January 1, 1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



233 



spent on the work at l''ort Dunlup, auotlK-r £1,600,000 in 

 France, and large sums for other needs toward the company's 

 development, states that il, 000,000 are to be employed in 

 America to start, among other things, a rubber plant that shall 

 be the counterpart of Fort Dunlop, with improvements, and 

 that the sum is a mere beginning, because the officials of the 

 Dunlop company are in touch with a leading American banking 

 house regarding the raising of the additional i6,000,000, which 

 will be needed to fully carry out the scheme. 



He explained that in 1916, the rights of manufacturing and 

 trading in the United States were bought back from the Ameri- 

 can Dunlop Co ; that a committee of experts sent to the United 

 States this year reported that it is a good time for the exten- 

 sion there of the Dunlop business; that he himself examined 

 conditions in America during the war, although he was not 

 then connected with the Dunlop company. He said, also, that a 

 Dunlop American Trust, Limited, had been formed for the 

 purpose of forming a company in the United States to be called 

 "Dunlop America Limited," or some such title. The plan is 

 for the Dunlop Rubber Co. to take at par 1,000,000 ordinary 

 shares in the American company, one-fourth of the ordinary 

 shares; it will receive also for its trouble 10 per cent of the 

 cost of erecting and equipping a rubber plant, and a royalty on 

 the American net profits. The Dunlop Rubber Co. will also 

 have a right to name a majority of the directors, and if any 

 further increase of the ordinary stock is made by the American 

 company, it must provide that the British company may buy 

 one-fourth of the new stock at par. 



The stockholders present applauded the speech and seemed 

 to find no objection to this carefully thought out plan for in- 

 vading the American rubber market. Mr. Ormrod expatiated 

 on the probable large profits and declared : "American tires 

 will come, anyway — they had better be Dunlop-American." 



Since the above announcement was made, there have been 

 incorporated in the United States two new companies under the 

 laws of New York, namely, Dunlop America Limited, and Dun- 

 lop Wheel & Rim Co., Inc., details concerning which appear 

 elsewhere in this issue. 



Steps are being taken already to have the Canadian company, 

 The Dunlop Tire & Rubber Goods Co., Limited, of Toronto, 

 cooperate in the new plan. The sum of $1,500,000 has been 

 appropriated for erecting a new factory in Toronto. The build- 

 ing, fronting on three streets — Queen, Booth and Natalie — is 

 well under way and is being rushed to completion ; it is 400 feet 

 by 80 feet, four stories high above the basement. It will be 

 devoted especially to the manufacture of the Dunlop cord tires, 

 "Traction" and "Ribbed." 



BRIEr HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE DtTNLOP COMPANY. 



The Dunlop companies have played so important a part in 

 the development of rubber tires that a brief review of their 

 history may be interesting. The invention by Dr. John B. 

 Dunlop of a pneumatic tire for his little boy's bicycle in 1888 

 was taken up by the late Harvey du Cros at the moment when the 

 bicycle craze was taking hold of England, and the Pneumatic 

 Tyre Co., Limited, was started in Dublin with a capital of 

 £15,000 in 1889. The company was pushed energetically and by 

 1893, subsidiary companies were started in the United States 

 and in France. In 1896 came the great boom in which Ernest 

 Terah Hooley took a hand and won his notoriety. The Dunlop 

 Pneumatic Tyre Co. was capitalized at £5,000,000, and the 

 pneumatic tire business was so good that Mr. du Cros was 

 able to pull the company througli after Hooley's collapse. 

 It is interesting to note that The India Rubber World at that 

 time, while warning against the excessive enthusiasm for bi- 

 cycles, remarked, "The horseless carriage is also coming in 

 for a share of attention, and the makers of tires are hoping 

 for a new field for their industry in equipping these vehicles 

 with rubber." 



The American Dunlop Tire Co. lasted till 1901. The Societi 

 Fran(aise des Pneumatiques Dunlop, after the French courts 

 had decided that the Dunlop patents were invalid, was sold to 

 the British company in 1909. In 1899 two other important sub- 

 sidiary companies were .formed — the Dunlop Tire Co. of Canada. 

 Limited (now the Dunlop Tire & Rubber Goods Co., Limited), 

 with £1,000,000 capital, and the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. of 

 .Vustralasia, Limited, with £120,000. There was also establislied 

 a Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. (Continental), Limited, in Lun- 

 don, which was to acquire the Dunlop branches in Italy, Den- 

 mark, Belgium, Holland and Russia. Later a Dunlop Pneumatic 

 Tyre Co., G. m. b. H., was established at Hanau in (ierniany 

 (1904), and a Dunlop Rubber Co. (Far East), Limited, at 

 Singapore (1909), and near Kobe, in Japan (1910). 



.As is well known, the Dunlop patent proved of no avail, as 

 Thomson had patented practically the same tire in 1844, and had 

 applied it to carriages. Mr. du Cros, however, soon acquired 

 other important patents, notably the Welsh and the "Clincher," 

 some of them American, and .was able to keep the lead in the 

 industry which he had started. In 1904, by which time it was 

 clear that the bicycle trade was declining, he had turned his 

 attention to the possibilities of the fast developing motor trade; 

 the company's capital was then £4,000,000. 



After the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. had become a subsidiary 

 of the Dunlop Rubber Co., the present organization, its capital 

 was reduced. In 1917 there was much activity in the rubber 

 company. The capital stock was increased to £6,000,(XX), by cre- 

 ating £3.000,000 of 7 per cent preference shares, which were in 

 addition to £1,000,000 of 6H per cent preference shares created 

 the year before. Moreover, there were rumors that brought out 

 the statement that the increase was not intended "To support 

 the idea that the tire makers of Great Britain are combining to 

 fight new foreign competition." Later there was uneasiness be- 

 cause a firm of brokers was believed to have bought £4,000,000 

 ordinary shares of Dunlop for financial interests that were not 

 in harmony with the persons who controlled the company. 



It should be noted that the additional £1,000,000 shares to be 

 olifered now are expected to bring in, not their par value, but 

 £8.000,000. 



In 1913 the works at Fort Dunlop were begun. This is a plot 

 of land containing 290 acres, about five miles from Birmingham, 

 close 10 the canal and the railway. The buildings already put 

 up on this ground cover more than 27'A acres and will soon 

 cover more than 40 acres. In 1914 the company began to build 

 its own cotton mills, and at present the Dunlop company's cot- 

 ion mill? are valued at £3,000,000. 



BONUSES FOR SALARIED RUBBER EMPLOYES. 



As a holiday remembrance the United States Rubber Co., New 

 York City, gave to its salaried officers and employes in this 

 country, including subsidiary companies, a bonus of 10 per cent 

 of their salaries, if not exceeding $2,000 annually. All those re- 

 ceiving higher salaries were given $200. About 7,500 persons 

 were benefited by this Christmas gift. 



The B. F. Goodrich Rubber Co., announces that 25 per cent 

 of their annual pay will be given to all salaried employes this 

 year. Approximately $2,500,000 will thus be distributed to about 

 7,500 employes. 



The Mason Tire & Rubber Co., Kent, Ohio, announces an 

 unlimited mileage guarantee stating that no matter how far a 

 Mason tire has run, if it should develop any defect in material 

 or workmanship, it will be adjusted fairly on th« basis of the 

 service it would have given had the defect not existed. 



At -\n exhibjtion held for four days during the month 

 of August at Tjiandoer, Java, the Naamloose Vennootschap 

 Rubber en Handel Maatschappij Tjiandoer of Pasir Hajam had 

 an exceptionally fine display of inland crude rubber samples. 



