Jlne 1, 1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



remove the excessive dust. .\11 white tennis .shoes are sent there 

 before curing and buffed with a coating of talc or whiting. 



VULCANIZERS. 



The vulcanizcrs are located in L between the two sides of the 

 U, directly over the boilers and next to the elevators from the 

 making rooms with a direct exit on the other side to the packing 

 room. Both steam and dry-cure heaters with several automatic 

 varnish dipping machines form the major part of the equipment 

 of this room. Shoes are placed on racks in cars which operate 

 on rails throughout the plant. 



GUM SHOE, GAITER. AND BOOT MAKING ROOMS. 



On the fourth floor, the making rooms for gum shoes, gaiters, 

 and boots occupy the largest position of the space. Room S has 

 a capacity of 15,000 pairs of light gum shoes and gaiters, and 

 room T 1,000 pairs of boots, making the total capacity of the 

 plant, including tennis, from 20,000 to 25,000 pairs per day. The 

 benches in the making room are 4 by 25 feet and fitted up with 

 racks for linings, juniors, uppers, and outsoles and partitions for 

 lasts. The foreman's office is placed on a mezzanine floor over 

 the insole table. The last bins U are located conveniently to 

 the making room and are connected with the packing room by a 

 lift, permitting easy and direct return of the lasts after stripping. 

 The pattern room and laboratory find a place with the restaurant 

 between them and the bins. 



PACKING ROOM. 



The packing room receives the shoes from the vulcanizers, 

 trims off the linings, strips the shoes from the lasts, inspects and 

 packs them in case lots. Shipping space is confined to one floor 

 as everything is sent to the jobbing house as soon as made. 



ELEVATORS. 



It will be noticed that there are six elevators in this plant, no 

 more than are actually needed. Time lost in the routing of 

 material is just as costly as lost labor within the sphere of de- 

 partments. The writer recalls one shoe factory where two ele- 

 vators carry all the incoming stores, deliver all unfinished work, 

 and take all the shoes to the heaters. The loss of time in wait- 

 ing, the resulting confusion, and the terrific drawback to pro- 

 duction from this condition made such an impression when shown 

 up by a time-study man that steps were taken to relieve it imme- 

 diately. 



INTERDEPARTMENT LAYOUT. 



This important consideration requires even more careful study 

 than the location of the departments themselves. Sufficient space 

 must be had for the operator of a machine to work speedily, for 

 the unfinished material as soon as it is turned out, for the machin- 

 ist to make repairs, and for the waste to be removed. Aisles 

 must be wide enough to allow free passage for trucks. The 

 source and location of artificial and natural lighting must be 

 considered. Ventilation, too, is important and there can be too 

 much as well as too little. An example of this is brought to 

 mind where a certain operation in a shoe factory had an abnor- 

 mally high labor turnover. Men rarely stayed longer than two 

 weeks on this particular job. Investigation brought out that the 

 table was stationed tiext to the elevators which were constantly 

 being opened on both sides, making a draft and considerable 

 dust. To add to these discomforts, a constant procession of 

 trucks was continually crowding by and interrupting the work. 

 This one bit of poor lay-out cost this company many thousands 

 of dollars in labor turn-over and spoiled material before it was 

 remedied. It is very easy to lay out the principal occupations in 

 a department and then to crowd the rest in somewhere, but it is 

 only storing up trouble for the future. 



The cost of supervision and management depends somewhat 

 on the plant lay-out. The accompanying rubber shoe factory 

 could be well handled by twenty-three foremen, whereas one 

 manufacturing less shoes than this one requires twenty-nine. 



Why? Simply on account of the lack of centralization of de- 

 partments. But good lay-out is only a beginning for a successful 

 enterprise. In the final analysis all the lay-outs in the world will 

 amount to nothing if the "stuff" — the management by capable 

 men — is not there. 



RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN TESTING MACHINES. 



"T^HF PENDULUM TYPE of testing machine has proved to l)e the 

 ■*■ most satisfactory form for use in rubber and fabric testing. 

 By recommendation of Committee D13 of the American Society 

 for Testing Materials it is destined 

 to be adopted as standard. Cer- 

 tain improvements have l)een made 

 during the past year in the well- 

 known Scott machine. For testing 

 tire cords a lighter capacity head 

 has been developed in order that 

 autographic records of these tests 

 may be made. The illustration 

 shows the machine equipped for 

 this work, although arranged for 

 fabric testing and not for cord. 

 A new testing head of 80 pounds 

 capacity, graduated by fifths of 

 pounds, is now available for use 

 on rubber tests in light gages. 

 This head has the short swing of 

 the pendulum lever, the maximum 

 reading of the machine being 

 reached inside of the 36 degrees of 

 swing of the pendulum. This ma- 

 chine with its recorder has also 

 proved valuable for taking adhesion 

 or friction tests, and for this work 

 it is advisable to reduce the speed 

 of the pulling jaw to one or two 

 inches per minute. This can be 

 done by means of special gearing 

 which can be readily changed by 

 the operator. 



A transmission gear equipment 

 capable of producing a wide 

 variety of speeds has been perfected. As ordinarily built it is 



arranged to give 



speeds of the pulling 

 jaw of the machine of 

 one, two, six, 12 and 20 

 inches per minute. With 

 a machine equipped with 

 such a gear box, auto- 

 graphic recorder, and va- 

 rious styles of clamps, it 

 is possible to do a wide 

 range of testing on a 

 large variety of mate- 

 rials. The recorder has 

 been arranged to stop at 

 the time of reverse of 

 the machine, and is re- 

 set by the operator. 



The Venturi or capil- 

 lary type of pen has 

 proved the most satis- 

 factory form. With suit- 

 able ink this pen is ca- 

 pable of giving long service at one filling and a dry record as 

 soon as il can be removed from the machine. 



CoMBiN.vnoN Fabric and 

 CoRU Tester. 



Rubber Tests. 



