January i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



125 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN SAN FRANCISCO. 



BY A RESIDENT CORRESPONDENT. 



'T'HE long series of Iiolidays which the governor of the state 

 •^ began to declare on October 31 are still being proclaimed 

 from week to week, although conditions with the banks have so 

 greatly improved that it is believed there will be no more special 

 holidays after the first of the year. In Oregon the holidays have 

 been discontinued and business has gone ahead with a very fair 

 degree of prosperity. In the Washington state it was not neces- 

 sary to declare holidays at all. The reports from all of the 

 rubber houses, and from merchants generally in San Francisco 

 is that there is a good amount of business, but the trouble is that 

 it is almost impossible to get payments, while the eastern manu- 

 facturers, who are themselves in need of ready money, are press- 

 ing for remittances. Houses of the very best standing are fre- 

 quently months behind in their payments, and yet the confidence 

 is so great that merchants do not hesitate to sell them all the 

 goods they want. 



W. Perkins, president of the Sterling Rubber Co., on Market 

 street, reports that they are keeping up a good stock, keeping all 

 of their men out on the road, and that conditions are brightening, 

 trade being much better now than it was three weeks ago. "I 

 have come to the conclusion," he said, "that next year is going 

 to be better than 1907 has been, notwithstanding that during por- 

 tions of this year business was unusually good owing to the .fact 

 that there was an abnormal demand to re-stock with goods that 

 had been destroyed in the big fire. A big business is settling 

 towards the coast, and although a presidential election is in sight, 

 it will not effect this coast much. Reports from the trade centers 

 where this season's crops from California have been marketed 

 show that the quality has been good and the products have 

 brought higii prices. All of the interior of the state is being ex- 

 ploited and developed, and in San Francisco the enormous build- 

 ing activity, and the great work which the municipality has com- 

 menced in reconstructing the streets and public properties are 

 making conditions active everywhere. Besides, the big fleet of 

 battleships will bring a great deal of business here." 



The Pacific Coast Rubber Co. will remove early in January 

 from their temporary quarters on First street to their new build- 

 ing at Nos. 416-422 Mission street. The new building is of mod- 

 ern type, with reinforced concrete to render it fireproof, and 

 when the fixtures now being installed are complete it will be one 

 of the finest rubber stores anywhere, 



C. Kirkpatrick, of the San Francisco rubber trade, has re- 

 turned the northern coast states and reports that he noticed 

 everywhere that money matters were loosening up. In Oregon, 

 where the holidays have been declared off, the banks are paying 

 cash without any difficulty. "I met with a very good trade," he 

 said; "everybody is adopting a careful and conservative system in 

 buying, and they will all pull out all right. When normal condi- 

 tions are entirely restored there will be a big business, because 

 the dealers will have to buy to fill up their depleted stocks." 



W. J. Gorham, of the Gorham Rubber Co., is paying rent on 

 three or four establishments in Oakland and San Francisco, 

 where his business has been scattered since the great fire, but 

 he is now pulling everything together in his big new building 

 on Fremont street, between Market and Mission, where he has a 

 five-story building with a 60-foot frontage, a depth of 137 feet 

 and 40.000 feet of floor space. He is fixing up the building to 

 stay, having taken a fifteen-year lease at $900 per month, and he 

 is fitting it up with every convenience that money can buy. The 

 basement is equipped with power and steam heat to run the 

 factory and the three elevators, with an engineer in charge. In 

 the basement storage room only full rolls of belting are kept" 

 and when they are cut they are sent up to the mechanical depart- 

 ment. No packing or unpacking is done on the main floor which 

 is devoted for salesrooms and offices. One feature of the oflice 

 is a separate room devoted to stock taking, where the sales are 



deducted every night from the $500,000 stock. The man in 

 charge of this department does all of the ordering. The second 

 floor is devoted entirely to mechanical goods. Separated from 

 the other departments, on the rear of this floor is the bicycle de- 

 partment. The third floor is devoted to rubber boots and shoes 

 and oil clothing. On the fourth floor is the factory and there 

 will soon be installed some twenty presses. "I expect to do a 

 $2,000,000 business next year," said Mr. Gorham, "and that mea.is 

 a big stock and a lot of rustle." 



The Phoenix Rubber Co. report that they have not had a poor 

 month yet, but just now collections are extremely bad. They are 

 getting their factory ready for a special output in tires after the 

 first of the year, when they expect the conditions to be greatly 

 improved. 



Herbert K. Selby, representing the Boston Woven Hose and 

 Rubber Co. in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia and 

 Alaska, is in San Francisco spending the holidays with Joseph V. 

 Selby, the local representative of the firm. 



ELECTRICAL NOTES. 



T"" HE annual electrical show in Chicago, to be held in the 

 ' Coliseum on January 13-25, under the auspices of the Elec- 

 trical Trades Exposition Co., promises to be of great interest as a 

 medium for displaying a wide variety of domestic appliances, 

 but the list of exhibitors does not include any of the leading 

 companies in the insulated wire field. 



A recent German patent granted to Robert Miiller, of Munich, 

 describes an insulating material claimed to be fireproof, and 

 to have a high specific resistance which makes it compare favor- 

 ably with rubber or porcelain. The process for making it con- 

 sists in combining a fire resistant material, such as comminuted 

 asbestos, with mineral pitch dissolved in a suitable solvent, so 

 proportioned that a consistent plastic mass is formed, then sub- 

 jected to heavy pressure, preferably in a cold state, and dried 

 by the evaporation of the solvent. The proportions mentioned 

 are lOO parts of mineral pitch dissolved in 20 parts of solvent; 

 from 25 to 75 parts of solution may be used with 100 parts of 

 asbestos. It is stated that the pitch used is so non-inflammable 

 that it may be subjected temporarily to an electric arc without 

 being burned up or softened. 



FIREPROOF ELECTRIC CABLE. 



Considerable attention has been attracted in England by the 

 results attained with a new fire resisting cable, after some rather 

 remarkable tests. The cable is made up of the ordinary con- 

 ductor, insulated with a thick lap of pure Para rubber and vul- 

 canized rubber, and taped. This is surrounded with several 

 layers of manila paper with a solution to render it non-inflam- 

 mable. Over this is a strong, flexible woven braiding of small 

 steel wires, which in its turn is covered with more of the manila 

 paper, the whole being finished with braiding of jute, also im- 

 pregnated to render it non-inflammable. It is stated that the 

 tests were quite successful and that the makers' claim proved 

 true that the cable is amply able to hold the first flash and pre- 

 vent ignition of the melted rubber. Even when red hot at one 

 point, no flame was present nor did any of the incandescent por- 

 tions tend to fall aw-ay from it. This is known as the Paterson 

 cable and has been developed in the works of Johnson & Phillips, 



Limited, at Old Charlton. 



* * « 



Pirelli & Co. (Milan, Italy) are reported to be manufacturing 

 a cable for 100,000 volt circuits. The core is covered with a lead 

 sheathing, after which comes a layer of rubber about 2.5 milli- 

 meters thick, and two other layers of rubber, respectively 2.3 mm. 

 and 4.5 mm. thick. The latter is covered with a layer of im- 

 pregnated paper 5.2 mm. thick. Lastly come a layer of hemp 

 and a lead sheating. The thickness of all the insulating layers 

 is IS mm. and the total diameter of the cable is 60 mm. [==2.3^ 

 inches]. 



