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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1, 1916. 



CHAUGES IN THE FIRESTONE ORGANIZATION. 



F. W. Suhr, special factory representative of the Firestone 

 Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, for a number of years, has 

 been made manager of the New York tire department. 



A. L. Manley, formerly manager of the Buffalo, New York, 

 branch, now manages the Newark, New Jersey, branch, and has 

 charge of the export business of the company handled in Newark. 



H. W. McFadden has been transferred from Dallas, Texas, to 

 succeed Mr. Manley as manager of the Buffalo branch. 



H. A. Grubb, formerly manager of the Cleveland, Ohio, branch, 

 has been appointed Texas manager, with headquarters at Dallas. 



F. M. Moore, who was connected with the office at Chicago, 

 Illinois, has been promoted to managership of the St. Louis, 

 Missouri, branch. 



C. W. Sullivan will act as traveling representative, with head- 

 quarters at Syracuse, New York. 



G. A. Richards, formerly manager of the Columbus, Ohio, 

 branch of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, 

 has been made manager of the company's branch at Pitts- 

 burgh, Pennsylvania. 



G. E. Ranney, formerly of the Chicago, Illinois branch, has 

 been appointed manager in >Ir. Richards' place at Columbus. 



E. R. Wood, formerly connected with the Los Angeles, 

 California, branch, has been promoted to managership of the 

 branch at Seattle, Washington. 



PREST-O-TORCH FOR BRAZING SOLID TIRE WIRES. 



It is claimed that the Prest-0-Torch, shown in the illustra- 

 tion, will be the natural successor to the gasoline blow torch 

 and its multifarious uses. This little device consists of a metal 

 nozzle and bent tube, connected by 

 rubber tubing to an ordinary Prest- 

 0-Lite gas cylinder. 



It is easy to operate ; simply turn 

 on the gas, light it with a match, 

 and an intense flame is produced 

 that can be used for brazing, 

 soldering connections and lead 

 burning in storage batteries. Re- 

 cently blacksmiths, carriage-makers, 

 buggy repair men and wheel manu- 

 facturers have become interested in 

 the use of this torch for brazing 

 the retaining wires of solid tires. 

 For this work a prepared spelter 

 consisting of a brass flux, and brass 

 in granular form is used as a 

 filling material. [The Prest-0-Lite Co., Inc., Indianapolis, 

 Indiana.] 



CONTINENTAL RUBBER CO. TO BUILD. 



The Continental Rubber Co., Sandusky, Ohio, whose incor- 

 poration was noted in the March issue of The India Rubber 

 World, expects to let the contract for the construction of its 

 factory by May 1. The present offices of the company are 

 in the Laurence building, Sandusky. Directors not men- 

 tioned in the incorporation notice are: C. B. DeWitt and W. 

 F. Seitz. J. J. Dauch, president of the company, is an influen- 

 tial man at the head of several other important industries; 

 J. T. Sloat, treasurer, is prominently identified with drydock 

 and shipbuilding interests. Sidney Frohman is vice-president. 

 C. E. Sprague, secretary, and L. J. Weadock, field manager, 

 are under contract to act as sales managers when operations 

 are begun. 



PORTER RUBBER CO. BTHLDS NEW PLANT. 



The Porter Rubber Co., Salem, Ohio, whose incorporation 

 was noted in the November, 1915, issue of The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World, is erecting a new plant which will have a capacity of 400 

 tires and 400 tubes per day. The factory has about 30,000 feet 

 of floor space and is equipped with a system of traveling cranes 

 foi- handling material and machinery. The steam plant consists 

 of four 250 horse-power Caldwell water-tube boilers, with Jones 

 under-feed stokers. The power plant consists of an 800 horse- 

 power Harris engine for mill line drive, Erie City variable speed 

 engines for calender drive, and motor drive for the lighter ma- 

 chines. The Banner Machine Co.'s tire building machines 

 with individual motor drive will be used exclusively. Manu- 

 facturing will begin by April 1. The officers of the company are 

 as follows: J. C. Porter, president; A. H. Boyd, vice-president; 

 E. E. Boyd treasurer; Grant Hill, secretary and general manager. 

 C F. Pickton is engineer. 



FIRESTONE MANUFACTURES BICYCLE TIRES. 



The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, has recently 

 begun the manufacture of bicycle tires. After months of careful 

 experimenting and testing, two grades of single tube bicycle tires 

 have been brought out by the company, in 28 x IJ^-inch size only. 



One is a blue tread, white side-wall tire, built with two plies 

 of 9-ounce motorcycle fabric, with an extra strip inserted under 

 the tread. The fabric is frictioned on both sides and skim- 

 coated with pure gum, which it is claimed gives combined light- 

 ness, resiliency and strength. The tread is of the well-known 

 Firestone Non-Skid design, and a heavy flannel rim strip pre- 

 vents creeping on the rim. 



The other bicycle tire has a black tread and red side-wall and 

 is made for heavy service, being noticeably oversize. It has two 

 plies of 14-ounce fabric, heavily frictioned on both sides and with 

 an extra skim coat. The tread is of the same Non-Skid design 

 but larger and heavier, and the inner layer of pure extra thick 

 rubber. 



THE DOBBINS REPAIR PATCH. 



A new tire repair device consists of four cross chains at- 

 tached at each end to a metal plate, and an inner patch. 

 When a puncture occurs and the tire is deflated, the patch is 

 placed over the hole, on the inside of the shoe, with the sticky 

 side next the casing. The chains are then placed over the 

 tire, by means of hooks fastened to the rim, between it and 

 the tire bead, the plates to which the chains are attached being 

 slipped over the ends of these hooks. When the tire is inflated 

 the chains hold the edges of the puncture firmly together. 

 This device is made for both straight side and clincher tires, 

 and a curve in the slots in which the chains are inserted in 

 the plates provides for a variety of adjustments. [The Weed 

 Chain Tire Grip Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut.] 



MISTAKEN FOR AN OFFICER, 



At the recent convention of salesmen of the United States 

 Rubber Co., handsome gold and enamel buttons were dis- 

 tributed bearing the trade mark recently adopted by the 

 company, the letters "U. S." being most conspicuous. This 

 led to a funny mistake recently when a salesman riding on a 

 train and wearing this button conspicuously on the lapel of 

 his coat was asked by the conductor where he expected to 

 find his next victim. Rather resenting a question which 

 seemed to imply a rather uncomplimentary relation between 

 the salesman and his customers, an explanation was de- 

 manded, which caused the conductor to more closely examine 

 the button, which resulted in an exclamation: "Aw, shucks! 

 I thought you were a United States post office inspector." 



