340 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 



much lime in Xcw York City and in various towns in Massa- 

 chusetts. It was in Waburn in the latter state, when some rubber 

 fell accidentally from his hand upon the top of a red hot stove, 

 that he learned that the application of heat was the one addi- 

 tional element needed in the solution of the problem. So in- 

 timate was his acquaintance with his subject that the change 

 produced in the rubber by its unexpected contact with the 

 stove was recognized by him as of vital importance. 



Large .sums of money had been invested and lost in rubber 

 manufacture before Goodyear brought his process to com- 

 pletion. Goods that looked all right were made up, but cold 

 weather made them stiflf and brittle, and in summer they be- 



came soft, and decomposition gave them an offensive odor. 

 Goodyear was born December 29, 1800. In 1834 he began his 

 rubber experiments but it was not until the spring of 1839 

 that the stove incident occurred. His process was not fully 

 perfected until 1844. He received the grand medal of the 

 World's Exhibition at Paris, the Great Council medal of the 

 Exhibition of .Ml Nations at London, and the ribbon of the 

 Legion of Honor from Napoleon III. He died at the old Fifth 

 Avenue Hotel in New York in July. 1860. Death found him 

 insolvent and his family heavily in debt. Though he made no 

 fortune for himself, great wealth has come to many through 

 his invention. 



Seeing the Short Cuts. 



By A Practical Man. 



THERE is not I ne man in fifty who is eitlier a trained or a 

 natural observer. Moreover, the notion that observation 

 comes naturally, like mastication or perspiration, is far 

 from the truth. Some lack that quality ot mind that constiiu'.es 

 the chief asset of the job analyst, while most men look but do 

 not see. .\ great number are so close to their work that they 

 lose the perspective. This explains in part the fact that the in- 

 dustrial engneer finds plenty of occupation for the ability re- 

 quired in his profession. The instances that follow came 

 under the personal observation of the writer and tell of those 

 who were convinced of a blind spot, and proceeded to cure it, 

 much to their ind\idual benefit and the credit of the rubber 

 fralemity. 



CONVEYOR CHUTES SAVE TIME. 



A company in the Middle West engaged in the manufacture 

 of bicycle tires employed a truck to gather the packages put 

 up by the packers. This truck was pushed down a long aisle 

 behind the men engaged in. this work, where it gathered a load 

 which was carried to the elevator located in the extreme end of 

 the room ; thence down one flocr to the shipping departmeiit. 

 This trucking was eliminated by cutting a hole in the floor 

 about midway in the packing Ine and installing a chute, which 

 delivered the packed goods by rapid transit. 



A manufacturer of fabric shoes in the East, after inspecting 

 the tops as they came from the sewing machines, paired them 

 and placed them in small bags, which were then loaded upon a 

 truck and delivered by the elevator to the next department, 

 which happened to be immediately underneath. Here the bags 

 were opened and the contents distributed. A chute from the 

 inspection table to the floor below would have saved a lot of 

 this work, and given almost instantaneous delivery. 



An old and successful Eastern company had its mill room and 

 calender rooms on one side of the lower floor, but with the 

 engine room in between. To supply the calenders with material 

 necessitated frequent trips by truck from the mill room. This 

 trip was an irregular one. winding its way through several de- 

 partments, by aisles always more or less congested, and by the 

 time a round trip had been made the truck had traveled a dis- 

 tance of 760 feet. This trip was cut down to about 150 feet 

 round-trip in the following way. A window in the mill room 

 nearest the engine room was enlarged into a doorway, and a 

 corresponding change made in the calender room. These two 

 doors, therefore, opened to the outs'de, and in line with one 

 another. A covered passage was then constructed connecting 

 them, and better and quicker service at once resulted. 



Another company had a battery of insulating machines on the 

 second floor immediately over the calenders from which it re- 

 ceived the supply of mixed stock. This particular process re- 

 sulted in the rapid accumulation of large quantities of scrap, 

 which was frequently returned by trucks to the calender room 



for rewarming, recalendering and return. A load of this scrap 

 left the machines on a trip of 200 feet to the elevator, down 

 the elevator 12 feet, thence to the warmers for the calenders, 

 200 feet more. This trip of 412 feet was cut out by the simple 

 introduction of a chute from the vicinity of the insulating ma- 

 chines to the warming mills immediately underneath. 



A trip of o\er 1,600 feet for a batch of Para from the rubber 

 cellar to the mixing mills would seem, with one company at 

 least, a denial that "time is money." But such a situation 

 came under the observation of the writer some years ago. 

 From the point where the rubber was stored to the scales in 

 the compound room where it was weighed, was 678 feet. The 

 round-trip, therefore, for the trucker was 1,356 feet. From the 

 scales to the breaking down mills was 140 feet, and from these 

 mills back over the same track to the band saw where the 

 rubber was cut and weighed into batches, was 140 feet more 

 Here it connected with the prepared compound and took a final 

 trip of 50 feet to the mixers. It is a singular fact that directly 

 under the compound room there was a cellar that could have 

 been adapted to rubber storage and cut the initial round trip 

 from 1,356 to less than 50 feet. 



WORN MACHINERY A HINDRANCE. 



Manufacturers of shoes find a machine for inserting eyelets a 

 necessity. These machines are ingenious and complicated in 

 the arrangement of parts. They are designed to insert any 

 number of eyelets consecutively, the standard ranging from 4 

 to 11. The operator must have a thorough knowledge of the 

 machine and the requirements in eyelets for each style and size 

 of shoe. These eyelets must be so placed as to start at a point 

 determined by the eye and be equally spaced over the limited 

 surface allowed for the purpose. This spacing is designed to 

 be controlled by a movable steel pin which engages in holes in 

 a disk on which are stamped figures. %, 14, 54, 1, etc. The pin 

 inserted in any one of these should adjust the mechanism so 

 that eyelets would be spaced the indicated distance apart. It 

 chanced, however, in one factory, that none of the machines 

 studied would perform the work according to specifications. The 

 operators knew of no rule to govern the spacing and frequently 

 lost time in trying to secure it. Conversation with the man who 

 looked after these machines revealed the cause to be a worn 

 out cam, which prevented proper alinement of the eyelets. The 

 insertion of a new cam made the use of the pin and disk de- 

 pendable. 



UTILIZING SPACE. 



A company engaged in the manufacture of mechanical goods 

 had a commodious, well-Iiglited room around the sides of which 

 4-platen hydraulic presses were located. The center of this 

 space, 15 by 20 feet, was occupied by stock and tables on which 

 were placed the vulcanized articles consisting largely of valves, 

 heels, horse-shoe pads, etc. For years these had been gathered 



