October I, 1918. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



He became director and was elected president of the O'Bannon 

 Corp. about four years ago, but could give but little of his time 

 TO that concern, being on the directorates of twenty or thirty 

 prominent organizations, including insurance, banking, railroad, 

 textile, and public service corporations. 



Mr. Weld was a member of the Somerset, Harvard, and Ex- 

 change clubs, of Boston, and the Country Club of Brookline, 

 Massachusetts. He is survived by his widow, two sons, and 

 three daughters. 



A FIRE HOSE SYMPOSIUM. 

 Such well-known hose experts as W. T. Cole, president, Fabric 

 Fire Hose Co. ; E. G. Kimmick, experimental department, The 

 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. ; C. W. Hardin, manager of 

 mechanical sales, Tlie Republic Rubber Co. ; S. A. Coombs, as- 

 sistant general manager. New York Belting & Packing Co.; 

 J. M. Miller, Empire Rubber & Tire Co. ; E. Downs, chief 

 chemist. New Jersey Car Spring and Rubber Co., Inc. ; and 

 others reply in a very interesting manner to certain questions 

 in "Fire and Water Engineering." In a letter to our contempo- 

 rary an inquirer refers to the fact that some cities, in their 

 specifications for ZYz-'mch double-jacket rubber-lined cotton fire 

 hose, allow not more than two revolutions at 400 pounds pres- 

 sure per square inch and a maximum increase in external diam- 

 eter of 1/16 inch. He asks what the significance of exceeding 

 one or more of these requirements would be and whether it 

 would matter if the hose had a cemented or a loose inner tube. 

 The replies point out that undue elongation of the hose means 

 that the jacket is woven with a loose warp, or that the fillers 

 are spread too far apart. Stress is also laid on the necessity of 

 using a middling grade of yarn, as Sea Island cotton or grades 

 approximating it would be too elastic. Various serious evils 

 of elongation are pointed out. For instance, if a fireman is at 

 the top of a ladder with a 500-foot line of hose under a working 

 pressure of 125 to 150 pounds and each 50-foot section stretches 

 only 30 inches, a total of 300 inches, and the water is suddenly 

 shut off, or a length of hose bursts somewhere back in the line, 

 the nozzle will immediately be snapped back 300 inches, which 

 is liable to pull the fireman off the ladder or pull down the 

 whole ladder. Or again, when a fireman gets into a position on a 

 roof where it is difficult to stand, when the water is turned on, 

 if the hose pushes forward, it might push the man off the roof. 

 With regard to twisting, as a double jacket hose is composed 

 of two single jackets, the filling threads must run in opposite 

 directions to each other; then, if the two jackets conform per- 

 fectly, there will be little or no twist. The objection to twisting 

 is based on the probability of the couplings being loosened if 

 the twist is in the wrong direction. Besides which, if hose 

 stretches excessively, the stretch will be "taken up" in snakes 

 in the line, the water will not travel straight to the fire, it will 

 be retarded by friction, and the pressure will be reduced. Re- 

 garding the difference between a cemented or a loose inner tube, 

 it seems that the adhesion has very little to do with the service 

 of the hose. And yet, if the tube were cemented to the inner 

 jacket for part of the surface, it might reduce the likelihood 

 of a loose section of tubing being crowded to the discharge 

 end of the hose while under pressure. 



FIRMS JOIN TO EXPAND FOREIGN TRADE. 



By grace of the recently enacted Webb-Pomerene law, permit- 

 ting American manufacturers to join forces for the purpose of 

 promoting foreign trade, a combination of forty-four important 

 establishments, styled the Allied Industries Corp., with offices at 

 151 Fifth avenue. New York City, has been formed to introduce 

 American goods abroad and promote trade with the seventy for- 

 eign markets of the world now open for immediate and system- 

 atic development. Over $100,000,000 in domestic annual sales is 



represented in the merger, of which Alfred I. duPont, of Wil- 

 mington, Delaware, is chairman, and which is affiliated with the 

 French-American Constructive Corp. 



The Allied Industries Corp. will represent responsible manu- 

 facturers and sell their goods under their own trade marks at a 

 selling commission based on the amount of goods sold and 

 shipped, plus a bonus on a guaranteed minimum sale. For the 

 first group of manufacturers there will be no advance selling 

 charges or fee. The corporation is financed to take the initial 

 risk and burden of expense, enabling it to extend credits to re- 

 sponsible foreign buyers when necessary and at the same time 

 securing immediate cash payments for its Ameri^-an clients at a 

 fractional discount. 



Representatives will be located in the various foreign markets 

 and permanent expositions will show American products in New 

 York, London, Paris and other trade centers for the benefit of 

 foreign buyers. Negotiations are in progress with 658 firms, and 

 the firms so far allied with the corporation include makers of 

 rubber articles and toys, textile goods, chemicals, etc. It is stated 

 that an important business in rubber products will he done. 



RAINCOAT MEN TO GET A BILL OF PARTICULARS. 



The raincoat manufacturers indicted under the Sabotage .^ct 

 have made the first move in their defense, resulting in an order 

 issued by Judge J. C. Hutcheson in the Criminal Branch of the 

 United States Federal Court, directing the Government to 

 furnish the defendants with a bill of particulars concerning 

 the alleged imperfections in the garments supplied by them. 

 The manufacturers contend that the raincoats were made ac- 

 cording to specifications and that after acceptance by the Gov- 

 ernment inspectors their responsibility as manufacturers ceased. 



FIRST RAINCOAT FRAUD CASE TRIAL BEGINS. 

 The trial of the first of the raincoat fraud cases was opened 

 before Judge E. J. Hutcheson in the Criminal Branch of the 

 United States District Court at New York, on September 17. 

 In this first case there are three defendants. Captain Aubrey W. 

 Vaughan, of the Quartermaster General's Office, Felix Gould, 

 a promoter, and David L. Podell, a lawyer. More than a score 

 of men are involved and will be tried separately. Captain 

 Vaughan has pleaded guilty to a charge of bribery and is ex- 

 pected to appear as a witness for the Government. It is alleged, 

 among other things, that the H. Rosenfeld Raincoat Co. was 

 incorporated mainly for the purpose of concealing the true 

 nature of the transactions to be carried out. 



INCREASED PRODUCTION OF GILSONITE AND OZOKERITE. 



The native bitumen, including gilsonite, elaterito and ozokerite, 

 marketed from mines and quarries in the United States in 1917 

 was 80,904 short tons, a loss of 17,573 tons, or 18 per cent, com- 

 pared with 1916. The market value of the output in 1917 w»» 

 $735,924, a loss of $187,357, or 20 per cent, compared with 1916. 



The production of gilsonite and ozokerite was increased con- 

 siderably in 1917, but the gain credited to these varieties wa« 

 insufficient to offset the loss in the production of elaterite and 

 other products. 



MAGNESITE. 

 Magnesium carbonate and the light and heavy calcined mag- 

 nesia used in the rubber trade are derived from the mineral mag- 

 nesite, of which extensive deposits are found in the state of Cal- 

 fornia and Washington. These sources of magnesite render the 

 United States independent of oversea sources and the domestic 

 supply is much more free from lime than Canadian magnesite, 

 which comes from Grenville, Quebec. The United States Geo- 

 logical Survey estimates that the domestic production for the 

 entire year 1918 may be about 225,000 tons as against 316,000 

 tons in 1917. 



