February 1. 19201 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



303 



Frum ihe Xylos Rubber Co., Limited, reclaimers of rubber, 

 TrafFord Park, Manchester, England, comes a handsome leather 

 pocketbook, which holds also a booklet with detachable leaves 

 for memoranda. 



H. Muehlstein & Co., New York City, dealers in scrap rubber, 

 provide again this year a handsome Russia leather satin-lined 

 pocketbook for bank notes. 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 

 PRESIDENT OF THE GOODYEAR RUBBER INSULATING CO. 



THEODORE W'hit.ney Bl.\ke, president of the Goodyear Rubber 

 Insulating Co., New York City, and also of the Whitney 

 Blake Co., New Haven, Connecticut, died suddenly at his winter 

 residence, 1067 Fifth avenue. New York City, on November 27, 

 1919, aged 54 years. 



Born in Oakland. California, May 3, 1866, the son of Professor 

 William Phipps Blake, mining engineer and state geologist, he 

 came of an illustrious ancestry. His great-great-uncle was Eli 

 Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. His great-uncle, Eli Whit- 

 ney Blake, invented the Blake stone crusher used all over the 

 world today. His great-grandfather, Jonathan Mix, invented 

 the elliptical spring for carriages and wagons. These are but a 

 few of the inventions this gifted family gave to the world. 



As a boy, Mr. Blake was educated at the Hopkins Grammar 

 School, New Haven, Connecticut, his home being in that city. 

 He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Uni- 

 versity, Class of 88, as one of the "Honored Ten," because he 

 had performed some splendid original experiments in chemistry. 



Beginning work with the American Bell Telephone Co. in 

 New York City, he rose rapidly from one position to another, 

 then went to Stone & Webster's in Boston, Massachusetts. 

 From there he went to The National India Rubber Co., Bristol, 

 Rhode Island. Then he started the Goodyear Rubber Insulating 

 Co.. in New York City, he and F. S. Minott becoming partners. 

 By his own energj- and ingenuity he built this up from a small 

 concern into the business it is to-day, and in 1912 he founded 

 The Whitney Blake Co., at New Haven, Connecticut. 



In 1900 he married Lillian Kaisley, daughter of Major Kais- 

 ley, U. S. A., and is survived by her, a daughter, Charlotte 

 Hayes Blake, and a son, Kaisley Blake. 



A man of remarkable energy and enthusiasm, broad vision 

 and high ideals, clear judgment and unfailing optimism, ingeni- 

 ous with machinery and resourceful in its practical application, 

 he was of the highest type of American business man. In New 

 Haven, where most of his home life was spent, he was public 

 spirited and associated with all that stood for real progress. 

 Greatly did he love humanity, and deeply was he loved in 

 return. 



A CHICAGO TIRE DEALER. 



Frank A. Williams, president of the Carlsten-Williams Co., 

 Chicago, Illinois, well-known dealers in tires, died of pneumonia 

 on December 18, 1919. He was born in Chicago in 1883 and had 

 a public school education. At thirteen he entered the service of 

 the Hartford Rubber Works as an errand boy and worked his 

 way up until the company was absorbed by the United States 

 Tire Co., in 1911. He then helped to organize the Carlsten- 

 Williams Co., of which he was president from the beginning. 



SPECIALIST IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. 



George Weston, a brother of Joseph C. Weston, vice-president 

 of the A]3LX Rubber Co., Inc., New York City, died in Phila- 

 delphia. January 7. 1920, after a brief illness. Mr. Weston was 

 a well-known engineer, and a specialist in railway valuation 

 and industrial relations. His recent paper on 'The -Adjustment 

 of Industrial Relations," which appeared in the technical and 

 lay press, earned for him well-merited recognition. 



KNOWN TO MANY RUBBER MANUFACTURERS. 



Word comes from Germany of the death in 1917 of Professor 

 George S. Atwood, for a long time secretary of the American 

 Association of Commerce and Trade in Berlin. Professor 

 -Atwood was an American of New England, and at one time 

 one of the facultj' of Bowdoin College, Maine. 



In 1906 he went to Germany as a teacher of English. He 

 married and settled in Berlin, later being instrumental in found- 

 ing the very excellent association of which he was secretary. 



RUBBER IN BASE BALLS. 



The actual manufacture of a ball begins with the formation of 

 a piece of cork into a piece about the size of, and resembling, a 

 marble. These pieces are previously examined and weighed and 

 those not up to the required specifications are discarded. In the 

 meantime, in another part of the factory, rubber is being molded 

 into hemispheres that enclose the cork center, and are vulcanized. 



The center is now ready for winding with wool yarn, the wool 

 having been imported from .Austrialia in the raw state in bales 

 and put through the various operations of yarn making. The 

 gage of the yarn and the tension under \vhich it is wound must 

 be exact, otherwise the ball will exceed the proper size. 



When the wool yarn has been wound to almost the regulation 

 size of the ball it is finished off with a winding of strong cotton 

 thread, and an application of rubber cement given. The ball is 



Baseball with Cork axd Rubber Center. 



now ready for its cover, which is sewn on by hand. The sewers, 

 who work with awl and the strongest cotton thread, stretch on 

 the two pieces of horsehide, the latter having been in preparation 

 for at least sixteen weeks, and it is then given a final inspection 

 before the box is sealed. 



Some of the details that enter into the making of a baseball 

 will be of interest, for instance; the cover measures approxi- 

 mately 25 square inches and is cut with special dies, only the best 

 part of the horsehide being used. The length of the blue and 

 white wool yarn windings, if stretched out in a single string, 

 would measure over 400 yards, nearly a quarter of a mile. 



Although the ball in a general way has followed the same speci- 

 fications for many years, it was not until 1910 that the cork 

 center was introduced which has since justified all the claims 

 made for it. 



To assert that too much rubber in a ball would tend to make it 

 dead seems ridiculous, but such was the case, and the remedy 

 was discovered in the introduction of a small pieec of cork 

 the center of what heretofore had been a .solid piece of rubber. 

 ("Spalding's Journal of American Sports.") 



Penang, during the eleven months ended November 30, 1919, 

 exported to Great Britain 208,115 pounds of crude rubber and 

 !o the United States, 121,734 pounds. 



