312 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



[June i, 1908. 



A RETIRED RUBBER MAN. 



MR. BALLOU GOES FISHING. 



'\Y/"EN Mr. Henry C. Corson, vice president of The B. F. 

 *' Goodrich Co., retired from active business, sold his beauti- 

 ful home in Akron, and started out to spend the rest of his life 

 in travel and study, the rubber trade lost one who had been for 

 years a potent factor in its growth. Then when the news came 

 of his sudden loss 

 of vision, and the 

 long course of treat- 

 ment under Parisian 

 specialists that fol- 

 lowed, sorrow was 

 as universal as is the 

 gladness that now 

 greets the news of 

 his complete recov- 

 ery from threatened 

 blindness. 



The larger part of 

 Mr. Corson's career 

 centers about the 

 Goodrich company. 

 Born in New Jersey, 

 his early life was 

 spent in travel — in- 

 deed, tradition says 

 that he was for a 

 time a sailor, then a 

 newspaper man on a 

 New York daily, later private secretary for a Carolina governor, 

 and in 1881 stenographer, and secretary for the late Dr. Ben- 

 jamin F. Goodrich. How he rose to be treasurer and vice 

 president of the great company has many times been told. They 

 still tell also in Akron of the wide range of his philanthropic 

 work, of gifts of money and effort to church, society, city, and 

 individual, and now that he is in company with his charming 

 wife, carrying out his original plan of seeing the whole world 

 with his own eyes, the warmest sort of God speed goes out to 

 him from his nianv friends in the trade. 



Henry C. Corson. 



•RUBBER" MADE FROM PEAT. 



■ I ' HE editor of The Car, a London motoring journal of a 

 *■ high class, is Lord Montagu, whose acquaintance with 

 automobiles and their use is not to be disputed. We do not 

 know the extent of his familiarity with india-rubber, how- 

 ever, nor do we know for a fact that he is the author of this 

 editorial paragraph from a recent number of his magazine: 

 Whe.n- a friend brought me this week a piece of rubber 

 manufactured from peat by a process wliich I am not at 

 liberty at present to divulge, I cannot say that I was aston- 

 ished — for everything is possible. But it makes one reflect 

 how marvellous has been the progress of invention, and how 

 nature is daily being imitated in various ways. All I can 

 say about this rubber, a piece of which I have tested in every 

 •way, is that it presents the true features of rubber, that it is 

 resilient, and that one cannot imagine anything more like 

 rubber than this rubber itself — even to the smell. Whether 

 it will stand wear and tear when incorporated in tires on 

 the road is another point, and this question can only be 

 answered by actual use. But I may mention that one or two 

 of the greatest experts in the rubber trade have declared 

 that commercially and structurally it is indistinguishable 

 from the product of Ficus clasticu. I am told that it will cost 

 about one-fourth the price of rubber. If it stands further 

 tests to be made, and can be manufactured in commercial 

 quantities, it may in time displace tlie natural commodity. 



T7OR a long time there has been a well founded suspicion 

 * among rubber men that Mr. Walter S. Ballou, president of 

 The Joseph Banigan Rubber Co. and member of the ex- 

 ecutive committee of the L^nited States Rubber Co. was fond of 

 fishing. There has also been a prevailing idea that there are 

 fine fish all over New England that are waiting expressly for 

 Mr. Ballou to come along, refusing to rise to anybody else. 



This idea seems to have been amply corroborated by the re- 

 sult of a four days' fishing trip that Mr. Ballou. in company with 

 Mr. Horace C. Pratt, president of the Amsterdam Rubber Co., 

 of New York, took early in May. They struck for Washing- 

 ton county. Maine, which is the most easterly piece of land in 

 the LTnited States. They took the Maine Central road and dis- 

 embarked at Forest Station, and then did 14 miles through the 

 woods to Topsfield. 



The fishing season in Maine opens when the ice runs out of 

 the rivers. The ice very accommodatingly ran out of the river 



Mr. B.\i.lol"'s Fixe C.-^tch. 



the day before their arrival. They had heard tliat there were 

 some land-locked salmon, or as the Indians call them "Guianan- 

 ische," in Musquash lake, which is close to Topsfield. Evidently 

 the report was fairly correct, for inside of two hours Mr. Ballou 

 had landed three separate and distinct ouiananisches, the first 

 one weighing 6% pounds, the second 9 pounds, and the third 

 85/2 pounds. 



The picture sliown liere is a snapshot taken by the guide (wlio 

 mingles art with sportsmanship) of Mr. Ballou viewing with a 

 look of warrantable satisfaction the 6^ and the g pounders. In 

 addition to fishing in the lake, they tried for some square tailed 

 brook trout in the brook that feeds the lake, and there Mr. 

 Ballou also made a record with a 65/2 pounder. Mr. Pratt also 

 met with phenomenal success, but the heaviest weights all rose 

 to Mr. Ballou. 



They stopped at "The Birches." an ideal place for fishermen, 

 conducted by Mr. Mahar in Topsfield, and if the proprietor of 

 that place isn't compelled next season to store away his guests 

 six in a room, with cots on the roof, it will not be due to any 

 lack of advertising on the part of Mr. Ballou and Mr. Pratt. 



.•\ RECEXT importation at Denver, Colorado, of safety fuse was 

 claimed by the importer to be composed in chief value of cotton, 

 but the collector declared the chief value to be in gutta-percha, 

 and was sustained by the general appraisers. 



