August 1, 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



615 



Vernon Royle. 



VERNON ROYLE. 



THIRTY-FIVE years ago the first Royle tubing machine was 

 put into service. At that time the name Royle was unknown 

 to rubber manufacturers. Today it is no exaggeration to say 

 it is a household word throughout the trade. 



.'Mthough not tlif oriuiii.il inventor of the process of making 

 rubber tubing and 

 allied forms, by 

 forcing a plastic 

 mass through a die, 

 the development of 

 the tubing machine 

 has been so largely 

 the personal work of 

 \'ernon Royle, the 

 subject of this 

 sketch, that he may 

 be justly termed the 

 father of this method 

 of producing formed 

 rubber products. 



Born in Paterson, 

 New Jersey, on June 

 9. 1846, Vernon 

 Royle received such 

 education as the lo- 

 cal schools of the 

 time afforded, sup- 

 plementing this by 

 individual study and 

 work, largely along 

 mechanical lines. His first real experience of the elements of 

 machine design and construction began with his apprenticeship 

 to the pattern-making trade, which he mastered thoroughly in 

 his father's shop and elsewhere, and later, through his connec- 

 tion with the old firm of Variderburg, Wells & Co., makers of 

 printers' furniture, wood tj'pe, etc., in New York, in ante-bellum 

 days. Here young Royle's aptitude for mechanics led to his be- 

 ing placed in charged of the routing department, where he became 

 familiar with the merits and defects of the routing machine, a 

 fact that was not without a deterimning influence on his fu- 

 ture career, as it was his intimate knowledge of routing machines, 

 that in later life enabled him to develop the router that has 

 made the name of Royle famous and which proved the founda- 

 tion of the Royle success. 



Illness terminated Mr. Royle's career with Vanderburg, Wells 

 & Co., and there followed a year of battle for health ; then seven 

 years as secretary of the Board of Education of Paterson, fol- 

 lowed by two years as Commissioner of Education. In 1880 he 

 embarked on what proved his life work by forming a partner- 

 ship with his father, John Royle, Sr., and his brother, John, Jr., 

 for the prosecution of the machine business under the name of 

 John Royle & Sons, under which name the concern has existed 

 uninterruptedly to the present time. 



The first Royle tubing machine was produced in 1881. This 

 followed roughly the lines of a crude experimental machine al- 

 ready in existence, but was the first attempt to build a rubber 

 machine with some pretensions to mechanical excellence. Judged 

 by the machines of today, it was crude enough, yet it marks a 

 distinct advance and was eagerly accepted by rubber manufac- 

 turers as the most efficient machine of its type in existence. It 

 was, in short, the first tubing machine of real practical value. 



It would extend this brief review unduly to mark the various 

 steps by which the Royle tubing machine, as it is today, was 

 developed. Detail after detail was made the subject of special 

 study with a view to increasing the range of the machine and 

 its productive capacity, all being finally brought together in the 



perfected tubing machine as now made, a machine with a pro- 

 ductive capacity at least six times as great as the earlier ma- 

 chines, while its range has been extended to include sizes and 

 classes of goods formerly deemed entirely outside the range of 

 the tubing machine. Continuous-length garden hose, for in- 

 stance, is an example of the adaptation of the machine to meet a 

 new demand, while many auxiliary devices for use in connection 

 with tubing machines were invented, including strainer heads for 

 reclaiming rubber, three-way heads for the same purpose ; spe- 

 cial insulating heads for making rubber packing ; compound 

 screws and dies for marbleized tubing, etc. ; also a very impor- 

 tant machine, the circular loom for weaving seamless fabric cov- 

 erings for steam, fire and garden hose. This machine was first 

 placed on the market as the Royle-de Laski loom, from which 

 has grown the present Royle circular loom, a type involving many 

 important modifications of the original model. Two sizes are 

 made, one for garden hose, the other for coverings up to eight 

 inches in diameter. 



Parallel with the development of the tubing machine proceeded 

 the development of the insulating machine, a machine broadl> 

 similar to the tubing machine, but so modified as to permit of 

 the application of seamless insulating coverings to wires and 

 cables. Prior to the introduction of this machine, insulating 

 compounds were commonly applied in strips by strip-covering 

 machines, the raw edges of the strips being supposed to unite 

 under pressure in the machine. The method answered well 

 enough, but was essentially defective as the seam was a source 

 of weakness. The Royle insulating machine corrected this, as 

 it applied the covering in an absolutely seamless, homogeneous 

 form, and hence proved a revolutionary machine in its field. 



This, in brief outline, has been Vernon Royle's contribution to 

 the rubber industry — the work of a lifetime summarized in a 

 few words, yet so numerous have been Mr. Royle's inventions in 

 this field, that 17 patents, embracing over 196 claims, have been 

 granted him for his purely original work. 



Nor has the rubber trade been the sole field of Mr. Royle's 

 activities. Since 1880 he has been a dominant figure in the me- 

 chanical branches of photo-engraving, and in jacquard card cut- 

 ting for silk weaving, in both of which lines, his inventions have 

 been accepted as representing the highest achievements in effi- 

 ciency. From a purely mechanical and technical standpoint, these 

 lines are more interesting than the rubber line, involving, as 

 they do, machinery of the most delicate and accurate construc- 

 tion, both in design and workmanship. In both lines, Royle 

 machines are widely popular, the photo-engraving machinery, in 

 particular, being used in every civilized country in the world 

 and some rather uncivilized ones as well. In the case of tub- 

 ing and insulating machines, 73 patents in all have been issued 

 to him covering 671 claims. 



At 70 years of age Mr. Royle is as active a.s ever in the con- 

 duct of his business and is still devising new things. His latest 

 work includes improved motor-driven, positive-action take-offs 

 for tubing and insulating machines, and he is now designing a 

 tubing machine that will take dies up to 6 inches in diameter. 



In addition to his activities in the field of mechanics, Mr. Royle 

 has always taken a broad interest in the civic affairs of his na- 

 tive city, having served as a Commissioner of Education and as 

 an officer of the Taxpaj'ers' Association, serving on the com- 

 mittee charged with solving the difTicuIt problem of sewage dis- 

 posal in the Passaic Valley. At the present time, he is a director 

 of the Hamilton Trust Co., a leading financial institution of Pat- 

 erson, and of the Cedar Lawn Cemetery Co., to both of which 

 he devotes considerable time. He is also a member of the Ameri- 

 can Society of Mechanical Engineers; the Masonic fraternity; 

 the Hamilton Club and the New Jersey Historical Society. Mr. 

 Royle is of Scotch-English descent and was married in 1872, 

 his wife dying in 1908. He has two sons, Heber and Vernon E., 

 both of whom are associated with him in business. 



