 treading. First-class work is essential and it may pay in the end 

 to reject two-thirds of the tires brought in for retreading, if they 

 are of poor quality. The tire should be of standard make for 

 these are made of material of good quality and are usually suit- 

 able for retreading. A good cord tire, such as are becoming 

 rapidly more popular, invariably wears out the original tread. 

 The added cost of a cord casing makes the owner try to econo- 

 mize by turning to retreading. 



Moisture in a carcass is very detrimental to retreading a 

 tire. The carcass should be thoroughly dry : otherwise the casing 

 is sure to bulge when subjected to the heat of the mold. It is 

 always advisable to remove the tread in the usual manner and, 

 after buffing, to dry the tire thoroughly in a vacuum drying oven 

 or in the heated mold itself. Three periods of thirty minutes 

 each are sufficient to dry thoroughly any ordinary casing. Unless 

 dried a tire when built up and placed in a mold will expand and 

 separate the plies of fabrics or cord. When the plies are sepa- 

 rated the tire becomes weak. E.xpansion is caused by gas or 

 ^team and makes it difficult to remove the tire from the mold. 



Many successful men reline their tires : not with the ordinary 

 inner liner, made of inferior material and lacking shape to set 

 in the tire, but with a first-class shaped liner, preferably one 

 taken from an adjusted or rim cut tire. This liner can be made 

 by any repair man or may be purchased from a supply house 

 handling vulcanizer supplies. 



There are complaints of improper fitting and stitching down of 

 liners which do not conform to the curve of the tire, thus causing 

 friction, heat and endless tube pinches and other troubles. 

 Experience proves that a liner, properly inserted, stitched and 

 vulcanized (not cemented), with the addition of the pressure ob- 

 tained from the new types of vulcanizers and retreaders, forti- 

 fies the tire; the liner becomes a part of the tire itself, prevent- 

 ing blowouts and like accidents. 



Care must be taken with steaming and the preparation of the 

 carcass. It pays to remove the tread and old breaker of a tire. 

 Often the outside ply of fabric is water-soaked, which causes the 

 fabric to deteriorate and become hard and glazed, making it diffi- 

 cult for the cement to adhere or soak into it. This ply of fabric 

 may be removed profitably when a three-ply liner is inserted be- 

 cause two extra plies are then added. 



The reinforcing of tires should be done from the inside, for it 

 is a waste of expensive fabric to apply it on the outside. The 

 necessary repairs to a casing should be made before adding the 

 new tread. The repairs should be at least semi-cured, as the cure 

 of retreading and repairs in one operation has not proved suc- 

 cessful. Complaints arc heard of low spots on tires; these are 

 usually caused by insufficient sand in the sand bags, by the pock- 



