Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-03-09

"Sorry, old man; can't aeeommo-
date you'll We're oyersold In these
popular sizes. We warned you in
time to stock up. We have orders on
hand for thousands of tires but cam
not get enough rubber. Besides, the
government has taken over a great
part OF our plant and production"
This was practically the answer
every garage owner and tire dealer
in the country received throughout
the year of 1918.
Damn the kaiserF was his US
ual comment. But that didn't get
him any tires.
Slowly but surely the rubber busi-
ness, one of the largest industries in
the country, is again getting on its
feet.
While there still PERSISTS a pro-
nouneed shortage of the so-called
smaller, popular size of tires, the
larger sized tires are again on the
market.
The rubber business, which de-
veloped to the fourth industry of
the United States only within the
past 10 or IS years, played q most
important part in the recent war.
Cut Output in Half.
Practically every one Of the large
factories, namely those in the rubber
city, Akron, o., were forced to cut
their output to the trade in less than
half. The government needed tires,
balloons, rubber bandages, tele-
phones, rubber wiring and the mil
lion and one other things manufac-
tured of rubber.
There are no actual figures avail
able how many tires our government
and the allies actually used during
the ware However is can safely be
stated that the number runs into
millions.
The Laboratory.
The most important place, next to
the cashiers office which pays the
salaries and expense accounts, is
the laboratory. The rubber chemist
always works backwards. He is Civ
en- a problem to solve in terms of
what work the finished product must
perform. He must say to himself,
this article which | desire to build
must stand certain tests and perform
certain kind of work" From his
knowledge Of rubber and COM
pounds, he must experiment until he
has found the exact combinations
which, when vulcanized, will exactly
meet the conditions under which the
finished article must work. Never
forget there are nearly $4,000 diff
ferent rubber articles. One firm in
this country manufactures every one
of them. Many of these articles de-
maud different compounds.
Very often the tire salesman tells
the dealer or car owner that his tire
is perfect. There is no such q thing.
The chemists of the largest and the
smallest rubber factories are con-
stantly making new compounds,
substituting a new one; discarding
an old one. The large plants at all
times employ a small army Of chem
lists who do nothing but experiment.
They test thousands of different
rubber compounds and perhaps one
in a thousand will ever come into
actual use. The compounder is the
highest paid man in the rubber fac
tory, save the executive officers, who
naturally earn fiat and healthy"
compepsations for decorating their
respective Office chairs.
Sometimes a compound can fool
even the most experienced tester
and that is the time this or that tire
company has "a bad year" as the
trade calls it.
Had It's Bad Year.
There is one of the largest tire
companies in the eountry-one of the
big fve-as the rubber monopoly is
called, which, it is said, almost went
bankrupt in 1916 when it had its bad
year" While the test tires stood
up fine, the dealers of the COM
pany soon discovered, that the
aging" Of the tires on the shelves
or in the raekets simply killed"
them. Some of these tires did not
last 10 miles before they "blew out"
beyond repair.
] know for a fact that the COM
pany in making adjustments. did not
even ask the customer how many
miles his tire served him, but simply
handed him q new tire, which, in