472 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Jl-ne 1, 1916. 



of naphthalene were recovered. Several of the plants are 

 not equipped to separate the different oils found in the crude. 

 Over one-half the output, 7,322,670 gallons crude benzol and 

 light oils, were shipped in tank cars to refineries connected 

 with powder works and other chemical industries ; 6,620,090 

 gallons of crude oils refined at the place of recovery yielded 

 483,393 gallons of 100 per cent benzol; 1.315,727 gallons of 

 toluol, and 470,425 gallons of solvent naphtha. 



Thirty-one coke making establishments with 4,933 by- 

 product ovens contributed to this total, and it is estimated 

 that between eight and nine million tons of coal were car- 

 bonized. The annual capacity of the benzol recovery plants 



now in operation is estimated at over 20,000,000 gallons and 

 with the completion of the plants now building will probably 

 exceed 22,000,000 gallons. 



DEMOUNTABLE RIM HISTORY. 



'T'O the Editor of The India Rubber World: 

 •^ You have recorded some very interesting history in your 

 May issue, in your story of "Perlman Wins the Demountable 

 Rim Suit." Notwithstanding my present close connection with 

 rim circles, I am not rimpled when I write to register a slight 

 correction in the interest of history. History, it has been well 

 said, is a systematic record of past events, especially the record 

 of events in which man has taken part. 



In your opening paragraph you say, that "the first public use 

 of this invention (demountable rim) was in June, 1905, when 

 Thery substituted a new tire for a damaged one in 80 seconds, 

 an unprecedented feat." Conceding for the moment, for the 

 purpose of argument only, that this is true, let us seek its origin 

 and sourfe, for this statement was evidently taken from "La 

 France Automobile" of the issue of June 29, 1905, concerning 

 the Richard-Brasier cars driven in the James Gordon Bennett 

 Cup Race in France, by Thery and Cailois, on July 5, 1905, six 

 days later, so that the French motoring magazine actually pub- 

 lished this feat before it really occurred. 



Looking over the files of all of the foreign and .\merican 

 publications of June and July, 1905, at which time I was editor 

 of "Motor," handling all its technical and editorial matter, I 

 failed to find a single mention paralleling this statement made in 

 "La France Automobile," but I did find mention of the fact 

 everywhere, that clincher tires of Michelin make with a leather 

 band and metal studs were used, and all the photographs of the 

 Richard-Brasier cars used in that race show these tires and 

 plain clincher rims, and Michelin himself advertised this fact in 

 the English and French motoring journals. So, if I am correct 

 in this chronological statement, then I may well say "that youth 



longs, and manhood strives, but age renumbers," and "La France 

 -Automobile" was wrong. 



Now, except lor the fact that you might think that as a press 

 agent i might be guilty of that charming faculty that members 

 of the Fourth Estate have, i. c, unconscious exaggeration, let 

 me quote from Judge Hunt's decision, who heard the testimony 

 in open court and was, therefore, best able to judge of the truth 

 of the matter as to when a demountable rim of the Perlman type 

 was first publicly used. Judge Hunt says, "invention which was 

 completed by Perlman in the summer of 1903, and which under 

 the evidence must be found, was first publicly used by Perlman 

 on a Royal car in August, 1904." -Again, Judge Hunt says, "The 

 French patent to Vinet, November 4, 1904, was considered by 

 ill- iiatent olifice examiner. Perlman made a showing sufficient 

 1 i overcome the Vinet reference, and thereafter the examiner in 

 i" patent office abandoned Vinet. Perlman showed prior inven- 

 1 n" Further on. Judge Hunt says that, as he "understood it, 

 met showed a complete ring, not crosscut or split, and failed 

 ^how a ring capable of radial movement." Finally, Judge 

 lilt said that, "in October, 1904, he (Perlman) put his wheels 

 I a Welch car and used it. A number of witnesses say that 

 tliey went riding in the summer and the fall of 1904 with Mr. 

 Perlman. One witness particularly recorded that he went with 

 Perlman in the Welch car to attend the first Vanderbilt Cup 

 Race, the date of which was 1S04." 



In the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, the element of 

 time was the only point considered. Judge Lacombe. who wrote 

 the decision of the Court of Appeals, said, "The crucial question 

 licre is the date when Perlman reduced to practice the invention 

 which he describes in his patent. The trial court found that the 

 evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that the invention 

 was conceived in 1903, and actually put to use on a car in 1904. 

 "Judge Hunt heard the witnesses for the case, which was tried 

 in the above court. Lender these circumstances, if we were in 

 doubt. . . . we should hesitate to disturb the findings of the 

 district court ; but from an examination of the testimony, as it is 

 here presented in cold type, we are convinced as Judge Hunt 

 was. . . . but when we have the demountable wheel used in 

 1904 before us, . . . all doubts as to what Perlman's original 

 invention was are resolved." Finally, Judge Lacombe said, that 

 "we fully concur in Judge Hunt's reasoning and conclusions." 



The Court of Appeals has the last say on this matter, and so 

 we must accept their conclusions, and not the mere unsupported 

 statement of a foreign motoring publication as to the first public 

 use of a demountable rim of the Perlman type. 



During the past 35 years, it has been my very good fortune, 

 indeed, to be closely associated with many very famous patent 

 cases, notably so, the Lallement bicycle crank ; the Fauber one- 

 piece bicycle hanger crank ; the Conrad ball bearing, and the 

 Perlman demountable rim, but none of these have exceeded in 

 public utility, in value and general use the Perlman demountable 

 rim, and if I may paraphrase Dr. Mayo, — Perlman displayed that 

 type of originality which we call genius, to which discoveries 

 marking epochs are due, but which is given to but few men. 

 The type of which Perlman was a distinguished example, while, 

 perhaps, not arising to a height to be called genius, has been 

 given to many men. The latter phase of originality may best be 

 characterized as scientific imagination, carrying with it a talent 

 for work, — scientific imagination, reasoning from things known 

 to unknown, clarifying and solving problems by what may appear 

 at first to be merely an hypothesis, a ieap in the dark, but which 

 is soon to have sound footing in fact. 



Everybody knows that a wheel is old, a rim is old and may be 

 moved off and on a wheel, and a wedge is old, but Perlman's 

 idea of connecting these three essential elements together and 

 adding to them the necessary operating parts, made a new com- 

 bination previously unknown to engineers, and produced a valu- 

 able result. I. c the demountable rim of today. 



Yours very trulv, Alex. Schw.\lb.ach. 



