70 



IHL: INDIA RUBBER Vv^OKLU 



[Decembkr I, 1906. 



for present requirements the li\e rubber tire maker is 

 busying his faculties to bring out a stronger, more trust- 

 worthy, and more durable product, being careful ii\eau- 

 while that his competitors do not surpass him. 



So we maj' look for even better tires, and, with their 

 appearance, new records in automobile construction and 

 automobile running. There is even greater incentive 

 tha:ii before for the rubber man to devote himself to tire 

 betterment, even if, in the distant future, roads should 

 be so improved as to render elastic tires unnecessary, or 

 springs and shock absorbers should be developetl to the 

 point of displacing them. 



USE OP RUBBER FoR INSULATION. 



IT is natural that, to "the man in the street," motor 

 car tires should represent the greatest development 

 in the history of the rubber industry. Ten years ago 

 the horseless vehicle was so little in evidence that it 

 hardly had a more definite name in popular speech. To- 

 day only the blind can avoid seeing automobiles con- 

 stantly, and the rubber tire is by no means the least con- 

 spicuous feature of these vehicles. It is not too much to 

 say that doubtless millions of people have derived from 

 .seeing such tires their first idea of rubber as a commodity 

 of real importance. And nine out of ten writers in the pub- 

 lic press who have occasion to mention rubber refer to its 

 price having advanced greatly in recent years on account 

 of its consumption in tires. The tire trade, in fact, has 

 become enormous, not only as regards automobiles, but 

 nearlj' every other type of vehicle used. 



But this is not the only great use of rubber ; it is pos- 

 sible that it is not the greatest. It certainly is not the 

 only branch of rubber consumption that has shown a 

 rapid rate of increase during ten years past. A use of 

 rubber that appeals less to public interest, because it is 

 by comparison so little seen, is in the electrical field, for 

 insulation purposes. Without means for insulation the 

 electricity in everyday practical use would be as uncon- 

 trollable as the lightning flashes in a tluinder storm, and 

 rubber is, par excellence , the world's insulating material. 

 It is only necessary, therefore, to reflect upon the extent 

 of the applications of electricity to-day, to realize what 

 an important demand these must create for the products 

 of the rubber factory. 



The electrical interest embraces the making of sub- 

 marine cables, which have been insulated, for the most 

 part, with Gutta-percha, but this material is disappearing 

 from the market and must be replaced by India-rubber 

 for deep sea work. From submarine cables, costing some- 

 times millions of dollars, down to telephone receivers, the 

 list of articles requiring insulation is too long almost to 

 be comprehendable, but into nearly all of them rubber 

 enters, the sum total in a year being very large. Here 

 the automobile comes in again, at least the electric vehi- 

 cles, an important feature cf which is the hard rnbber 

 battery jars, for the storage of the motive force. 



No exact statistics of tte extent of the use of rubber 

 in tlie electrical industries of the world are po.ssible. But 

 to indicate the growth of the electrical industry in the 

 United States alone it may be worth whi-le lo notice that 

 the recent industrial census reports the total value of 

 products of the factories clas.setl inider " Jilectrical ma- 

 chinery, apparatus, and supplies" during 1905 at $159,- 

 551,402 against $105,831,865 for the census year i900. 

 These figures, of conr.se, do not relate alone to goods 

 into which rul)l)er enters. The figures for " Insulated 

 wires and cables" were $34,519,699 last year, against 

 $21,292,001 in the year 1900. On the other hand, a num- 

 ber of general rubber factories ])roduce electrical mate- 

 rials which are not embraced in the preceding figures. 



CONTROL OF THE PRICE OF RUBBER. 



EVERY year brings its crop of rumors of new " rub- 

 ber trusts ; " indeed, no other branch of industry 

 or trade seems to have been the subject of so many ru- 

 mors of this sort, nor with so little basis of fact. One 

 rea.son is that, although rubber is a commodity in such 

 widespread use, its principal sources, to date, have been 

 so remote from centers of civilization that most people 

 know little about how crude rubber is produced. And 

 the general public, whether in America or Europe, is 

 little better informed regarding the proces.ses of making 

 rubber goods. Hence, when the average man reads that 

 a new great " trust " in rubber is being formed, he ac- 

 cepts the a.ssertion as fact, merely because it has ap- 

 peared in print. 



As for crude rubber " trusts," interest in them centers 

 in the suggestion usually made that their object is to 

 rai.se prices of the raw material, which would, of course, 

 compel manufacturers to charge more for rubber 

 goods. It is an odd fact, however, so loosely are these 

 rubber " trust " rumors put together, that manufacturers 

 — i. c, the primary consumers of raw rubbei;'— are often 

 repre.sented as promoting movements to put up its price. 

 To a thinking man nothing could be more improbable. 



A pertinent question is. Can any ''trust'' raise the 

 world's level of rubber prices ? If all the sources of rubber, 

 present and prospective, could be brought under a single 

 control, it would be a simple proposition to dictate prices 

 to the whole world. The same is true of wheat and cot- 

 ton and coal and tallow candles. But such consolidated 

 control of rubber is out of the question. It was an im- 

 practicable dream when rubber was only a forest product 

 in a few countries : the idea is more chimerical now that 

 the area of rubber production is being extended so widely 

 under cultivation. If all the rubber trees in the Ama- 

 zon valley were owned to-day by one man, the world 

 could soon become independent of him, through the plant- 

 ing of Para rubber elsewhere. 



Under conditions as they actually exist, and always 

 have existed, the price of rubber is governed by the 

 supply, considered in relation to the demand. There is 



