RUBBER INDUSTRY

Southland Times, Issue 23544, 25 June 1938, Page 3

RUBBER INDUSTRY

PROGRESS SHOWN IN FILM An interesting film showing the progress made in the rubber industry since the pneumatic tyre was invented by John Boyd Dunlop in 1888 was shown to a big audience in the Regent Theatre yesterday. Starting at the beginning with the invention of Dunlop, the London veterinary surgeon, who, using his son’s tricycle as 'a testing machine, discovered a means of making cycling less uncomfortable than on the hard tyres previously used, the film went on to describe the evolution of the tyre to its present stage. To this end, a particularly interesting illustration was used, showing the cycle race meeting at Belfast, at which pneumatic tyres were first used in a race. It also showed the methods of cultivating the rubber tree, the collecting and testing of the latex, its carriage to the sea and across the sea to England, .and the many involved processes entailed in the manufacture of the modern motor tyre. From this stage, the development of the industry in other directions was followed, and the many uses to which rubber is now put were graphically described. Fishing boots, rubber gloves, inner tubes, weatherproof clothing, sports goods, such as lawn tennis rackets and balls, golf balls, hockey sticks, footballs and sporting footwear were all shown in various stages of manufacture, and the ramifications of the rubber industry were shown to be far wider than , one would readily believe. It was of particular interest to learn that the successful conduct of a large rubber manufacturing business involves the maintenance of a cotton factory as well. The pictures showing the manner in which the cotton is united with the rubber in the manufacture of such articles as tyres and boots presented many of the audience with a new field of knowledge concerning the industry. The film, which was of a high standard in all respects, was essentially designed to mark the jubilee of the Dunlop Rubber Company,