The solid rubber carriage tire has largel died out due to clearly evident causes. volume of business done in solid rubber motor truck tires is, however, astounding. Two and one-half million of tires were produced dur ing 1918 representing in value something like $25,000,000.
The pneumatic tire was invented by Robert W. Thompson in 1845 for carriage uses but his patent was forgotten and in 1883 Charles Dunlop revived the idea in the form of a bicycle tire. The growth of the bicycle busi ness is well known, but in its palmiest days there were never as many in use as to-day. Approximately 3,500,000 bicycle tires are in service, wearing out yearly one tire each and the average yearly production of bicycles is one-half million.
The pneumatic automobile tire is the out growth of the bicycle tire. In fact, the first automobiles were equipped with Tandem weight bicycle tires. The first tire designed exclusively for automobile usage was made in 18% by the B. F. Goodrich Company for the Winton Com pany of Cleveland, Ohio. Two sizes were furnished, 34x 4 and 36x 4— the former for the front and the latter for the rear wheels of the machine. The carcass consisted .of ,19 plies of fabric and the °huge were the source of much amusement for the crowds who witnessed the trial trips of Mr. Winton's °lie machine. Today the pneumatic auto mobile tire is, by far, the most important single item of rubber goods manufacture. It is estimated that in 1919 37,500,000 tire will be made, valued at $1,125,000,000. Prac tically all of this development has taken place since 1900; a wonderful record, There are two general types of pneumatic tires in use to-day. One is made with a carcass of specially woven long fibre cotton duck and the other is made with a carcass of rubberized cord. This latter type constitutes the acme in resilience and mileage and is much pre ferred by discriminating motorists, Automobile accessories comprise such items as water buckets, blow-out patches, inner tube patches (self vulcanizing) and rubber mallet,. While the volume in sales of these items .18 relatively small, yet, many such items are pensible to the motorist.
The World War taxed the manufacturing capacity of the rubber companies to the limit. This together with the curtailment 'of crude rubber importation and curtailment in' produc tion of tires forced a • more economical use of tires and with this a greater tire repair busi ness. During this period, tire repairing re ceived a greater impetus than in all the ceding years of automobile development. This to an uaprecoilented demand for, repair materials and there is every indication that tire repair materials as furnished by rubber companies will be an important division for all time to come.
Rubberized fabrics are used by the millions of yards in the. manufacture of rubber .isur face water-proof coats such as worn by fire men, policemen and teamsters..and also in the production of numerous special items such as typewriter, adding machine coverings, etc. The balloon business developed almost over night during the war, called for thousands of yards of rubberized fabric and this necessi tated the installation of a great deal of special machinery. This machinery will be turned to other uses and it is predicted that the sale of coated fabric will extend to many new fields.
As an indication of this, many automobiles are now in place of leather, a leash substitute consisting of a fabric coated wi a compound held by a binder of rubber. Th s material is really more durable and can be made in texture and colors surpassing in beauty and design those of leather.
Dipped rubber goods embrace such things as gloves, toy balloons, etc. The volume in sales in this line is not large and but few manufacturers have departments for the_pro duction of this class of rubber products. They are made by dissolving rubber in benzine and dipping mandrels in the solution. It is a par ticularly dangerous process on account of the fumes arising from the solvent and on this account not attractive to the big manufacturer of rubber goods.
Lathe cut goods embrace a great many items such as fruit jar rings, paper mill rolls, feed rolls and certain types of gaskets. These items, especially rubber roils, both hard and soft, have been in use almost from the be ginning' of she rubber industry and while the field ifpr . Osage this division is some what limited, the volume is nevertheless at tractive. Several hundred thousand pounds of rubber are used yearly. in the making of jar rings alone.
Rubber thread, as worked out from the original idea of Nadier, is usually classified under sundries, although the quantities made generally call for a special department, for its manufacture. Millions of yards are used alone in the production of golf halls. And, in the manufacture of rubber thread for the elastic fabric industry, several hundred people are kept busy in one of Akron's factories.
The total world production of crude rubber has increased more than five fold in the last 20 years. While the production of native or wild rubber has declined considerably, that of plantation has increased since 1900 from a few tons to more than 300,000 tons per year. The bulk of all the crude rubber used now comes from the far eastern area, this embraces the Malay Peninsula, Strait Settlements, Cey lon and other islands. Out of the 290,000 tons used in 1918, 83 per cent came from this dis trict and other plantation areas. Of the 256,879 tons used in the world in 1917, 177,088 tons were consumed by the United States — more than 69 per cent. Out of the 177,000 tons used in the United States, over one-third of this, or 60,000 tons came to Akron, justifying the claim that Akron is the rubber manufactur ing centre of the world.
Less than 2,000,000 acres of the plantation areas are, at present, producing. More than 3,000,000 acres are now under cultivation and it is estimated that within four or five years the production of crude rubber on plantations alone will reach the astounding figure of 500,000 tons. Even with this enormous produc tion of crude rubber, the factories would not have been able to keep going, were it not for the fact that three pounds of reclaim to one pound of new rubber are used. In other words, were it not possible to obtain great quantities of high-grade reclaimed rubber to use in places where it will serve the same purpose, the pro duction in rubber goods would be far below what it is at present.