THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I. 1908. 



The Hood Rubber Co.'s Rubber Footwear "Making Up" Room — The Largest ix the World. 



the second and possibly third coat, of less expensive material. 

 Naturally, as the size or thickness of insulation is increased. 

 larger and more powerful machines are used, especially in the 

 manufacture of large cables, where a considerable horse power 

 is required to force through a tubing machine a quantity suffi- 

 cient to make a smooth and compact cover. For example, to put 

 a 3/64 wall on a 14 B. & S. wire would require, say, 25 pounds 

 of ordinary insulation material per thousand feet, and would be 

 run through one of the smaller sizes of tubing machines, while 

 for a submarine cable from several hundred to several thousand 

 pounds of compounded stock may be required for one thousand 

 feet. 



A factor to be reckoned with in the operation of a tubing ma- 

 chine is the intelligence and ambition of the workman, and the 

 general management of the department or the mill itself. If time 

 is money, and it certainly is in every institution depending on the 

 quantity it can produce, it follows that the more minutes actual 

 running time for a tubing machine, the greater the production 

 and the lower the cost. Nevertheless, unless this work is sys- 

 tematized and watcheil it is a glutton for wasting time. It is so 

 easy to complain that the heat of the tubing machine is not right, 

 or the compounded material too stiff, or mill room too slow. 



For insulation and for any tubing machine work, the following 

 plan works well: Have heat turned on to tubing machines long 

 enough before the opening hour, so that on the blowing of the 

 whistle they will be ready to take the compound, which likewise 

 has been prepared before the opening hour. In this manner the 

 20 or 30 minutes delay in getting ready for actual production is 

 saved. If a machine is capable of turning out 36,960 feet of rub- 

 ber covered wire in a day's run, it is poor management to fall 



short of one or more thousand feet because the machine was not 

 ready. One way tn get the maximum production is to pay the 

 operative by the thousand feet of perfect insulation, and not by 

 the hour. Then he will w-ork his "host licks." and discover more 

 tricks for saving time and getting out the work than the average 

 worker by the hour ever dreamed of. 



HOOD'S RUBBER FOOTWEAR "MAKING UP" ROOM. 



VV/H.-'iT is withdut doubt t he largest "making up" room in 

 '" any rubber shoe factory in the world is that shown in 

 the accompanying illustration. It is a portion of the great fac- 

 tory of the Hood Rubber Co., at East Watertown. Massachu- 

 setts. The room shown in 568 feet long and 80 feet wide, with 

 65-foot wings for additional width. The room accommodates 

 about 1200 workers, and together with the wings about 1700. 

 The work done in this room is, as will be seen, divided into 

 two parts: the preparing of stock for the shoemaker, which 

 is done on the left, and the actual shoemaking itself, on the 

 right. This room is lighted from the sides and by monitor tops, 

 and is in a modern, up-to-date mill construction factory building. 



Ihe Stamford Automobile Club, one of the largest in Con- 

 necticut, is reported to be contemplating the promotion of a 

 test for tires. The secretary of the club writes that if tire 

 makers will submit their ideas of what a tire contest should 

 consist of the club will endeavor to arrange a competition that 

 will be satisfactory to automobiles and of benefit to the entire 

 industrv. 



