"The invention of the pneumatic tyre by John Boyd Dunlop which took place on July 23, 1888, was celebrated yesterday all over the world by the Dunlop Rubber Ca. In Shanghai a six-reel film was shown at the Grand "Theatre by the Dunlop Rubber Ca. (China), Ltd., to a large and interested audience of both Chinese and foreigners.
The film, which was extremely interesting and instructive, showed an impression of the events in Mr. Dunlop's life atthe time when he was directly concerned with his pneumatic tyre experiments. Some very interesting pictures of the Dunlop plantations in Malaya, the planting and cultivation of the rubber trees and the method of collecting rubber and treatment before being shipped to England. The complete process of manufacturing a motor tyre was shown together with very interesting pictures of the manufacture of golf and tennis balls and of a number of the hundred of sports articles made at the Dunlop factories.
In the evening an enjoyable Chinese dinner was given to nearly 200 dealers and friends of the local Dunlop organization at the Hung Far Lou restaurant, Foochow Road.
A fine display of silk scrolls and silver presented to the Dunlop Rubber Ca. by dealers end friends was seen, Mr. F. S. Gibbings, managing direc-for, welcomed the guests as follows:—Tt gives me great pleasure to welcome you here tonight on this auspicious occasion as we have reached the 50th milestone, and we may therefore be justified in pausing for a moment and looking back upon the experience through which we have passed, the friends we have made, and the dangers which have threatened us and which we have successfully overcome in the course of our travel.
Today, July 23, we are celebrate the 50th anniversary of a patent taken out by John Boyd Dunlop for the first pneumatic tyre. This invention, small in its beginnings, much more than anything else, has revolutionized road transport and through it, our very ways and habits of living.
Today there is a Dunlop tyre not only for automobiles and bicycles, but for every kind of mechanically propelled vehicle—for horse-drawn and animal-drawn equipment, handcarts, wheelbarrows, and also for the largest airliners, and last but not least the humble rickshaw with which you are so familiar in China, and which incidentally was also pioneered by Dunlop.
While today we are celebrating the 50th anniversary it must be remembered that the Dunlop Rubber Ca. are not only famed for tyre but that 1 they manufacture practically eve thing in rubber, the principal items of which are tennis and golf balls, and mechanical and sports goods of every description.
From Pioneer Days As I look round these tables, I cai. see faces that recall our pioneer days in this country, and it is to you gentlemen and your associates that I extend on behalf of my company and myself, our sincere appreciation of the loyal support you have given us-in the past, and I ar confident it will continue in the future to our mutual benefit.
I cannot conclude my address without reference to our competitors who have honoured us with their presence here tonight. I am very glad our relations have always been very cordial and I am confident will continue so.
Good competition means progress. It promotes efficiency of management and improves the quality of goods. For that reason and to some extent, we owe it to our competitors that Dunlop stands second to none in this great industry today.
Mr. Gibbings then proposed a toast to the guests, the reply being most
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.