THE AMERICAN ORIGINS OF A SCOTTISH INDUSTRY1
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1955.tb00739.x |
| Date | 01 October 1955 |
| Author | W. Woodruff |
| Published date | 01 October 1955 |
THE
AMERICAN ORIGINS
OF
A SCOTTISH
INDUSTRY'
IN
the
first
week
of
January
1856
the American merchantman
Harinoizia
sailed up the Clyde and dropped anchor in the port of
Glasgow. While it is probable that the vessel had made
the
journey
across the Atlantic many times before,
it
is
unlikely that it had carried
a similar cargo,
for
on this occasion it brought the necessary machinety
and fixtures, together with a nucleus
of
skilled American workers,
to
found Scotland's first vulcanised-rubber manufactory.
Here
it is proposed to describe the circumstances surrounding this
transference
of
skill and technique from the New World
to
the Old.
In the United States attempts had been made to imitate the crude
native-manufactured shoes imported. from South America since the
earliest days of the century, but the growth of the industry and its
extension to clothing and mechanical
goods
(the latter being the
employment of rubber with machinery) waited upon the quickening
of the American economy in the
1830s.
In these years several rubber
factories appeared along the waterfills of the eastern seaboard? but
owing to the downward trend
of
business conditions in
1837.
and
more particularly
to
the immature technique practised in those days.
many of these establishments were subsequently abandoned and did
not reappear until the early forties. The chief imperfections of the
uncured rubber prior to that date-its tendency
to
soften in the heat
and harden in the cold.
its
tackiness. unplerisant smell and perishable
nature-had been largely overconie by the sulphur-heat vulcanisation
process discovered by an American, Charles Goodyear, in
1839.
The
importance of this discovery is that by combining rubber with sulphur
and lead at a high temperature Goodyear imparted to rubber
a
durable
quality which it had not hitherto possessed. With the' discovery of
'
elastic metal
'
rubber manufacture could
be
extended to mechanical
'My thanks are due
to
The North British Rubber Company Ltd.
Of
Edinburgh for placing their early records at my disposal;
to
Mr. Walter H.
Norton
of
the United States Rubber Corporation; Mr.
R.
Ginger
of
Harvard
University; Mr.
D.
A. Sinclair, Curator
of
Special Collections, Rutgers Uni-
versity; ,htr. H.
J.
Dubester, the Library
of
Congress: Mr. H.
C.
Pritchard. the
University
of
Illinois Library; and
to
Henry Lee Norris
of
New York City.
I
have received financial assistance from the Houblon-Norman and Fulbrighl
Committees. The manuscript references are to The North British Papers.
The first American rubber factories were at Northampton, Springfield.
Framingham. Roxbury. Boston, Woburn, Salem. Lynn, Easton. in Massa-
chusetts; Providence in Rhodc Island; Naugatuck and New Haven
in
Connecticut; Troy and Harlem in New York: and New Brunswick in New
Jersey. See
C.
Goodycar.
Gum
Elastic
(New Haven,
ISSS).
2
17
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