14 



rtlfa, INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1906. 



favor during the last year or two after a temporary decline, 

 and there is no doubt that the number of balls 

 LAWN sq1(J tjjis season is as great if not greater than 

 Balls '" ''"^ past year of the game's historj-. The 

 increase of tournaments rather than of actual 

 lawn tennis accounts for this. The bulk of the balls used 

 in tournaments this year have again been supplied by 

 Messrs. Slazenger, though in several cases, notablj' at 

 Bu.xton, Ayres balls have been used. That there is a de- 

 cided difference in the two makes is testified to by the lead- 

 ing players and it is a useful excuse for a playerwho has 

 done badly at a tournament with Ayre's balls to say that he 

 has been accustomed to play with Slazenger's. I remember 

 once noticing in an Italian shop, I think it was in Florence, 

 some balls covered with red felt instead of the usual white. 

 At the time I thought it was the outcome of the maker's 

 fancj' but I am informed by ofRcers stationed at Malta that 

 the\- always use red tennis balls there as thej- are better 

 suited to the glare of the sun. They are supplied, it appears, 

 by both the firms referred to above. It must be remembered 

 that practically all the continental courts are of the gravel 

 or cinder type, grass being very exceptionally met with, so 

 the scarlet ball is not so startling as it would be on green 

 grass. 



Thk changes made in the management of this firm after 

 the somewhat unsatisfactory report at the annual meeting 

 in 1905 seem to have worked well. 

 At the meeting held in Leyland on 

 August 10, Mr. James E. Baxter 

 presiding, it was announced that the trading profits were 

 ^23,591. compared with ^9,508 in 1905. According to the 

 chairman this satisfactorj- result was mainly attributable to 

 keeping up the quality of the goods and of sticking out for 

 prices in accordance with the cost of the raw rubber. Inci- 

 dentally the fact was mentioned that the users of rubber had 

 increased 20 per cent, in the last year while the crop increase 

 had been very small indeed. The increased demand was 

 mainly for motor tires. Judging from the melancholy state 

 of affairs in the proofing trade, as shown by certain British 

 firms, it is not surprising that the chairman had nothing 

 optimistic to say in this branch. The dividend passed 

 amounts to 6^^ per cent, for the 3ear. 



LEYLAND AND BiRMINQHAM 

 RUBBER CO. 



WHAT A "RUBBER COLLAR- IS. 



/^\NE of the most noteworthy' developments of the industry 

 ^-^ during the last five years has been the fall of the cel- 

 luloid collar and its rise again as the rubber collar. " As a 

 matter of fact, rubber cannot be used satisfactorily in collars 

 and cuffs, because it is absolutel}- impossible to bleach rub- 

 ber to the requisite whiteness, " sayS a manufacturer of some 

 of the more prominent substitutes for linen collars. " If we 

 put enough acid and chemicals into it to bleach it properly 

 the elasticity and life are taken out of the material and the 

 product ceases to be rubber. I know a firm that during the 

 war spent a lot of monej- experimenting with rubber. There 

 would have been a fortune in it for them if a suitable process 

 had been discovered, but the\- gave it up as commercially 

 impracticable. 



" All the so-called rubber collars and cuffs to-da3- are either 

 celluloid pure and simple or some combination of cellulose 

 fiber on that order. Three leading concerns in this country 



and one in Canada furnish sheets of practically the same 

 composition, but under different names to the manufacturers. 

 When celluloid began to go down in trade estimation about 

 four or five years ago and prices got to Si. 15 a dozen, a chap 

 up in Connecticut near Hartford started in two rooms to 

 manufacture what he called rubber collars and cuffs. He 

 bought his sheets of fiber from one of the three or four big 

 concerns which supplied the regular celluloid trade, put 

 them through a process of his own and turned out collars 

 with a special finish which sold beyond his capacity to 

 manufacture at 35 cents apiece. To this man belongs the 

 credit of making the rubber collar of to-daj- a commercial 

 success. 



" It was not long before the former makers of celluloid and 

 kindred st3les caught on, and by means of a new finish the 

 public were induced to forget their former prejudice against 

 celluloid and the prices advanced to S2 and S2.25 per dozen 

 and to-daj' are steady- around Si. 75, where there was no 

 business for the same product under the name celluloid at 

 $i-i5-" 



RUBBER TRADING IN THE WILDS. 



LESS than a j-ear ago [writes a correspondent of the New 

 York HeralcT^ I met with and spoke in English to an 

 Italian merchant in the wilds of Matto Grosso. the north- 

 western province of Brazil, whose capital citj' is five weeks' 

 journey from the seat of government at Rio de Janeiro. For 

 20 years he had not heard the sound of English voice, and, 

 during all those years, rubber has been flowing through his 

 hands, down the giant river Paraguay, on its way to the 

 markets of the world, via Buenos Aj-res or Montevideo. 

 Yet of its actual production he knows bxit little. 



USES OF PONTIANAK. 



D UBBER manufacturers who are large users of PonriHnak 

 ^ *- are not apt to boast of it, since a feeling exists in some 

 quarters that it is likely to oxidize and thus shorten the life of 

 the goods in which it has been used. And time was when this 

 was true. Nowadays, however, it is very easy to treat the gum 

 so that it lasts as long as rubber. This being the case, no one 

 can doubt the value of the gum as an assistant in many com- 

 pounds. One need only appreciate the characteristics of this 

 gum to feel that it would naturally find an outlet in connection 

 with the production of very many rubber products. It is, for 

 example, very plastic, thoroughly waterproof, and of great ten- 

 acity. It blends well with India-rubber, crude or reclaimed, 

 and with Gutta-percha, and takes up a certain amount of com- 

 pound. Almost any line of goods, therefore, that does not de- 

 mand elasticity can assimilate a certain proportion of Ponti- 

 anak, and often with advantage. It is. of course, a cheapener, 

 and calls for skill and judgment in its use. It has its friends 

 and its enemies. Manufacturers who a few years ago used it 

 largely, to day do not buy a pound, while others who once 

 bitterly condemned Pontianak, now purchase it by the ton. 

 Handled properly and put where it belongs, it is a most valu- 

 able compounding adjunct, but it has its well defined limits, 

 beyond which lies disaster. 



F. J. HoLLOWAY, of the Kepitigalla estate, in Ceylon, 

 booked orders for this year's crop of Hcvea rubber seed 

 amounting to ^4333 [=§21.087]. 



