August i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



359 



The Hodpman Rubber Factories. 



A DESCRIPTION of the factories of the Hodgman Rubber 

 Co. (New York), to be adequate, covers so much of the 

 history of the rubber trade at its best that one hardly 

 knows where to begin. There are, in fact, two separate plants — 

 one at Mount Vernon, New York, consisting of a four-story 

 building, 220 X 40 feet, which is used wholly for the making up 

 of rain coats and mackintoshes, the cloth for the latter being pre- 

 pared at the other factory at Tuckahoe. 



Speaking accurately, the other factory is really a number of 

 plants grouped on both sides of the Bronx river. Up to a year 

 ago the work was done in the stone mill originally purchased 

 by Daniel Hodgman in 1851, and in a number of large detached 

 wooden and brick buildings, each of which is devoted to some 

 special line of Hodgman product. Within the last year, how- 

 ever, a fine reinforced concrete building, five stories in height 

 and containing some 60,000 feet of floor space, has been erected 

 and some of the departments run in the separate buildings have 

 been moved into the new one. Each of these factories has its 

 separate boiler and engine plant, but so joined that each set 

 of boilers can be used in connection with the other. This is pos- 

 sible because the Bronx is a small river and the factories close 

 to its banks (in spite of the historic fact that during the war 

 of the revolution the English government ordered its war ves- 

 sels to proceed up the Bronx to White Plains and wipe out the 

 Yankees). 



It is interesting to note, by the way, that this river Bronx 

 is the dividing line between the village of Tuckahoe and the city 

 of Vonkers. The original plant, the executive oflfices, and most 

 of the land owned by the company are in Yonkers, while the 

 new factory is in Tuckahoe. The power plant of the Hodgman 

 factories consists of 8 boilers of 100 h.p. each, 2 Cooper-Corliss 

 tandem compound engines of 450 h.p. each, 3 generators for elec- 

 tric lighting and for running machinery in different departments 

 of the factory, and an unusually good equipment of fire, feed and 

 other pumps. 



The grinding and calendering rooms in the factories, particu- 

 larly in the new one, are wonderfully effective and well ar- 

 ranged. The equipment of machinery, roughly, is 4 washers, 

 12 mixers and warmers, 3 jumbo mixers, and 10 regular and 

 special calenders. In the new mill the mixing and calendering 

 equipment is on the first floor, with the shafting below the floor 

 level, and the work so arranged that the washed rubber goes di- 

 rectly to the vacuum dryers, and thence to the gum storage room 

 and next to that the compound 

 room. 



As might be expected, the fac- 

 tory is fitted with many special 

 machines, several being the inven- 

 tion of Mr. F. A. Hodgman, su- 

 perintendent of the factory. An 

 extension building, also of rein- 

 forced concrete, connecting from 

 the first floor of the main build- 

 ing, is utilized for a huge vul- 

 canizing room, where steam-cured 

 goods, such as druggists' sun- 

 dries of all sorts, and white goods 

 are cured. The floor above in 

 the same building is the dry heater 

 room where there are 6 large 

 dry heaters, and place for 6 more. 

 To return to the main new 

 building, the departments natur- 

 urallv divide themselves about as 



follows : On the ground floor, washing, drying, mixing, and 

 calendering. The second floor contains the general assembling 

 room for all the specialties made in the factory, and one of 

 the finest paper box plants that could possibly be installed. The 

 third floor contains the cutting room, the band department, the 

 fine cloth storage department, and the department vi'here fabrics 

 are examined before being converted. The fourth floor is de- 

 voted to the making up of clothing and various specialties, and 



The L.\te D.\niel Hodgm.xn. 



[Founder of the Hodgraan Rubber Factories. 



Born 1808; 



died 



print.; 



From an old 



the top floor is devoted wholly to the manufacture of druggists' 

 sundries and specialties, and is a wonderfully attractive and 

 commodious making-up room. The roof of the building is sur- 

 rounded by a 6-foot parapet. The entire equipment of the new 

 mill is strictly up to date, furnishing every modern advantage 

 for the most satisfactory and economical production of the va- 

 rious lines which this company manufactures. The establishment 

 is thus one of the oldest as well as one of the most modern rub- 

 ber factories. 





- .v.v- .ii^SSi^'-: 



i: 



The Hodgman Rl'ubkr Factories, 

 [\'iew of the plant at Tuckahoe, including the extensive new building. 



the left, 



_ The view 



is of the factory at Mount Vernon.] 



at the upper corner, 



