506 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1930. 



Theodore N. Vail. 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 

 A GREAT MAN IN THE TELEPHONE INDUSTRY. 



riEODORE Newton Vail, chairman of the board of directors of 

 the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., of which he had 

 been president until last June, and also a director of the United 

 States Rubber Co., 

 died April 16, 1920, 

 at the Johns Hop- 

 kins Hospital in Bal- 

 timore, of a compli- 

 cation of heart and 

 kidney diseases, aft- 

 er a surgical opera- 

 tion had proved in- 

 effectual. He had 

 been brought to the 

 hospital from Jekyll 

 Island, off the Geor- 

 gia coast, where he 

 had passed the win- 

 ter. He was in his 

 seventy-fifth year, 

 having been born 

 June 16, 1845, in 

 Carroll County, 

 Ohio. 



Air. Vail's name 

 is written as indeli- 

 bly in the history of 

 the telephone as is 

 that of Alexander Graham Bell, for his executive ability and 

 faith in the invention were as essential to its successful practical 

 establishment as were Bell's experiments. 



Vail rose from the ranks. His family had moved to Morris- 

 town, New Jersey, when he was an infant, and there he went to 

 school and attended the Morristown Academy, intending to be 

 a doctor. He learned telegraphy and when he was twenty-one 

 went West with his parents ; there he worked for the Union 

 Pacific railroad and attracted the attention of General Grenville 

 M. Dodge, who had him appointed a clerk in the railway mail 

 service. He organized the service so well that by 1876 he had 

 been called to Washington as assistant, and soon after as chief 

 superintendent. 



He left the government service in 1878 to become general 

 manager of the new Bell Telephone Co. The hard fight he made 

 to put the company on its feet is one of the epics of American 

 industry. Very soon he saw the possibilities of the long-distance 

 service and fought hard to secure the capital for the lines from 

 Boston to Lowell and to Providence, that demonstrated the 

 feasibility of the idea. In 1885 he became president of the Am- 

 erican Telephone & Telegraph Co. that was to develop that side 

 of the business. By 1887 he was obliged to give up and attend 

 to his health, when he retired to his farm at Lyndonville, 

 Vermont. 



In 1893 he visited South America and his spirit of enterprise 

 was again aroused. At Buenos .^ires he bought a horse-car line, 

 applied electricity, established a telephone system, and devoted 

 ten years to developing Argentina. In 1904 he retired again, 

 returning to his Vermont farm. Then he lost his wife and his 

 only son, and in 1907 was ready to accept the call to return to 

 the presidency of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and 

 try to straighten out its affairs. In three years he was enabled 

 to buy out the company's old competitor, the Western Union, 

 and in 1910 became president of that company also. In 1914 the 

 two were to have been amalgamated, but the Government stepped 

 in to forbid it. With the outbreak of the war and the Govern- 

 ment taking control of both systems. Mr. Vail was put in charge, 

 at the head of both till they were returned to their 



owners. This was only one of his many activities during the 

 war. In June, 1919, he finally gave up the presidency of the 

 .American Telephone & Telegraph Co. 



The large use of rubber in the telephone business, as insulating 

 material for instruments and their parts, and for other purposes, 

 naturally interested Mr. Vail in rubber. He shared in the devel- 

 opment of the United States Rubber Co., and for some years has^ 

 been a director. 



Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth and Middlebury conferred 

 on Mr. Vail their honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, the Uni- 

 versity of Vermont made him a Doctor of Science and New 

 York University a Doctor of Commercial Science. In 1912, Mr. 

 Vail presented to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 the library of George Edward Deering, said to be the most nearly 

 complete collection of books on electricity in the world ; for this 

 he is believed to have paid $100,000. He also founded the Lyndon 

 Agricultural School at Lyndon, Vermont. 



Mr. Vail, besides being a director in many business concerns, 

 was a trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a director 

 of the Boston Opera House, a member of the Metropolitan 

 Museum of Arts, American Geographical Society, American 

 Natural History Society, American Academy of Political and 

 Social Science; of the New York, Union League, New York 

 Athletic, Automobile of America, Metropolitan, Hobby, Jekyt 

 Island, National Arts, Railroad, Sleepy Hollow, Westchester 

 Country, Larchmont Yacht, Union and other ciubs ; and of the 

 Sphynx and Royal Automobile Clubs of London. 



In 1907, Mr. Vail married the second time and is survived by 

 his widow. 



Professor Karl Dieterich, Ph.D., director of the Helfen- 

 berg chemical factory, died in Dresden at the end of March,. 

 age 51 years. He was interested in the employment of rubber 

 and cognate materials in pavements, and published investigations 

 in rubber and resins. 



New York, New York, for April 1, 1920. 



STATEMENT OF INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



Statement of tlie ownership, management, circulation, etc., required by 

 the Act of Congress of August 24, 1912, of The India Rubber World, 

 published monthly at i^T.,,, v„,i, - - 



State of New York, 

 County of New York, j"-' 



Before me, a notary public in and for the State and county aforesaid, 

 personally appeared E. M. Hoag, who, having been duly sworn according 

 to law, deposes and says that she is the business manager of The India 

 Rubber World, and that the following is, to the best of her knowledge and 

 belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the afore- 

 said publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the 

 Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws and Regula- 

 tions, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit: 

 . 1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing 



'^ Publisher. The "nd^^'ltubber^Publishing Co., 25 West Forty-fifth street. 

 New York City. 



Editor, Henry C. Pearson, 83 Agawam Road, Waban, Massachusetts. 



Managing editor, none. 



Business manager. E. M. Hoag, 25 West Forty-fifth street. New York 

 City. 



2. That the owners are: (Give names and addresses of individual 

 owners, or, if a corporation, give its name and the names and addresses 

 of stockholders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of the total amount 

 of stock.) 



Henry C. Pearson, 83 Agawam Road. Waban, Massachusetts. 



3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders 

 owning or holding I per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, 

 or other securities are: None. 



4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, 

 stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of 

 stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the 

 company but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears 

 upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, 

 the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, 

 is given; also that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing 

 affiant's full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions 

 under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the 

 books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity 

 other than that of a bona fide owner; and this affiant has no reason to 

 believe that any other person, association, or corpor; 

 direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other 

 stated by her. _ ,, „ „ . 



E. M. Hoag, Business Manager. 

 Sworn to and subscribed before me this 31st day of March, 1920. 



[seal] Thomas P. Burke, Notary Public. 



My commission expires March 30, 1921. 



^es^'tha: 



