North British Rubber Co. Ltd.

1850

North British Rubber Company Limited was founded in the mid 1850's by two Americans, Henry Lee Norris and Spencer Thomas Parmelee. They set up a factory in Edinburgh manufacturing rubber footwear, hot water bottles, tyres, golf balls and other rubber goods. The company have been responsible for inventions ranging from the Wellington boot to the traffic cone, to inventing the detachable pneumatic tyre - a patent that was later sold to the Dunlop Tyre Company for around £300million in today's money. It's now most famous for their fashionable Hunter Boot range, which rose to prominence during the 20th century, and has since become its own separate company.
The company started making gutty balls in Rose Street in Edinburgh and continued to make balls as they evolved, Bramble and mesh pattern. Many of their balls were branded, Chick (Bramble, Dimple & Diamond), Click, Clincher Cross, Kite, Osprey, Pin-Hi, Twin Dot, Scotland 50, Special Scratch, Standard, Super Chick, SuperFlite, Vulcan.

Apart from their golf balls another collectable item from the company for the golfer is their 1940's and 1950's 'Scottie Dog'. They commissioned the British pottery firm "SylvaC" to produce a pottery version of their then logo, a Scottie dog, with a golf ball in his mouth. These figures come as just the dog or sometimes mounted on a plinth with the inscription "North British: The Choice of Champions".

North British Rubber Company Limited was one of Edinburgh's largest employers - with a workforce of over 8,000 at its peak.

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