THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



217 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. Reg. Uniteil Kingdom. 



Published on the 1st of each month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO. 



No. 25 West 45th Street. New York. 



Telephone— Bryant 2576. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 53 



FEBRUARY 1, 1916 



No. 5 



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COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 

 Entered at the New York postoffice as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



RUBBER CLUB DAY. 



\y 7ED.\ESDAY, February 2, is slated by The Rubber 

 "' Club as a day apart. With New York as a center 

 riiul the \\'aldorf-Astoria as a rallying place, the rubber 

 trade will assemble to listen to committee reports, discuss 

 trade topics, elect officers and enjoy the annual banquet. 

 For all this, extensive preparation has been made and a 

 most enjoyable and profitable reunion is assured. The 

 subject that the distinguished speakers will discuss is that 

 vital of all topics, "National Defense." 



TIRES AND THE RUBBER SUPPLY. 



T 1-" prophets are not false, the quantity of rubber reiiuired 

 ■*■ in 1916 by the United States alone for its auto- 

 mobile tires will amount to practically half of the world's 

 ^_production last year. 



5^ Taking the figures of the Automobile Chamber of 

 ""Commerce, that 2,400,000 cars were in use in the United 



States during 1915, and increasing it by 1,200,000 for 

 1916, as estimated by the same authority, the indications 

 are that in this country there will be 3,600,000 automo- 

 biles by the end of 1916, less perhaps 200,000 withdrawn/vg 

 from service. **'; 



Allowing five casings and five tubes for each of these'' 

 3.400,000 automobiles and figuring 42 pounds as the 

 amount of crude rubber contained in the average car's 

 tire equipment. 71,400 tons of rubber will be needed in 

 1916 for tires. 



In the world outside of the United States, according 

 to "The Horseless Age," there were 714,000 automobiles 

 in 1915. Discarding 10 per cent, of these and allowing 

 an increase of 25 per cent, for new cars, the indications 

 are that about 17,243 tons of crude nibber will be re- 

 quired for tire equipment. This, added to the amount of 

 rubber needed for casings and tubes in the United States, 

 will bring the world's demand to nearly 89,000 tons for 

 rubber to be used in tires this year. 



The supply of rubber from all sources amounted to 

 approximately 146,000 tons in 1915 against 120,380 tons 

 in 1914, and 108,400 tons in 1913. Allowing for an in- 

 crease of 22 per cent, in the rubber production during 

 1916, the yield will amount to 178,000 tons. These fig- 

 ures indicate that this year tires will consume a larger 

 percentage than ever before_ of the world's largest crop 

 of crude rubber. ^ 



Assuming that the number of tires scrapped in 1916 

 will amount to two-thirds of the year's equipment of 

 casings and all of the inner tubes, there will be approx- 

 imately 183,000' tons of scrapped tires — the rubber from 

 which will be a goodly addition to the world's supply. 



Vr) 



FIRE HAZARDS IN RUBBER FACTORIES. 



VY/HILE the extensive conflagrations that in the 

 VV olden times wiped out complete rubber plants 

 have not occurred of late, the fire peril still exists. 



The greatest fire hazard in the rubber factory is 

 solvent naphtha, which is fairly safe when liquid 

 but dangerous when vaporized. The explosive prop- 

 erties of naphtha, when mixed with air, are well 

 known and too often disregarded. The need of ample 

 means of ventilation to draw this explosive mixture 

 from workrooms cannot be too strongly emphasized. 

 Properly ventilated factories are more free from fire, 

 more pleasant and healthful for the employees. In 

 modern rubber factory construction much attention 

 is given to the providing of adequate heating and 

 ventilating systems with the object of obtaining 

 .i;rcater efficiency from the employees than wa-; i^o^^iible 



