Lamp Man

To go forward it is sometimes necessary to take a step back. In somewhat this manner Herbert Rubin '27, president o£ Rubicon, Inc., has reached the top spot as manufacturer of kerosene lamps in the United States. As told in a short New Yorker piece, he discovered the latent public demand for the plain old-fashioned kerosene lamp almost by accident. As a manufacturer of novelties, he had, in 1940, put on the market a six-and-a-half inch reproduction which burned a perfumed fuel. These proved useful in blackouts, and during the war years the demand for them was tremendous. In 1947 Rubicon, Inc., began the manufacture of regular sized kerosene lamps, for export to South America, Africa, Cuba, and the Middle East.

Mr. Rubin launched his drive for the large sized lamps for home use last summer, in a suburban store outside New York City. The sales response revealed undeniably that the general public still has uses for the lamps of its ancestors. Whether this demand is a result of the atomic-bomb scare or due to the fact that in power failures kerosene lamps are very useful has not been determined; but the Rubicon plant is manufacturing 2500 lamps a day.

After his Dartmouth undergraduate course, during which he played hockey and lacrosse and was a member of the famous 1925 football team, Mr. Rubin received the LL.B. degree from Columbia in 1930. He worked for Macy's for three years and from 1930 until 1936 was affiliated with Gimbel Brothers as buyer of toilet articles and drugs.