676 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1920. 



MISCELLANEOUS MASSACHUSETTS NOTES. 



The tire division of the Converse Ruhber Shoe Co., Maiden, 

 Mass., is now in charge of Dr. Ernest A. Wullenweber, an expert 

 of twenty-two years' experience in the chemical laboratories of 

 leading rubber companies. For ten years he was in the Morgan 

 & Wright factory of the United States Rubber Co. at Detroit, 

 Michigan, and he came to the Converse forces from the Mid- 

 Continent Tire Manufacturing Co., of Wichita, Kansas. Under 

 his direction the Dainty Maid shoe factory is being convened 

 into an enlarged tire plant, and henceforth Converse tires will 

 take a more prominent place in the trade. 



All factory operatives of the Converse Rubber Shoe Co., 

 Maiden, are now protected by three forms of insurance. Life 

 and accident insurance have been in eflfect for some time, but 

 effective June 1 a disability insurance was added. Under this 

 policy every employe will receive 60 per cent of the regular 

 weekly earnings whenever more than seven days are lost through 

 sickness of any kind, or accident or injury sustained outside of 

 the factory. 



The George Grow Tire Co. has found day and night produc- 

 tion necessary to meet the demand for Grow tires, and the 

 factory at Canton Junction, Massachusetts, is soon to be enlarged. 



The Monatiquot Rubber Works Co., of South Braintree, 

 Massachusetts, has let a contract for the construction of a second 

 siding on the Plymouth Division of the New York, New Haven 

 & Hartford Railroad. This will open up for manufacturing 

 purposes a very desirable allotment of land on which it is 

 probable that an independent reclaiming unit will be built and 

 the company's plans for housing employes, which w'ere. held up 

 by the war, may be carried through to completion. It will also 

 enable the company to store coal for a year's consumption. 



Dining with music is an excellent feature of the big new em- 

 ployes' restaurant on the roof of the Hood Rubber Co. office 

 building at Watertown, Massachusetts. The force boasts a wealth 

 of musical talent and volunteers are providing daily instru- 

 mental and vocal concerts during the noon hour that send the 

 Hood operatives back to their work singing. This attractive 

 cafeteria is serving seven hundred luncheons daily and small 

 branch lunch counters have been established in dififerent parts 

 of the factory to take care of those w'ho do not go to the main 

 restaurant. 



The New England Tire & Rubber Co., 285 High street, 

 Holyoke, Massachusetts, is to build a factory on a site recently 

 acquired from the Holyoke Water Power Co., for the manu- 

 facture of the "Holyoke" cord tire and the "Connecticut Valley" 

 inner tube. Plans for its construction are now being completed 

 and it is expected that building operations will begin at an 

 early date. The factory will be planned to produce 1,000 tires 

 daily, and the latest machinery will be installed. The officers 

 of the company are : George K. Culp, president, sales manager 

 and director, formerly with the United States Rubber Co., the 

 G. & J. Tire Co., and The Mid-Continent Tire Manufacturing 

 Co.; E. J. Kearns, vice-president and production manager, for- 

 merly with The Fisk Rubber Co. and the Lee Rubber Co., also 

 associated with the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. of Australasia, 

 Limited ; C. S. Huntley, treasurer, general manager, and director, 

 formerly with the Delion Tire & Rubber Co. and the Midco 

 Tire Co., Inc.; and S. R. Huntley, secretary and director. The 

 other directors include : George P. O'Connell, T. E. Morris, 

 W. C. \'an Brunt, F. W. Callahan. John Kearns, J. Sidney 

 Bernstein, and Joseph F. Ranger. The company is incorporated 

 under the laws of Delaware with a capitalization of $1,500,000 

 of eight per cent preferred stock and $1,500,000 of common 

 stock with par value of $10. Executive offices are maintained 

 at 43 East 47th street. New York City. 



The Crompton & Knowles Loom Works. Worcester, Massa- 

 chusetts, has increased its capital stock from $6,000,000 to 

 .$8,000,000. John F. Tinsley, vice-president and general manager 



of the company, has been appointed a representative of em- 

 ployers on the committee named by the Massachusetts Depart- 

 ment of Labor and Industries to frame a safety code in the 

 wood-working machinery industry. 



The new Industrial Banking System introduced by the Boston 

 Woven Hose & Rubber Co., Cambridge, has had a wonderful 

 success. The plan was instituted in cooperation with the Manu- 

 facturers' National Bank of Cambridge to enable the employes 

 to have all the conveniences of a savings bank without having to 

 take the time to go to the bank to open an account or make 

 a deposit. All banking except the withdrawal of money is 

 handled in the plant. One dollar opens an account and encour- 

 ages the small earner to start saving. When the money is col- 

 lected a sum corresponding to the amount of money deposited 

 is placed in the employes' bank book, and a duplicate stamp of 

 the same number goes with the money to the bank. Stamps have 

 no negotiable value, serving simply as a memorandum of de- 

 posit. Although only in operation a short period, nearly 300 

 accounts have been opened and the average amount deposited 

 weekly at the present time is in the vicinity of $500. It is safe 

 to assume that a large percentage of this amount would not 

 otherwise have been laid aside. 



A WELL-KNOWN TIRE MACHINERY INVENTOR. 



THOM-^s MiDGLEV, consulting engineer and inventor, now in 

 charge of the development work of The Fisk Rubber Co., 

 Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, has for many years been well 

 known for his activities in devis- 

 ing new and better machines for 

 the manufacture of tires. 



Born in London, England, in 

 1860, Mr. Midgley soon came to 

 .\merica, and was educated in the 

 public and evening schools of Wor- 

 cester, Massachusetts. In 1874 he 

 secured employment in a shoe fac- 

 tory, and four years later became 

 a time-keeper and foreman in a 

 wire mill in Worcester. This ex- 

 perience led in 1884 to his appoint- 

 ment as superintendent of the Hart- 

 man Steel Co., Beaver Falls, Penn- 

 sylvania. Four years' later he 

 started in business on his own ac- 

 count manufacturing wire goods 

 and torpedo nets. 

 In 1896 he accepted the position of superintendent of the 

 Columbus Bicycle Co., Columbus. Ohio, and four years later 

 again went into business for himself manufacturing steel wheels 

 and automobile tire rims. 



His first direct connection with the rubber industry was ' in 

 1905, when he became consulting engineer for the Hartford 

 Rubber Works, Hartford, Connecticut, and allied companies, 

 notably Morgan & Wright. In 1914 he was manager and one 

 of the incorporators of the Midgley Tire & Rubber Co., a 

 West Virginia corporation, and the following year of the Midg- 

 ley Tires Co., an Ohio corporation, .^fter developing a tire- 

 building core for the Interlock Core Co., Columbus, Ohio, in 

 1917, he went to his present work at the Fisk plant. 



Mr. Midgley is perhaps best known as the inventor of the 

 Midgley collapsible core, though he has taken out numerous 

 patents for miscellaneous tire machinery, some of the later ones 

 being devices for wrapping bead wire and for trimming beads 

 and tire flaps. 



He is a member of the Society of -Automotive Engineers and 



Thomas IMidgley. 



benevolent Protective Order of Elks. 



