128 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1915. 



The Obituary Record. 



GEORGE E. MELIUS. 



Gi:OR(;r£ ESLKV .melius, vice-president and treasurer of 

 the H. O. Cantield Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut, died at his 

 home in that city on Octol)er 28, after several montlis illness, 

 at the age of 57 years. 



Born in New York City and educated at its public schools and 

 at the College of the 

 City of New York, 

 which conferred on 

 him the degree of 

 Bachelor of Arts, he 

 took up the study of 

 medicine, which he 

 followed for two 

 years before decid- 

 ing that he did not 

 wish to be a doctor. 

 In 1885 he accepted 

 a position as book- 

 keeper for the H. 0. 

 Canfield Co. and re- 

 mained in the service 

 of tliat corporation 

 for the rest of his 

 life, except while 

 United States deputy 

 collector of customs 

 m 1900. His ad- 

 vancement with the 

 company was steady 

 and progressive un- 



George E. Meliu: 



til he finally became its vice-president and treasurer. 



A member of the .Algonquin Club, the Seaside Club, the Com- 

 mercial Travellers' Association, the Bridgeport Business Men's 

 Association (of which he was for a time president) and a thirty- 

 third degree Mason, he took an active interest in the aflfairs of 

 these organizations and enjoyed the esteem of his fellow members 

 and of his business associates. He is survived by his widow and 

 one daughter. 



Mr. Melius had hundreds of warm friends, both in and out of 

 the rubber trade. He was a man of fine presence, cultured, witty 

 and sympathetic. The business community in Bridgeport in par- 

 ticular and the rubber trade in general suffer a great loss in 

 his untimely demise. 



ISAAC L. KICE. 



Isaac L. Rice, who prior to his retirement from business about 

 two years ago was actively engaged in various manufacturing 

 interests, including the rubber industry, died suddenly of heart 

 disease in New York on November 2, 1915, at the age of 65 years. 



He was born at Warenheim, Bavaria, and came as a boy to this 

 country with his parents. After attending the Central High 

 School m Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he entered the Columbia 

 Law School in New Y'ork, and graduated cum laude in 1850. 



His entry into the business world was made in 1886 as counsel 

 for the Southern Railroad. He was afterwards foreign repre- 

 sentative of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and was sub- 

 sequently identified as president with many important manufac- 

 turing interests. He w-as chairman of the Board of Directors of 

 the Consolidated Rubber Tire Co., afterwards changed to the 

 Kelly-Springfield Tire Co., and for a number of years presi- 

 dent of the Buckeye Rubber Co., a subsidiary of the Consolidated 

 Rubber Tire Co., and was instrumental in the erection of its 

 plant. 



An enthusiastic chess player, and inventor of the "Rice gam- 

 bit," he was a member of the Manhattan Chess, Rice Chess and 

 Brooklyn Chess Clubs in this country, as well as of the St. 

 George's Chess Club and City Liberal Chess Club of London, 

 England, in addition to his membership in the Lawyers', Lotos, 

 Automobile and Harmonic Clubs, and rounded out his active 

 career by publishing "What is Music?" and contributing many 

 articles to the leading magazines. 



Mr. Rice is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1884, and 

 his family, consisting of two sons and four daughters. 



Mrs. Rice, on behalf of herself and children, has donated 

 $1,000,000 to found and endow a model hospital for convalescents, 

 in New York, to be known, in memory of her late husband, as 

 the Isaac L. Rice Hospital for Convalescents. The idea was 

 entertained by Mr, Rice before his decease, and plans for the 

 buildings Iiad already been prepared. 



PHILIP W. PRATT. 



Philip W. Pratt, founder of the Elastic Tip Co., died in New 

 York on the 20th of November. 



Seventy-nine years ago Mr. Pratt was born in Abington, 

 Massachusetts, receiving his education at its public schools and 

 at Phillips-E.Keter Academy. He entered the lumber business in 

 Abington, but gave it up as uncongenial, and being of an in- 

 genious turn of mind had invented a rubber tip for crutches, 

 chair legs, etc., which he determined to place on the market. 

 He invented several other tips of different designs for similar 

 purposes, and drove about the country with a horse and wagon 

 selling his goods. An arrow tipped with a vacuum cup that 

 caused it to adhere to the target at which it was aimed, the in- 

 vention of a man named White, of Philadelphia, having at- 

 tracted his attention, he purchased the right to its use and in- 

 vented a pistol to discharge it. 



About 1870 he went to Boston and renting a small office, carried 

 on the business of manufacturing his specialties there. The busi- 

 ness was removed about 1880 to Atlantic avenue where, as the 

 Elastic Tip Co., it is still conducted. 



He continued in the meantime his inventive endeavors, the 

 last of which were mostly improvements on the rubber and 

 fabric inventions of Rolon E. Foster. He went with the Foster 

 Rubber Co. in 1903 and was identified with them up to the time 

 of his death. 



Besides his elastic tip inventions, rubber heel plugs and ma- 

 chines for impregnating the cloth of which they are made oc- 

 cupied his attention and were the subject of several patents issued 

 to him. One such patent was on an elaborate machine which 

 took fabric from the bolt, impregnated it with rubber and passed 

 it backward and forward under an exhaust fan until dry, so 

 that it could be rolled up at the other end of the machine. One 

 of these machines was in successful use at the Walpole Rubber 

 Co.'s factory. The fabric thus treated was used in making the 

 plugs in the friction plug heels on the market. 



From the anti-slipping heel to the non-skid tire was but a 

 rational step. Mr. Pratt took out several patents on tires using 

 these plugs, while in others the fabric was built in a sort of 

 staggered, pyramidal form to prevent slipping. While none of 

 these tires were placed on the market negotiations were in pro- 

 gress for their manufacture at the time of his death. 



Mr. Pratt married Sarah Louise Hunt, of Abington, and of 

 their several children but three reached maturity. One was the 

 late D. S. Pratt, president of the Foster Rubber Co., who died 

 in March, 1913. The only living son is Benjamin H. Pratt, sales 

 agent for the Fisk Rubber Co., at San Francisco, who was on his 

 way back to the Pacific Coast after a visit of inspection at the 



