332 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1907. 



Rapid Transit Co., of New York city, points out that where 

 cables have to be installed in conduits that are under water part 

 of the time or on the beds of rivers, etc., the extra investment 

 for the more costly rubber insulation is justified, since in case 

 of a leak in a submarine or submerged cable lead sheath it 

 usually becomes a total loss if insulated with paper or non- 

 moisture proof material, whereas good rubber lasts indefinitely 

 under water." 



* * * 



With regard to the insulated cable used in telephonic work 

 the report says : "The great advantage of paper insulated cable 

 is that its low electrostatic capacity makes it much less ex- 

 pensive than other types. The rubber cable requires three times 

 as much copper conductor as the paper cable, hence as the 

 capacity increases with larger conductors the rubber insulation 

 becomes more expensive than paper, on the basis that rubber 

 cable has about three times the electrostatic capacity of paper 

 cable." 



During the period intervening between the censuses of 1900 

 and 1905 a new branch of insulation work developed in the 

 United States — the manufacture of submarine cables. The lines 

 installed among the Philippine islands and between Seattle and 

 Alaska, involving cables manufactured in this country, aggregate 

 in length more than twice the distance across the Atlantic. 



GUAYULE INTERESTS. 



A F.\CTORY for the preparation of guayule rubber is being 

 erected by the Texas Rubber Co. at Marathon, in western 

 Texas, on the Southern Pacific railway. The locality is between 

 the Rio Grande and Pecos river, immediately north of the 

 Mexican state of Coahuila. The Texas Rubber Co. was in- 

 corporated at Austin on April 10, 1907, by Otto Koehler, John J. 

 Stevens, and S. G. Newton, all of San Antonio, Texas, where 

 the company will maintain general offices. The capital, fully 

 paid, is $100,000. They have purchased all the guayule shrub in 

 three large Texas counties — estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 tons — and 

 expect to be in operation by .-\ugust i, turning out one ton of 

 rubber daily. Mr. Koehler is president of the new company. He 

 is president also of the National Rubber Co., of San .Antonio, 

 incorporated June 16, 1905, and now operating a guayule factory 

 at Gomez Palacio. Mexico, with a capacity of one ton per day. 

 [See The India Rubber World, .April i, 1907 — page 209.] Mr. 

 Koehler is president likewise of the San Antonio Brewing As- 

 sociation, an extensive enterprise. 



Mr. Koehler writes to The In7ji.\ Ribbek World: "There lias 

 been a great deal of sensational news disseminated through tlic 

 newspapers in regard to the enormous quantities of guayule shrub 

 in western Texas, and in order to set such reports at rest, and 

 give you reliable data on the subject, I will state that after two 

 years of close investigation and examination of the different 

 guayule shrub bearing lands in Texas, I find that tlierc is not to 

 exceed, all told, 10,000 tons of the shrub in the whole state of 

 Texas." 



The factory of La Inteniatioiial Mexicana Compaiihia Guayu- 

 lera, S. A., at Torreon, was reported lately to have been closed 

 temporarily for the addition of machinery to increase the ca- 

 pacity one-third. Luis Octtingor. of Mexico City, is president 

 of the company. 



The new Companhia Guayulcra de Torreon. S. .-\.. mentioned 

 in the last India Rubber World (page 320). will, it is reported, 

 locate their factory at Ocampo, state of Coahuila— a small 

 station on the Mexican International railway, near the Texas 

 border. 



The Royal Rubber Co., the headquarters of which are at El 

 Paso, were referred to in The India Ri'eber World June i, 1907 

 (page 267), as erecting a guayule factory at Ciudad Juarez, 

 Mexico. It has since been decided to locate nearer the guayule 



producing district, probably at or near Torreon. Meanwhile con- 

 siderable machinery has been made for the company at El Paso. 



Mexican newspapers mention the Pennsylvania Rubber Co. 

 (Jeannette, Pa.) as interested in certain guayule rubber enter- 

 prises. From the offices of the company The India Rubber 

 World learns that a former official of the company did plan 

 something of the kind, but that their interest in guayule probably 

 will be disposed of in the very near future. 



In a mention of one W. H. Ellis, of New York, in The India 

 Rubber World of July i, 1907 (page 308), it was inadvertently 

 stated that he had gained "control of the factory at Gomez Palacio 

 of the National Rubber Co." It appears that he did figure in the 

 transfer of a small block of stock in this company some months 

 ago. but the control remains with the Texas interests. 



Mr. William H. Stayton, vice president of the Continental 

 Rubber Co., is quoted by the Chihuahau (Mexico) Enterprise as 

 estimating that, at the present rate of consumption, the supply 

 of guayule shrubs should last for 7 years. Mr. Stayton is men- 

 tioned as having sent an average sized specimen of the shrub 

 to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, where its age was 

 reported to be 54 years. It is recognized that if a new supply 

 of guayule is to be obtained, some means must be found for 

 making it grow much faster than this. 



DR. ASOLFH HARKS. 



The illustration on this page has been made from a photograph 

 of Dr. Adolpho Marx, in a Mexican guayule "field." Dr. Marx 

 has been interested in an important way, from the beginning, in 

 the development of the guayule rubber interest. He was as- 

 sociated with the company L'Anglo Mexicana. a German com- 

 pany, directed from Hamburg, formed to exploit ixtle and other 



Dr. .AiKiLi'iio Makx in the Fielu. 



Mexican fibers, both for manufacture and exportation. Later 

 (in 1905) the company transferred their guayule interests to a 

 new company, the Compaiiia Explotadora de Caucho Me.xicano, 

 now operating in producing guayule rubber on an important scale. 

 Dr. Marx is interested largely and actively in the latter. 



