SerTEMBER 1, 1919. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



A PIONEER IN WIRE AND CABLE INSULATION. 



IIenry a. Reed, president of the Bishop Gutta Percha Co., 

 * * of New York, died at his home in Newark, New Jersey, 

 in his ninety-first year, on August 23, 1919. He was afifected by 



the heat on July 4 and had been 



ill ever since. Mr. Reed was born 

 in Carmel, New York, February 

 11, 1829. At 17 he began to teach 

 school and to learn telegraphy, 

 and in 1849 was put in charge of 

 the telegraph office at Carmel, 

 from which he was transferred to 

 New York City and later to 

 Poughkeepsie. There he estab- 

 lished a bookstore also, which he 

 kept up till 1876. Then he took 

 up expert accounting and was em- 

 ployed by the Bishop Gutta Percha 

 Works and became secretary in 

 1885, treasurer in 1893, and presi- 

 dent in 1905, a position he re- 

 Henry a. Reed. tained until his death. Last 



spring the company celebrated at 

 Newark his ninetieth birthday and at the same time the fiftieth 

 birthday of his son, Henry D. Reed, vice-president of the com- 

 pany. 



Mr. Reed was always interested in electrical science and its 

 development. As he believed that rubber was better than gutta 

 percha for insulation, except under water, he employed a com- 

 petent engineer to design machinery to insulate wire and cables 

 •with rubber. He collaborated with the United States Light- 

 House Board in 1887 in devising a system of lighting channels 

 •with electricity by buoys and range lights. In 1888 he designed 

 the first high-tension cable to be used underground. He was first 

 in America to test faults by the galvanometer. 



Mr. Reed was one of the organizers of the Electric Club in 

 New York. There he exhibited the first perfected phonograph 

 made by Mr. Edison. He also helped to organize the Electric 

 Trade Society and was a member of the .\merican Institute of 

 Electrical Engineers. He is survived by his widow, three sons 

 and a daughter. 



A FORMER WEBBING MANUFACTURER. 



Horatio Nelson Starkey, an old-time elastic webbing manufac- 

 turer, died at Dedham, Massachusetts, August 16, 1919, aged 

 60 years. He was born in .^ttleboro, Massachusetts, and was 

 the son of the late Henry C. Starkey, •who •was a pioneer in the 

 elastic wth business and with whom the son associated him- 

 self, afterwards succeeding him, having a factory in Chelsea, 

 Massachusetts. His health failing, he retired from business 

 about ten years ago. He leaves no near relatives. 



ACTIVE IN RUBBER EXPLORATIONS. 



Charles R. Lamson, prominent in the crude rubber trade ten 

 or twenty years ago, died at a hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts, 

 August 9. 



Mr. Lamson was for several years stationed at Manaos, 

 Brazil, as agent for Henry A. Gould, and later, did much ex- 

 ploring in Ecuador and Colombia, searching out new fields for 

 the exploitation of crude rubber. In 1904 he was one of the 

 party headed by Henry C. Pearson on a tour of investigation in 

 Panama, an account of which appeared in The Indi.^ Rubber 

 World. In that series of articles he was known as "The Com- 

 modore." 



In the spring of 1918, an.xious to serve his country, he entered 

 the service of the Food .A.dministration at Washington and when 

 that body ceased to exist he became Latin .American trade ex- 



pert for tlie United States Shipping Board, a position for which 

 he was ably qualified by his South American acquaintance and 

 experience. 



He was taken ill in Washington early last month and arriving 

 at his home at Beverly, was in such condition that he was 

 taken to the hospital there, living only a few days. He leaves 

 his widow, and one son, Charles W. Lamson, who served a 

 year and a half in the great war with the 26th Division, return- 

 ing last April. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR EBONITE AND BAKELITE. 



Ebonite in its various forms and kinds, such compositions as 

 bakelite, wenjacite, gallalite, eburin, rivolite, pertinax, and the 

 like, possess a great number of properties rendering them 

 eminently suitable for the manufacture of a great many articles. 



These materials may be divided into two large groups, namely, 

 ebonite derived from rubber and phenolformaldehyde condensa- 

 tion products. A new Dutch process has recently been patented 

 in England' for the manufacture of a cheap product, said to 

 combine all the good qualities of the above-mentioned materials. 

 The following example is given to illustrate the process: 



Five parts resin and three parts paraffine are added in succes- 

 sive quantities and are melted in ten parts by weight of boiled 

 linseed oil. To this twenty-five parts by weight of rubber waste 

 in a finely divided state are added. The mixture is heated and 

 stirred until the rubber is dissolved in the pulp. It is then 

 allowed to cool, and a mi.xture of the following materials is 

 added : eight parts sulphur, ten parts infusorial earth, ten parts 

 bone-black, three parts magnesia, and fifty parts clay. The 

 mixture is thoroughly intermingled by the aid of a heated 

 roller mixing mill, sheeted on the calender, then, if required, put 

 into the mold, pressed, and finally vulcanized for a period of two 

 hours or less with the aid of steam. 



Il is stated to be possible to manufacture from rubber waste 

 a hard kind of india rubber along these new lines that possesses 

 all the good qualities of ebonite. It is a first-rate insulating 

 material, and, according to experiment, it even surpasses consid- 

 erably in dielectric strength the insulation-resistance properties 

 of ebonite itself; it is not combustible; it may be made in every 

 degree of hardness, indeed a degree of hardness may be given 

 it that materially exceeds that of ebonite ; it is elastic, and may 

 be manufactured in such a way that after having been heated 

 adequately it assumes the shape into which it is bent, which 

 shape is retained after cooling. However, if desired, it may 

 be caused not to become noticeably softer or more flexible. It 

 is admirably adapted to be worked, as by planing, milling, 

 drilling, pressin.g, sawing, burnishing and polishing. It may be 

 made in every desired color, more conveniently than can ebonite, 

 and, in contradistinction to the latter, it is proof against the 

 influence of sunlight. Moreover, it resists the influence of cold 

 and even of hot oil. It is practically insoluble and indifferent 

 to acids, alkalis, and salts. Vulcanization may be effected either 

 with or •without the use of metal molds. ("The India Rubber 

 Journal," February 8, 1919.) 



FRENCH RUBBER ASSOCIATIONS. 



The Socicte Finaciere dcs Caoutchoucs, wliich, until recently, 

 was the only continental rubber trust that was modeled upon 

 llic British trusts, and handled the stocks of plantations in the 

 Malay States and in the Dutch East Indies, has split in two. 

 One portion holds to the old name, and has transferred its head- 

 (|uarters from Antwerp to Brussels, with offices in Paris at 74 

 rue Saint Lazare. The other portion has been incorporated 

 under the name Socieic Internationale de Plantations ct de Fi- 

 nances. (S. I. P. E. F.) A. Berthelot is president of the Finan- 

 ciere, and E. Bunge of tlie S. I. P. E. F. 



'British patent No. 118,270. 



