186 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1916. 



TRADE NEWS NOTES. 



Oil ai)|)Iication of the president, Wiliner Dunbar, a receiver has 

 been appointed for the Dreadnaught Tire & Rubber Co., Balti- 

 more. Maryland. President Dunbar states that the receivership 

 is only temporary and will in no way interfere with the company's 

 business. Eli Frank has been named as ancillary receiver. The 

 company is a Delaware corporation with $1,000,000 capital stock. 



Music enters conspicuously into the "social uplift" at the Mor- 

 gan & Wright branch of the United States Tire Co., Detroit, 

 Michigan. With the aid of a player-piano, donated by the cor- 

 poration, and the musical talent that appears to be well repre- 

 sented in the working force, a daily vocal and instrumental con- 

 cert is given during the noon hour in the dining room, patronized 

 by some 2,000 employees. 



The Cleveland-Ford Tire Co.'s new plant at Ashtabula, Ohio, 

 is reported as progressing steadily. All tlie foundations are com- 

 plete, and work will go on rapidly. The main building will be 

 73 X 182 feet, two stories high, of reinforced concrete with brick 

 facing. Provision will be made for its extension and the addi- 

 tion of a vulcanizing plant. A separate building will accommo- 

 date the company's several offices, but an office will also be re- 

 tained in Cleveland, Ohio. 



The Bowers Rubber Works, San Francisco. California, is 

 equipping its plant at Pittsburg, California, with an outfit for 

 making automobile tires. 



Toledo Tire & Supply Co., Toledo, Ohio, is enlarging its present 

 store facilities, and will put in a modern multiplex display 

 system. 



Leigh-Peck Tire & Rubber Co. will occupy a new building near- 

 ing completion on Second avenue. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The 

 company will handle exclusively the products of the Firestone 

 Tire & Rubber Co., .\kron, Ohio, and will control their sale in 

 eight counties adjacent to the city. 



UNITED STATES TIRE CO.S CONVENTION IN DETROIT. 



Four days of tire enthusiasm marked the gathering of the sales- 

 men and branch managers of the United States Tire Co., as- 

 sembled at Detroit, Michigan, during the week ending December 

 18, 1915, for their regular convention. The tire company's Mor- 

 gan & Wright plant was the place of meeting, and there J. New- 

 ton Gunn, recently chosen president of the company, made the 

 acquaintance of the members of his selling staff, gathered to the 

 number of about 400, from all parts of the country, in spite of 

 storms and snowdrifts. 



The convention assembled in Building K of the plant, and 

 among the many interesting addresses, technical or otherwise, 

 C. B. Whittlesey, vice-president of the Hartford Rubber Works 

 Co., read a paper on "The History of Rubber," and Factory Man- 

 ager McMahan spoke on "How Tires Are Made." 



The social features of the convention proved thoroughly en- 

 joyable. They included a business dinner at the Hotel Pontchar- 

 train, and a banquet at the hotel on Friday evening, at which 

 many of the automobile manufacturers were present as guests. 



THE GOODRICH ■'BAREFOOT' TIRE. 



A new Goodrich tire has been christened the "Barefoot" and is 

 recognizable by its black tread. This tread or sole of the new tire 

 is made of "hyper-rubber," a compound evolved by The B. F. 

 Goodrich Co., Akron, Ohio. This hyper-rubber tread has a cer- 

 tain amount of stretch, between the outer surface contact with the 

 ground and the inner surface, which is cemented to the cotton 

 fabric. This stretch or "spring," it is claimed, reduces the grind, 

 the frictional heat and wear, between tire and roadway, that is 

 so severe on tires. It is described as lessening the strain on the 

 rubber layers between the fabric occasioned by starting or stop- 

 ping suddenly. Maximum traction with minimum friction is what 

 the new tire stands for and the manufacturers expect it to result in 

 maximum mileage from every ounce of material used. 



EXPANSION or THE FISK HITBBER CO.'B PLANT. 

 The Fisk Rubber Co., with the completion of the new buildings 

 in course of construction, will have in its plant at Chicopee Falls, 

 Massachusetts, 29 acres of floor space devoted to the manufac- 

 ture and distribution of tires. With the completion of the ex- 

 terior construction, a fair idea may now be obtained of the magni- 

 tude of the plant. The new administration building, of stone, 

 steel and tapestry brick, is 50 x 200 feet, and seven stories high; 

 the new mill building of brick and steel, 108 x 60 feet, has five 

 stories and basement ; the new storehouse, of reinforced concrete 

 and steel, with brick panels, 108 x 300 feet, has five stories and 

 basement, and there is also a new garage and service station, 

 eO X 100 feet, with separate accommodations for private cars and 

 trucks. The administration building is unusually complete as to 

 arrangement, equipment, etc. It contains more than 50 office 

 apartments, rest rooms, three dining rooms that will accommo- 

 date 200 people, kitchens, refrigerating and ice-making apparatus, 

 etc. With the recent additions, the plant will comprise 20 sepa- 

 rate structures, and the output of tire casings alone will be in- 

 creased to 12,000 per day. 



KELLY-SPRlNGFIELD REDUCES PAR VALUE OF COMMON STOCK. 



.\t a special meeting of stockholders held in Jersey City, 

 Xew Jersey, on November 30, the Kelly-Springfield Tire Co., 

 Xew York, authorized a reduction in the par value of the 

 common stock from $100 to $25 a share. This will increase 

 the number of shares outstanding four times. Holders of 

 new common stock will be entitled to one vote for each 

 share of $25 par value, and, in order to equalize the voting 

 power of common and preferred, the preferred stockholders will 

 have four votes for each $100 share. 



Quarterly dividends of 1J4 per cent on the 6 per cent 

 preferred stock and 1-54 per cent on the 7 per cent second 

 preferred stock have been declared, payable January 3, 1916, 

 to stockholders of record December 15, 1915. 



TO MAILE CRATES FOR TIRE SHIPMENTS. 



There is a large demand for crates made of hardwood, for the 

 shipment by freight, or express, of rubber tires. Two of the lead- 

 ing concerns engaged in their manufacture as a specialty, The 

 Steele Bros. Lumber Co., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and the Alderfer 

 Crate Co., Sharon Center, Ohio, have recently combined to form 

 a new corporation, the Steel-Alderfer Co., with a capital of $50,- 

 000. Both companies formerly did a large business with tire man- 

 ufacturing concerns all over the country, especially those at 

 Akron, Ohio, and the recent destruction by fire of the Alderfer 

 plant made the combination timely and judicious. A large and 

 completely equipped manufacturing" plant, of fireproof construc- 

 tion and more than double the capacity of the two former plants, 

 will be erected at Cuyahoga Falls to handle the joint business of 

 the combined companies. 



SANITARY SUPERVISION FOR FISK RUBBER CO. EMPLOYEES. 



The conservation of the health and hygienic welfare of em- 

 ployees as an important factor in business success, has led the 

 leading rubber manufacturing concerns to devote constantly in- 

 creasing attention to this important subject. The Fisk Rubber 

 Co., Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, which is adding extensively 

 to its plant, has not overlooked this important point. Dr. Wil- 

 liam Hall Coon has been placed in charge of the department of 

 industrial hygiene that will look after the health of the army 

 of Fisk employees. Dr. Coon is admirably fitted by experience 

 and professional ability for this important position. For upwards 

 of eight years he was connected with the State Board of Health 

 as district health officer, during part of the time in charge of one 

 of the most populous districts in the State, where he was con- 

 stantly in touch with industrial conditions. In supervising reme- 

 dial and prophylactic work and sanitation at the Fisk plant, he 

 will find a wide field for the exercise of his ability as a physician 

 and in an executive capacity, and the company is to be congrat- 

 ulated on being able to secure his services for this important work. 



