Dece.n 



1. 1919] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

 By Our Regular CorrcsfoiidL-iil. 



THE Massachusetts Institute of Technuuic, which many 

 consider the greatest institution of its kind in this coinitry, 

 and in the world, has offered its services as expert and research 

 engineer in a consulting capacity to manufacturers, upon pay- 

 ment of a suitable annual fee. The Institute has on its faculty 

 many of the leading industrial scientists in this country. An- 

 nually many scientific problems are studied and worked out, 

 and therefore the solution of many such problems which confront 

 manufacturing establishments are already available. In brief, the 

 Institute offers its services in a consultant capacity, on an annua! 

 salary basis, and in return for this fee will permit the firms thus 

 retaining such services to make use of the Institute's extensive 

 library, files and laboratory facilities, and to consult with the 

 members of its staff and faculty on problems pertaining imme- 

 diately to the needs of the client firms or corporations. 



Carried to its conclusion, this plan will make the Institute one 

 of the greatest consulting bodies in the world. Its range will 

 cover practically every field of technical research. Through 

 the plan those who devised it hope to see evolve a new relation- 

 ship between Tech and the industrial organization of the coun- 

 try. .-Xmerican industry, they say, has long been in need of a 

 clearing house of scientific knowledge. The Tech plan, they 

 declare, creates a clearing house. 



.■Mmost immediately upon the announcement of this plan many 

 prominent firms became subscribers, among the first being the 

 .American International Corp., New York ; the General Electric 

 Co., Schenectady, New York; the Simplex Wire and Cable Co., 

 The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. and The Goodyear 

 Tire & Rubber Co. 



In Quincy. Massachusetts, w'here, during the World War, 

 more than 18.000 men were employed in the shipbuilding works, 

 there was great difficulty in housing the workmen. The Govern- 

 ment built dormitories as well as single houses for their accom- 

 modation. Since the armistice was signed there has been a 

 heavy reduction in the number of men employed in this work, 

 and many of these houses became available for other workmen. 

 Last month there was a widespread rumor that the Hood Rub- 

 ber Co., of Watertown, had bought 21 of these dormitories, and 

 land adjacent. Coupled with this was the conjecture that the 

 Hood company would erect an extensive manufacturing plant 

 there and give employment to a large number of workmen. 

 Inquiry regarding the truth of this rumor elicited a distinct de- 

 nial, Mr. Hood stating that there was nothing in it. 



A "get-together' dinner was held, late in October, at Phillips 

 Inn, .J^ndover, the development of recent plans of the Tyer 

 Rubber Co., of that town, for the establishment of a service 

 department. The company, fifty in number, comprised the gen- 

 eral manager, superintendent, the heads of each department, all 

 the foremen and one or more delegates from each department 

 of the works, the latter being elected by the workers in these 

 departments. To emphasize the thought that all present met as 

 employes only, place cards were drawn by lot, so that represen- 

 tatives of the management were sealed, not as a group, but with 

 the other employes, and the spirit of good-fellowship enjoyed 

 by all attested the wisdom of this plan. The service manager 

 acted as toastmaster, and the matters introduced by him became 

 subjects for general discussion in which both management and 

 workmen took enthusiastic part. These included the value of 

 cooperation between individuals and the company and between 

 department and department ; the kind of goods manufactured ; 

 the use of a suggestion box, and the desirability of a definite 

 plan for further cooperation. As a result of the meeting the 

 plan for the suggestion box was adopted and a sub-committee 

 from the dinner group appointed to plan a permanent service 

 organization, to take the form of a service association, operat- 



ing through a general improvement or works committee. An 

 informal musical program by several employes added much to 

 the pleasure of the evening. 



The Cambridge Rubber Co., Cambridgeport, has let the con- 

 tract for a five-story brick addition to its factory, to cost about 

 $50,000. Each floor will be 74 by 90 feet. The new part will 

 be devoted to the automobile top fabric and the tennis shoe 

 departments. When the addition is completed, the company will 

 have a total floor area of over 100,000 square feet. 



The Beacon Rubber Co., Lynn, Massachusetts, manufacturer 

 of rubber heels and fiber and rubber soles, has purchased a two- 

 story factory building at the corner of Commercial and Bennett 

 streets. West Lynn. The factory has a power plant connected 

 and a floor space of about 10,000 square feet. The lot is a large 

 one with plenty of room for additional factory space when re- 

 quired. Edmund J. Twomey is president of the company and 

 James E. Connor secretary and treasurer. 



The Pyrotex Leather Co. is the name of a concern recently 

 incorporated m the sum of $50,000 to manufacture artificial 

 leather, which has started fitting up a factory on Whitney 

 street, Leominster, this state. Winthrop M. Mays is president; 

 Ralph A. Robertson, secretary, and Harold A. Burdett, treas- 

 urer. 



The Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Co., Cambridge, has made 

 arrangements whereby its employes may obtain advice on all legal 

 questions free of charge from the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, thus 

 saving them the expense of employing an attorney. Hours have 

 been arranged so that the Bureau may be consulted without in- 

 terfering with working hours. This will undoubtedly be of 

 great assistance to many of the workers, and particularly so in 

 the case of those who become victims of loan sharks, whose 

 practices are well known to every large employer of labor. 



The company will soon start classes to teach English to for- 

 eign-born employes, this also at no expense to them. The 

 classes will be held from 12 to 1 o'clock, so as not to interfere 

 with working hours. 



The Converse Rubber Shoe Co., Maiden, has purchased a 

 large, old-fashioned estate in the residential section of that 

 city, and will remodel the big house, modernize and furnish it 

 to accommodate 50 persons with board and room, the intention 

 being to run it on the club or cooperative plan to house out-of- 

 town women employes of the company. The work of remodel- 

 ing will begin soon, and is expected to be completed at an early 

 date in 1920, and thus materially reduce the high cost of living 

 there, for Maiden, like all cities having extensive industries, is 

 at present short of boarding and rooming accommodations, 

 which, of ..ourse, adds to the difficulty of manufacturers in 

 securing sufficient and efficient help. 



Will diving suits of rubber be superseded by 4hose inadc of 

 brass? Last month a trial was made of a suit of that metal, 

 weighing 400 pounds, in which the diver w-ent to a depth of 360 

 feet under the surface of the sea in Boston harbor. It is esti- 

 mated that at that depth the pressure was about 150 pounds to 

 the square inch, and it is in this greater power of resistance 

 that the metal suit is claimed to have the advantage over the 

 ordinary rubber diving suit. .As a precaution against any 

 possible defects, which might become apparent under the in- 

 creasing pressure the diver was lowered into the water very 

 slowly, half an hour being required for the trip to the bottom. 

 John F. Turner, the diver, has had wide experience as a diver 

 and some years ago reached a depth of 154 feet in an ordinary 

 suit. He says that this invention is the most nearly perfect 

 thing of the kind he has seen. It is the intention of the inventor 

 and the diver to attempt the salvage of $30,000,000 in gold bullion 

 from the British steamer I.aurcntic, which was sunk off the Irish 

 coast during the World War. 



