September 1, 1916] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



685 



selves and sold the powder in the deviilcanized form. This cir- 

 cular evidently relates to the beginning of the now large and im- 

 IJortant reclaimed rubber industry, and it would be interesting 

 to know whether a satisfactory sheet was really obtained with- 

 out the addition of mineral oil or other binding matter, as is 

 customary in the mechanical process of today. Perhaps some 

 of our manufacturers who received this circular between 30 and 

 J5 years ago and responded to it might be disposed to relate 

 their e.xperiences. The reference to the extensive use of the 

 substance for rubber belting synchronizes rather ominously with 

 the date given in a preceding paragraph for the deterioration of 

 rubber belting. 



BRIEF NOTES Ol" INTEREST. 



The authorities here have discovered that hundreds of rubber 

 covered typewriter cylinders have been shipped by small London 

 lirms to neutral countries. Believing that Germany was prob- 

 ably their ultimate destination, many parcels have been seized, 

 and it is anticipated that prosecutions will be instituted under 

 the Customs Exportation Prohibition Acts and the Orders in 

 Council. 



The Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act, 1916, has been 

 applied to the property of the Bakelite Co., Limited, Orb Works, 

 Cowley, Middlesex, for which a controller has been appointed. 



Owing to extended increase in its solid tire business in Scot- 

 land, the W. T. Henley's Telegraph Works Co., Limited, London, 

 has opened a depot adjacent to its Glasgow branch where a 

 hydraulic press is maintained for fitting and removing solid rub- 

 ber truck tires. 



Announcement has been received from Richard Julius Hoff- 

 mann, 139 Cannon street, London, E. C, to the effect that 

 he has changed his name by legal process to Richard Julius 

 Arnold. 



RUSSIAN RUBBER COMPANY PROFITS. 



.V general annual meeting of shareholders of the Russian- 

 .American India-Rubber Co., "Treugolnik" was held in Petro- 

 grad on March 31 (April 13) last. Accounts for the year 1915 

 were submitted and approved. 



The net profits amounted to 12,845,212 rubles [$6,615,284] and 

 tlie dividend to be paid was fixed at 35 rubles [$18] per share. 



The board of directors was authorized to add 9,000,000 rubles 

 I $4,635,000] to the capital of the company for the purpose of ex- 

 tending its business and handling large orders obtained from the 

 Russian Government. 



.^side from its nominal value of 100 rubles [$51.50], each new 

 share will include a premium equal to the part of each old share 

 in the company's reserve fund. To facilitate the realization of 

 this new issue of shares, the directors were authorized to draw 

 from the special reserve fund — which is at the disposal of the 

 shareholders— a sum of 5,670,000 rubles [$2,920,050] to pay up. 

 at the rate of 63 rubles [$32.44] per share, a portion of the 

 premium on the new shares, so that the shareholders would 

 have to pay cash only for the balance of the premium due, plus 

 the nominal value of the shares. 



Another annual meeting of shareholders of a rubber manufac- 

 turing company recently held in Petrograd, was that of the 

 "Rogatyr" Mechanical Rubber Co. The capital of this company is 

 9,380,000 rubles [$4,830,700] and the profits for the year 1915 

 amounted to 2,674,261 rubles [$1,377,244]. A 9 per cent dividend 

 was declared. 



AUTOMOBILE TIEES IN SWEDEN. 



A large demand is reported to exist in Sweden for America!! 

 automobile tires ; there being practically no others on the local 

 market. 



.\s the Entente AIlic.> are allowing to pass their blockade, o!!ly 

 the same !!uml)er of tires h< wen- imp(jrt<il bv Sweden in the 12 



months preceding the war, very few American tires are getting 

 i!ito that country. Most American cars imported come in with- 

 out tires and the stocks of tires that are in the country are mostly 

 held by speculators. 



It is stated that recently a dealer in a low-priced American car 

 was oljliged to pay as high as $300 a set for tires for a car 

 selling i!! the United States at slightly more than $400 fully 

 ei|ui|)|)fd. 



THE SITUATION IN FRANCE. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



FIGHTING here has increased a hundredfold since I last 

 wrote you. To the vigorous defensive of the Verdun sector 

 o!ir armies, together with those of our Allies, have added a 

 gigantic offensive movement on the Somme front, where rubber- 

 tired automobiles and motor trucks are, like at Verdun, playing 

 a leading part. Probably a hundred thousand are engaged in 

 transport and staff work, and these are consuming about four 

 times as many solid and pneumatic tires as an equal number of 

 machines would wear out under normal conditions in private use. 



In spite of this tremendous demand t>iir rublier manufacturers 

 are giving full satisfaction. 



DISTRIBUTION OF TIRES, 



In the early days of the war there was great lack of (Organiza- 

 tion in the distribution and the repairing of tires, with the result 

 that the wastage was terrific. The suddenness and the extent of 

 the effort necessary to stem the tide of invasion was such that 

 tire economy was considered a matter of no importance. Driv- 

 ers of cars using pneumatic tires, having neither time nor means 

 of effecting repairs, abandoned damaged tu1)es and casings by 

 the roadside, and their claims for new ones were never ques- 

 tioned. -\11 this has been corrected. Now each and every car 

 and driver works from a base or depot, into which every worn 



Rubber Tires !< 



or damaged tire casing or tube has to be returned before new 

 ones are allowed. From the depot the damaged tires are sent to 

 central repair stations, where they enter a well-equipped shop 

 ajid are, when possible, made almost as good as new. Repaired 

 tubes are tested, dried, talced and packed in cardboard boxes 

 marked with their dimensions, makes and other necessary indi- 

 cations. Repaired casings are wrapped and marked just as for 

 new ones. These repaired tires are stored in special warehouses 

 and distri))uted, several hundred a day, to the army machines 

 as needed. 



.SUI.m TIKKS. 



Similar methods are employed for solid rui'i.er tires. Travelling 



hydraulic presses, like the one 1 described and of which I sent 



you a pliotograph in a previous letter, ar.' carried on trailers 



hitched to motor repair trucks. The solid tire depots are also 



